This week in Formula Forensics we’ll look at, Zebra Stripes and Checker-board Conditional Formatting.
This idea is inspired by a number of posts over the past few years asking about zebra stripes but specifically BobR who in in June 2011, also asked about Checkerboards in the post: Want to be an excel conditional-formatting Rock Star, Comment No. 154.
I got the conditional format for alternating row and column colors,
Is there a conditional format to make it a checkerboard whereas the cell A2 will remove either the conditional for the row or column and then alternately to A4, B1, B3 etc?
Chandoo responded fairly quickly with this Conditional Formatting formula:
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
Unbeknownst to Chandoo I posted this about a minute later:
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
Both formula correctly answer BobR’s question.
So today we’re going to pull apart Zebra Stripes and Checker Boards and see what makes them tick.
As always you can follow along in a download file here: Download File.
ZEBRA STRIPES
Zebra Stripes as Conditional Formatting is simply applied using a simple formula within Conditional Formatting.
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0
Conditional Formatting requires a formula that returns a boolean “True” to apply a format or a Boolean “False” to not Apply a format.
So the formula is better read as: If MOD(ROW(),2)=0
And If MOD(ROW(),2)=0, the formula will evaluate as True
This is best evaluated as 3 columns on a worksheet.
In cells
B5:B10 The formula =Row() returns the Row Number
C5:C10 The formula =Mod(Row() ,2) returns the Mod of Row Number, divided by 2
The Mod function returns the remainder of the division of the Row Number divided by 2,
So in Row 5, Mod(Row(),2) = Mod(5, 2) = 5/2 = 2 Remainder 1 = 1
and in Row 6, Mod(Row(),2) = Mod(6, 2) = 6/2 = 3 Remainder 0 = 0
D5:D10 The formula =Mod(Row() ,2)=0 checks the remainder against the value 0
This is what evaluates to either True or False depending on the Row number.
Where the Values are True the Format will be applied (Even Rows)
The Conditional Formatting can be applied to Odd Rows If the Formula is slightly altered
=Mod(Row() ,2)=1
Similarly the formatting can be applied to Columns using
=MOD(COLUMN(),2)=0/1
CHECKER BOARDS
RobR received two responses to his Checker-Board Conditional Formatting request.
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
and
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
Lest see what’s inside these two formula.
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2) =0, MOD( (ROW() -1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
This is a simple If Formula with 3 components
=IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)
If Condition MOD(ROW(),2)=1
Value if True: MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
Value if False: MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1
The If Condition is already known to us, as it’s the same formula used in the Zebra Stripes above.
It evaluates to True when it is on an Odd Row.
So when it is an Odd numbered Row Excel will look at MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
And when it is an Even numbered Row Excel will look at MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1
We can notice that these are the same formulas which have a different ending of =0 and =1
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
This section Takes each Row subtracts 1 and then multiplies this number by 8. This can be expressed as simply as saying multiply the Row * 8.
This will always return an Even Number and could have been simplified to Row()*2
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
The next bit adds the column number to the previous Even Number.
So now this part will be Odd when the column is Odd and Even when the column is Even.
MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0
The remainder of the formula is the same as the Zebra Stripes formula.
An Odd Number (Odd Columns) in the section above will return a 1 as the result of =Mod(Odd,2)
An Even Number (Even Columns) in the section above will return a 0 as the result of =Mod(Odd,2)
When evaluated against 0 will return True for Even Columns and False for Odd Columns.
Now the exact same happens in the False section of the If formula except that it is evaluated against 1.
=ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())
I tackled this problem from a different direction to Chandoo.
Knowing that Even + Even = Even and Even + Odd = Odd and that the row and Column Numbers increase in each direction by 1 each Row/Column, it was simply a matter of adding the Row and Column numbers together and checking if it was Odd or Even
The Excel function IsOdd() and IsEven() both return a Boolean “True” if the contents are Odd or “Even” respectively. This negates an external truth check as described above.
This is easily shown by adding a formula to the Checker area
=Row()+Column()
Excel 2003: The above formula won’t work in Excel 2003.
Try this instead =Mod(Row()+Column(),2)=1
If the alternate shading is required a switch to
=ISEVEN(ROW()+COLUMN())
Does the trick.
Excel 2003: The above formula won’t work in Excel 2003.
Try this instead =Mod(Row()+Column(),2)=0
Learn More About Conditional Formatting Here:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/03/13/excel-conditional-formatting-basics/
and
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/
and
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/10/14/more-than-3-conditional-formats-in-excel/
DOWNLOAD
You can download a copy of the above file and follow along, Download Here.
OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
You can learn more about how to pull Excel Formulas apart in the following posts
Formula Forensics 001 – Tarun’s Problem
Formula Forensics 002 – Joyce’s Question
Formula Forensics 003 – Lukes Reward
Formula Forensics 004 – Freds Problem
We Need Your Help !
If you have a neat formula that you would like to share and explain, try putting pen to paper and draft up a Post as Luke did in Formula Forensics 003. or this post.
If you have a formula that you don’t understand and would like explained but don’t want to write a post also send it in to Chandoo or Hui.
38 Responses to “Time to showoff your VBA skills – Help me fix ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert snafu”
I tried your code with 2003, it works.
But, I know Addpicture does not take URLs anymore with 2007 onwards, perhaps its the same with picture.insert as well.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
The above link gives the solution as "picture fill in a shape such as a rectangle".
Tried to recreate this, but it worked fine for me. I just took the image of the error you showed in the post. Is there more info that can narrow this down a bit?
Don't know if this helps?
http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=47101
Hi
Not sure if this is what you're after, but I just tried this
Sub Macro1()
ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif").Select
End Sub
Tied a button to it on the sheet and it seems to work; hope this helps a little
Ian
@All.. the issue is in Excel 2007. In 2003 ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert seems to work fine. Unfortunately, I have design this in Excel 2007.. that is why I posted it here..
v2
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Ian
That didn't come out very well. This positions at c12, so can change easily:
Sub Macro1()
Set n = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif")
With Range("c12")
t = .Top
l = .Left
End With
With n
.Top = t
.Left = l
End With
End Sub
Works OK in 2007
Ian
The above codes work fines to my EXCEL 2007. Thanks.
Chandoo:
Try 'ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert'
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert("C:\Example.png")
.Left = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Left
.Top = ActiveSheet.Range("A1").Top
End With
activesheet.pictures.insert "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png"
Works for me in 2003 SP3 and in 2007 SP2.
Check the URL, and make sure you have internet connectivity.
What also works, and is newer (pictures.insert was supposedly deprecated in '97):
activesheet.shapes.addpicture "C:\Documents and Settings\Jon Peltier\Desktop\2007 stuff\insert_charts_2007.png", false, true, 200,200,100,100
Unfortunately you must specify dimensions (the last four arguments) and you don't necessarily know them. But the picture size is still related back to the original picture size, so you could use scaleheight and scalewidth to fix this.
Chandoo: I just re-read your post.
The code I posted works for me. However, I'm using a local picture. If you try to add a picture from the web, this won't work.
I remember solving this problem before by adding a rectangle shape first, then using the Shapes.AddPicture method to get a picture from the web.
I'll find that code and post it here.
Some more updates... The code "ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert (path)" works fine in Excel 2007 at home. Strange it failed miserably on my work laptop. Do you think this has got something to do with SP2 of MS Office 2007 or something like that?
@Ian, Jon: Thanks for the code snippets. I guess I will use my home installation of excel to do this.
Chandoo:
Try this on your work laptop:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50, 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
FYI:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928983/en-us
I didn't mean to post code with a local file, because both approaches worked with an internet image as well. This is in Excel 2007 SP2.
activesheet.pictures.insert "http://peltiertech.com/images/2009-07/col_area_noblanks.png"
Jon: Looks like I have SP1 on my client machine! I wasn't paying attention.
Just checked my home computer where I have SP2, and you're right...looks like they fixed it.
I didn't even bother testing in SP1, though I could if anyone cares enough.
I'm afraid I don't have a solution, but I find it remarkable that after attaining a certain status in the Excel world, Chandoo does not need to post on an Excel discussion forum to get help for an Excel problem. Instead, he posts on his blog and all the gurus come rushing to his help.
Isn't Web 2.0 great?
Teylyn - I saw Chandoo's tweet first, and followed the link back to his blog.
@Mike.. thank you. I have seen the fill rectangle solution before posting the query here. For that matter, I have also tried the solution of embedding a browser control on a spreadsheet. both of these seemed a bit extreme. That is why I have asked it here.
But I guess I will end up using it if I had to build this in work laptop.
@Teylyn: I have thought of posting this in a forum. (Unfortunately I have not been to any excel group in the last 5 years. Last time I was active was when I built a jave based excel sheet construction solution using POI.HSSF classes of Apache... ) After searching for a few hours, I found several forum posts where others had same problem and the solution recommended (using .left and .top parameters) is not working for me. Incidentally most of these solutions are from a certain Jon Peltier 😛
I thought may be the problem is interesting for fellow blog readers. So I posted it here.
Hi,
Adapting the code in the question,
[code]
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://chandoo.org/images/pointy-haired-dilbert-excel-charts-tips.png"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
.Left = Range("a1").Left
.Top = Range("a1").Top
End With
End Sub
[/code]
Seems to work fine
Looks like it was a problem in 2007 up to SP1, which was corrected in SP2.
@Jon.. seems like the case. I just checked the version at work laptop. it is 12.0.6331.5000 (SP1).
Thank you so much every one. I really appreciate your time and suggestions in solving this.
Glad to help. I couldn't understand why something so straightforward wasn't working.
Hi All
Is there a way of inserting a motion clip eg animated gif or swf or flv?
Thks
You can insert animated GIFs by inserting them in a browser control through VBA. For other types of movies, I can guess you can insert them as clip art.
I WANT THE INSERT PICTURE BY USING COADING
so currently i was struggling same as you, chandoo, with the insert picture method in excel 2007/10 from an url and came along your thread here.
so i re-designed the code on the addshape method as mike was suggesting it and all of the sudden it works just fine.
thanks alot to you guys, you were a great help
a big salut from switzerland
Hi guys,
I need help copying and pasting an image with the path in a cell.
I leave the code.
And thank you very much!
Sub Copiarimg()
Dim pic As Picture
With ActiveSheet
Set pic = .Pictures.Insert(Range("f2").Value)
With .Range("e9:g22")
pic.Top = .Top
pic.Left = .Left
pic.Width = .Width
pic.Height = .Height
End With
End Sub
I've played around with the approaches in these comments, and the code below is what I've come up with. The ImagePath can be a local file or a URL. As Jon mentioned above, the trick is to set an arbitrary value for the width and height, then call the ScaleWidth and ScaleHeight methods afterward to reset the picture to its original size. Once the LockAspectRatio property is set, you can change the picture width and the height will automatically scale (or vice-versa).
Sub AddPictureToRange(TopLeftCellAddress As String, ImagePath As String)
Dim pic As Shape
Dim l As Single, t As Single
Dim temp As Single
l = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Left
t = Me.Range(TopLeftCellAddress).Top
temp = 10# ' arbitrary value
Set pic = Me.Shapes.AddPicture(ImagePath, msoFalse, msoTrue, l, t, temp, temp)
pic.ScaleHeight 1#, msoTrue
pic.ScaleWidth 1#, msoTrue
pic.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
End Sub
I need some help with inserting pictures. I have an excel file with a column of item numbers next to this row I want to insert a picture of this item. The pictures are coded with the item number so I tried to insert it with one of the codes above:
Sub InsPicture()
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/55236.gif"
With ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath)
End With
End Sub
That worked but I need to do that for every row separtly.
So I tried in the code
pPath = "http://img.bricklink.com/P/80/"&Text(a1;"#")&".gif"
But that gives errors.
Anybody ideas?
Hi Nicholas, I used your solution in a related problem in Excel 2003 and it worked flawlessly..thank you!
Hi Mike Alexander,
Your solution with some changes was helpful in my problem in XL 2007, thanks.
Hi,
thanks all. In addition, I had a problem with multiple pictures inserting (every new picture replaced the prior one). I've changed it a bit, may be helpful..
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
ActiveSheet.Shapes(1).Copy
ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub
Try this instead:
Sub test()
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle, 50 , 50, 100, 200
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture _
"http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/images/dpwithPig6.png"
End Sub
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn't work quite as expect for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using either:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture...
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture...
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600x600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WSYWIG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the image based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Not doing an intentional bump, but realised I posted in rely to one of the repsonses here instead of to the main thread, so reposting.
=====
Thanks to everyone, this thread has been very helpful. However, image inserting still doesn’t work quite as expected for me.
While I can get a picture inserted into an Excel 2010 worksheet using any of the below methods:
1) ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture....
2) ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pPath), and
3) Shapes.AddPicture....
unfortunately the images all insert with a display size determined not by the actual pixel dimensions of the image but by the dpi resolution.
So for example, if I insert two copies of the exact same 600×600 pixel image, one with a 300dpi resolution and the other with 72dpi, they display at vastly different sizes in Excel on screen.
While this might be intended behaviour for Excel in order to maintain a WYSIWYG printing layout, I actually need a way to insert the images based on the the actual pixel dimesnsions and ignoring the dpi resolution.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
Kez
Well, answered my own question 🙂
For those who might be interested, you can use this function:
Public Function GetPicDims(strFilePath As String, strFileName As String) As String
GetPicDims = CreateObject("Shell.Application").Namespace((strFilePath)). _
ParseName(strFileName).ExtendedProperty("Dimensions")
End Function
to get the dimensions of the image you want to insert. Then you can parse the return string and use the width and height values to add a rectangle shape of the appropraite size, like:
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddShape msoShapeRectangle 50, 50, iWidth, iHeight
which you then fill with the picture:
ActiveSheet.Shapes(ActiveSheet.Shapes.Count).Fill.UserPicture "c:\temp\test.jpg"
This way the picture gets inserted using the pixel dimensions and the (print) resolution gets ignored.
If desired, the GetPicDims function can be made more generic to get other ExtendedProperties.
Regards
Kez