Making an Image Color Transparent

Whenever you place a picture in your worksheet, it is rectangular in nature. Sometimes, the image may actually be rather small, but the area occupied by the image is rather large. For instance, you could have a logo that is diagonal in nature, which means that there is a large "background area" on the image. This background area, for all intents and purposes, is wasted space.

Fortunately, Excel allows you to define a particular color in your image as a transparent color. This means you could select the background area of your image, designate it as transparent, and thereby allow the underlying cells show through. To make a transparent area in your image, follow these steps if you are using Excel 2007:

1. Select the image you want to modify.
2. Make sure the Format tab of the ribbon is displayed.
3. In the Adjust group click the Recolor tool. Excel displays a series of options.
4. Click Set Transparent Color. The mouse pointer changes.
5. In the image, click on the color you want to be transparent.

Here are the equivalent steps if you are using an older version of Excel:

1. Select the image you want to modify.
2. The Picture toolbar should be visible. If it is not, use the Toolbars option from the View menu to turn on the Picture toolbar.
3. Click on the Set Transparent Color tool on the toolbar. (This is the second tool from the right.) The mouse cursor changes to look like the tool itself.
4. In the image, click on the color you want to be transparent.

If you can't select the Set Transparent Color tool in step 3, then you might not be able to set a transparent color in the image. Excel allows you to set the transparency color for bitmapped graphics, but not for other types. If you later want to turn off the transparency color, then you need to click the Reset Picture tool on the Picture toolbar.