Using a Graphic for a Background

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 23, 2018)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

In Excel you are not limited to the plain old white or somewhat shaded background for your worksheets. Instead, you can use a graphic image for a background. The effect is much like the backgrounds you see on Web pages—the image used as the background is tiled (repeated) so that it fills the entire background of the worksheet. To use a graphic as a worksheet background, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Sheet from the Format menu, then choose Background from the resulting submenu. Excel displays the Sheet Background dialog box, which looks similar to a standard Open dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    2. Figure 1. The Sheet Background dialog box.

  2. Use the controls in the dialog box to locate and select the graphic image you want to use as a background.
  3. Click on OK.

The image is imported and fills the background of your worksheet. To later remove a background, choose Sheet from the Format menu, then choose Delete Background from the resulting submenu.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2634) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

How Word Treats Normal.dot

Templates are at the core of how Word creates and formats documents. From the earliest days of Word, the most basic of ...

Discover More

Decimal Tab Alignment

If you are familiar with decimal tabs in Word, you may wonder if you can set the same sort of alignment in Excel. The ...

Discover More

Changing the Default Location for Saving a Document

When you use Save As, it can be frustrating to be offered all sorts of locations in which to save your file. Fortunately, ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Changing the Axis Scale

When creating a chart, you may want to adjust the default scaling that Excel applies to an axis. This is relatively easy ...

Discover More

Adjusting Picture Appearance

Excel provides the Picture toolbar to help you modify any images in your worksheet. This tip explains how to use the ...

Discover More

Drawing Lines

Excel doesn't limit you to only numbers and text in your worksheets. You can also add different types of shapes. Here's ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six more than 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.