Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Copying Pictures with a Macro.

Copying Pictures with a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 22, 2018)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Lowell developed a macro to copy select cells' data to a specific location on another worksheet. Some of the source cells contain pictures, and he would like those pictures copied, as well. Lowell wonders how he can get the macro to recognize if a picture is at the source cell and then copy the pictures to the new worksheet along with the data.

If you use the Copy method with the Selection object, you can copy everything—including pictures—from your source to your target. Consider the following short macro:

Sub CopyPict()
    Sheets("Sheet1").Select
    Range("B3:F7").Select
    Selection.Copy
    Sheets("Sheet3").Select
    Range("H8").Select
    ActiveSheet.Paste
End Sub

Assuming that some of the cells within the source range (B3:B7 on Sheet1) contain pictures, then the Paste method will paste those into the target (cell H8 on Sheet3). This technique is, in fact, the same as using copy and paste manually with the information.

If you are identifying and moving information in a different manner (perhaps using an intermediary variable instead of copying to the Clipboard), then it is very possible that the pictures aren't copying. If you need to do some processing of the data before pasting it into the target, you could use the Paste method, as shown above, and then process the data and place it back into the target cell. That would allow the pictures to remain undisturbed at the target.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11332) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Copying Pictures with a Macro.

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. ...

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