Chapter 22: Enhancing Your Work with Pictures and Drawings
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Working with Other Graphic Types
Excel can import a wide variety of graphics into a worksheet. You have several choices:l (^) Use the Clip Art task pane to locate and insert an image.
l Import a graphic file directly.
l (^) Copy and paste an image using the Windows Clipboard.
About graphics files
Graphics files come in two main categories: bitmap and vector (picture).l (^) Bitmap images are made up of discrete dots. They usually look pretty good at their origi-
nal size, but often lose clarity if you increase the size. Examples of common bitmap file
formats include BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF.
l Vector-based images, on the other hand, are comprised of points and paths that are rep-
resented by mathematical equations, so they retain their crispness regardless of their size.
Examples of common vector file formats include CGM, WMF, and EPS.
You can find hundreds of thousands of graphics files free for the taking on the Internet. Be aware,
however, that some graphic files have copyright restrictions.
Caution
Using bitmap graphics in a worksheet can dramatically increase the size of your workbook, resulting in more
memory usage and longer load and save times. n
Using the Clip Art task pane
Clip art refers to pre-made images (as opposed to custom image) that are used to illustrate just
about any medium. The term originated back in the days when images were actually clipped from
books and reused in new print projects. Nowadays, clip art is almost always in electronic form.Many users are content to use the graphics file-viewing capabilities built into Windows. If you do a lot
of work with graphics files, though, you owe it to yourself to get a real file-viewing program.Many graphics viewers are available, but one of the best products in its class is IrfanView. It enables
you to view just about any graphics file you can find, and it has features and options that will satisfy
even hard-core graphics mavens. Best of all, it’s free. To download a copy, visit http://www.irfanview.com.Want a Great Graphics File Viewer?