How you add an image to a comment isn’t exactly what I’d call easy but it is straightforward. One of my students noted that a tip in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Bible (a truly good book on Excel 2007) didn’t provide the magic to insert an image into a cell comment. Updated this post and provided a new blog post that lets you add an image on Excel 2007, Excel 2010, and Excel 2011 with a VBA User-Defined Function (UDF). UDFs differ from VBA macros and you can find my Excel UDF Tutorial here.

I’d have to say that it did but it didn’t. Basically, the general idea is there but a step of magic requires you to know something else. You need to place your cursor on the highlighted edge of an editable comment before right clicking to launch the context menu. If your cursor is on the text portion of the comment, the context menu operates differently. The Format Comment … menu choice launches a different set of options dependent on your location in an editable comment.

Press and hold the Ctrl key, click the watermark text box, and then click Format Text Effects. The Format Shape task pane appears on the right side. Click the Text Fill & Outline tab. Under Text Fill, find the Transparency slider. Change the Transparency slider to 50% or more. Close the Format Shape task pane.

I’ve modified the tip by adding the sentence in blue, with what I think it should say. “You can also display an image inside of a comment. Just make sure you right click on the edge not inside the text box of the comment. Select the Colors and Lines tab in the Format Comment dialog box. Click the Color drop-down list and select Fill Effects. In the Fill Effects dialog box, click the Picture tab and then click the Select Picture Button to specify a graphics file.” – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Bible, Page 91.

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Hoping to help my students and others learn the magic, here are some steps. It’s a shame the best way to do this screen capture is on Apple OS X, but that’s life!

1. Right click on the cell to launch the shortcut menu, like this:

2. Click on the Insert Comment menu item, which launches the comment with the name of the user. If you only want an image, highlight the user name with the mouse and delete it. The backspace key doesn’t work all the time and I’m not sure why that’s the case on Excel 2007. The backspace key always works on Excel 2008 for cell comments.

3. The tricky part (maybe if you’re new to Microsoft Office) requires you to place the mouse on the edge of the comment box, over the bar-dot line, and right click the mouse to launch the shortcut menu in Excel 2007. The Mac version requires you to double click the cell to get the active sizing border, and another double click to launch the appropriate shortcut menu. Click the Format Comment … menu item in either Excel 2007 or 2008.

4. Click on the Colors and Lines tab to see the following dialog.

5. Click on the simple drop-down for the Color option in Excel 2007. Click on the spinner for the Color option in Excel 2008. Inside the box, click on the Fill Effects … menu item. It launches the broadest scope version of the Fill Effects dialog.

Windows Excel 2007 dialog:

Mac Excel 2008 dialog:

6. Click the Picture tab. Inside the Picture tab, click the Select Picture … button to find a picture on your disk drive.

7. Click the Lock picture aspect ratio check box if you’re inserting a small landscape orientation image in Excel 2007. There’s no such option in Excel 2008 (newer product, less features, hmm …). Unfortunately, portrait photos don’t seem to preserve aspect ratios as well in Excel 2007.

8. Now when you click on the cell, the image is visible. If you need to resize an image, right click on the cell to launch the shortcut menu and click the Edit Comment menu item. You can then resize the display of the image.

Hope this helps some folks.

Date Picker Add-in for Excel for the Mac

Note: There are 4 languages supported on this moment :English, German, Español and Français.

Right click on a worksheet cell and click on the Date Picker menu option to open the Date Picker.

Information

1) You can select any month and year with the arrow keys and click on Today to jump to today's date.

• Double-click on a day to Insert the date and the formatting.
• Use the 'Insert Date Only' button to Insert the date only, using the default or existing date format.
• Use the 'Insert Week number' button to Insert the week number.

2) You have an option to insert a Live Calendar to your worksheet, click on the 'Insert Live Calendar' button, the screenshot below is for the ISO week number system. If you change the date on top of the calendar it will update the calendar automatic.

3) When you click on Change Settings the Date Picker you have the following options :

In the Settings section you can :

• Choose a Date format in the dropdown that will be used when you double-click on a day. There is also an option to add one custom Date format of your own if you can't find one that you like in the dateformat dropdown menu.
• Select the week number system that you want to use. Default = ISO Week numbers
• There is an option to AutoFit the column width after it insert the Date. Default = AutoFit
• There is an option that will open the calendar with the date selected that is in the active cell (if there is a Date in the cell) and not the default of the last date that you inserted with the add-in.
• There is a option to automatic close the add-in after you insert a Date or Week number(new in 2.1).
• You can change the language of the user interface of the Date Picker in: English, German, Español or Français on this moment. It will open in the language of your Excel version if it exists, if not it will use the English language.

Download and Install information

Date Picker for Mac Excel 2016

Download Mac Date Picker add-in version 3.0 for Excel 2016 released on 28-Jan-2018. Many thanks to John McGhie, Mourad Louha, Sergio Alejandro Campos and Bernard Rey for the translations of the button captions and msgboxes in the add-in.

How to install the Add-in after you unzip it on your Mac

• Open Excel 2016
• Update Excel 2016 (See button in the Help menu)
• Use Tools>Excel Add-ins.. in the menu to open the Add-ins dialog
• Use the Browse button to select the add-in and choose Open
• Press OK
• Done

Note: If you copy the Add-in in the Add-ins folder it will be automatic in your Add-ins dialog list, for finding this folder see : Setup your Mac for Mac Office 2016

Right click on a worksheet cell and choose Date Picker to open the userform.

Note: Please report problems if you have. Version 3.0 will also work in Mac Excel 2016 version 16. In the Spanish language version I need a few translations for version 3.0, will update the add-in when I have them. Also in 16.9 there are a few problems with buttontiptext, it seems to be fixed in 16.10 that is released soon.

Note: There is also a version for Excel 2007-2016 for Windows, click here to go to the page for Windows.

Note: The add-in is available as freeware. But you can use the Contact button in the menu if you want to support the development of this Date Picker add-in.

Date Picker for Excel 2011

1. Download Mac Date Picker add-in version 1.0 for OS X 10.9 and higher released on 31-Aug-2014. Many thanks to John McGhie, Mourad Louha, Sergio Alejandro Campos and Bernard Rey for the translations of the button captions and msgboxes in the add-in.

Double-click the dmg file if it does not mount automatically. Drag the MacDatePicker.xlam file and the checkModifier.scptd to the folder you want. Important that both files are in the same folder. Tip: Use one folder for all your add-ins (easy to backup your add-ins this way)

2. Start Excel and open a workbook.
Click Tools, click Add-Ins, use 'Select' to browse to and select the add-in and then
click Open. Verify Mac Date Picker is checked in the add-in list and then click OK.

3: Right click on a cell and choose Date Picker to open the userform.

Note: If you get a Automation error when you want to open the Date Picker you must change the region on your Mac in System Preferences>Language & Text...Region. Seems that some regions (for example Malaysia) give problems, change it for example to United States and test it again. Do not forget to close and reopen Excel before you try it again. Please mail me the name of the region if you got problems so I can make a list with problem regions. I hope I can find a workeround for this Mac problem soon.

Note: There is also a version for Excel 2007-2016 for Windows, click here to go to the page for Windows.

Open the Date Picker with VBA code

You can use the macro below to open the Calendar instead of using the menu item in the Cell menu. Note: if you use the 2016 version it must be MacDatePicker2016.xlam