Excel - Setting a Transparent Colour for an Image

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 colour. 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:

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 or the Colour tool (depending on your version of Excel). Excel displays a series of options.
4. Click Set Transparent Colour. The mouse pointer changes.
5. In the image, click on the colour you want to be transparent.

If you can't select the Set Transparent Colour 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 colour 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 in the Adjust group on th Format tab of the ribbon.

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