Drawing Objects…
Drawing Objects…
This lesson will cover:
• What Can You Draw?
• How to …
• Add Graphics to your worksheet
• Draw and Format AutoShapes
• Draw and Format Text Boxes
These topics are from Chapter 7 of the text...
What can you draw?
You can add graphics to your worksheets and charts to make
them more visually appealing, to create more interesting
reports, or to add emphasis. For example, you can display a
logo, an image of a product or a flowchart on your worksheet.
Graphics can be added as graphics files, ClipArt, or objects
drawn with Excel’s own drawing tools.
You can draw your own objects, dramatically enhance text and
add descriptive “text boxes” (with all the associated lines and
arrows) using Excel’s included drawing features.
Types of Graphics used in Excel
There are several basic types of graphics you can add to an Excel
Worksheet:
• ClipArt - Microsoft has a clipart library that comes with Office 2000,
additional clipart can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Design
Gallery Live at http://dgl.microsoft.com.
• Graphic image files - such as GIFs, JPEGs, bitmaps, and Windows
Metafiles (wmf).
• AutoShapes – AutoShapes are predefined objects that can be inserted
onto worksheets and charts.
• WordArt - WordArt objects are predefined fonts that have been
customized into various styles. They can be inserted onto
worksheets and charts just like an AutoShape.
• Digital images - such as those from scanners and digital cameras.
This is a Microsoft Office ClipArt image
This is a GIF image
This is a JPEG image
This is an AutoShape image
This is WordArt
Inserting a graphic object…or any object
compatible with Excel 2000 can be done from
the Insert menu. To insert a graphical object
select Picture…then choose the appropriate
menu command…
…such as the ClipArt command, which displays Office’s Clip Viewer…you
can see that there is more here than just ClipArt. You could also select sound
or video clips from this dialog box, but that is another lesson.
…selecting the From File command displays the Insert Picture dialog box. By
default it looks in the My Pictures sub-folder of the My Documents folder for
image files. Images are shown on the right as you select them from the file
browser on the left…
…selecting the AutoShapes command displays the AutoShapes toolbar.
AutoShapes can be selected and inserted onto a worksheet by clicking on a
button…hovering your cursor over a button displays a text description of what
it represents…
…the WordArt command displays the WordArt dialog box. WordArt can be
selected and inserted onto a worksheet by clicking on a WordArt type…this
same dialog box is displayed when you click on the WordArt
button on the
Drawing toolbar…but we need to discuss that next…
The Drawing toolbar…
The Drawing toolbar contains most of the functions used to
create and modify graphic objects within Excel. To display
the Drawing toolbar click on the
button on the standard
toolbar or right click on any toolbar to display the shortcut
menu and select the Drawing command…
…the Drawing toolbar, like all toolbars can either be docked
or undocked. Many times you will find it docked at the
bottom of the Excel window…
The Drawing Toolbar…
The Drawing Toolbar can be used to access most of Excel’s object drawing
and formatting features as noted here…
Object Manipulation and Placement options
Select an Object(s)
Free Rotate
AutoShapes
Lines or Arrows
Rectangles or Ovals
Text Box
WordArt and ClipArt
Fill color, Line color and Font color
Line styles, Dash styles and Arrow styles
Shadows
3D Effects
…to “active” or display the Drawing toolbar click on the
button on
the standard toolbar or right click on any toolbar to display the shortcut
menu and select the Drawing command…
the Drawing toolbar, like all toolbars can either be docked or
undocked…or floating and docked. To select an object to modify,
either right-click on it or press the Select Objects button on the toolbar
and left-click on any drawn object…using the right-click method
displays the shortcut menu which is annoying, but it works.
The first button on the toolbar, from the
left, is the Draw menu. It contains
commands that move or spatially
manipulate objects…
You can “adjust” the Order of the
object…that is where it is within
the layers of objects on the
worksheet. For instance, if two
objects overlap each other one is
in Front and the other is to the
Back of it…these commands can
change this arrangement.
To move an object in small
increments you use the
Nudge command…the same
can be done by using the
Arrow keys…this makes
them the shortcut keys for
the Nudge command…right?
To create (or insert) an
AutoShape click the
AutoShapes button on the
Drawing toolbar and then
select a type…here a Stars
and Banners type was
selected…
When you select the AutoShape
type, your mouse cursor
becomes a crosshair. Place the
crosshair at one of the corners
where your AutoShape will be
located. Click and hold any of
the mouse buttons and drag to
define the area the AutoShape
will occupy. This process is an
important one to master as it is
used with many of the drawing
commands.
Now that the object has
been created select it and
give it a Fill color… the
Fill command is the button
with a paint bucket spilling
paint…
Now, to move the
object, grab it in the
same manner you
would grab a chart
and drag it…
To change the Line color,
select the command that
looks like a pen with a
colored line under it…
The Line style command
is used to add thickness
or a multiline style to the
selected object’s lines
(or border).
Add a Shadow effect
with the Shadow style
command.
Create a WordArt
object by selecting
the WordArt
button…the one that
looks like an “A”.
This command
displays the WordArt
dialog…select a style
and click OK…
Now enter your text…and
press OK…
Not only can you enter text
here, but you can also
select a font style and size.
We now have “Skippy”
WordArt…and the WordArt
toolbar is available for further
refinements, if needed…
You can drag WordArt
just like any other drawn
object or chart…
…and it can be resized by grabbing the
handles and dragging them…again like
any other drawn object…
Creating and Using Text Boxes
To insert text onto an Excel worksheet you first need to draw a
text box. A text box is a container that holds the text. In can
be moved, resized and formatted in several ways as an object.
The text contained within a text box can be formatted as a
whole or selectively by highlighting different characters,
words or phrases.
You can insert an empty text box onto a worksheet by clicking
on the Drawing toolbar’s text box command button
When you select the insert text
box command, your mouse
cursor becomes a sort of
crosshair. Place the crosshair
where your text box will be
located. Start typing your
text…if you leave the text box,
and select another object
without entering any text the
text box will disappear…
…by default a text box has no border
and no width limit…to change this,
instead of just typing at the insert text
box prompt (as stated previously), use
the crosshair cursor as you did with the
AutoShape object. Drag it to define the
boundaries of the text box. When you
start typing you will be constrained
within your selected boundaries and the
text box will have a border…
…note that the typed text is now being
wrapped and scrolled……
…some properties of a text box can be
changed from the Formatting
toolbar…such as the Font size…
…you can use the pop-up shortcut menu
or the Format menu to display…
…the Format Text Box dialog box…from here you can change the size,
borders, fill colors, font options and text alignment properties (including
margins) of the selected text box…the options on the 8 tabbed pages are
too numerous to explain…
…However, some of the more important ones are…the text box Fill
color. Select a color from the dropdown list for a fill (or background)
color…
…and the Line (or border)
color…
…changing both of these properties and clicking the OK button applies
the changes…
…you can grab one of the text box’s handles and resize it to fit all of the
text…
…to add an arrow to the worksheet, select the Arrow button on the
Drawing toolbar and “draw” the arrow by clicking on the starting point
and dragging to the end point…the one drawn here appears in front of
the text box…this doesn’t look right…
…right click on the text box and select Order from the menu…and then
Bring to Front…
…this action places the text box over the arrow, so that it appears that
the arrow originates at the text box’s border…now let’s add an oval to
surround the numbers the arrow is pointing to…
…when you first draw an oval its border is thin and it is “filled”…here
the oval’s Fill color is white, we need to see the numbers behind the
oval…
Inset Oval button
…from the Format AutoShape shortcut menu command we change the
Fill color to No Fill and the Line (border) weight to 2 …
…now you have a see-through oval…actually what we’ve done is to
circle the noteworthy numbers…mission complete.