Smile please, you are on camera!

Smile please, You are on camera!

The camera or snapshot tool is amongst the most under utilized feature of Excel. You can copy a range of cells and paste a resulting snapshot picture on a worksheet. This is a neat way of easily seeing cell contents anywhere on the worksheet. You can use this method to print nonadjacent cells (on different worksheets or workbooks ) on one page. The best part is that the picture is linked and updated with both content changes and formatting changes. The camera button is made available by selecting View, Toolbar, Customize. Click on the Command tab, select category Tools and and drag the camera icon onto the worksheet, then close the dialog box.

Let us consider that the workbook has one range on sheet 1 ( RangeA ) & another on sheet 2 (RangeB). Using the camera tool we will take a picture of the RangeB and paste it on sheet 1. This picture is a special linked picture to the RangeB. It will always reflect not only the values of the Range but also the formatting applied to the cells in that range.

Here is how we do it...

Select range RangeB On sheet 2.
Now click on the Camera tool.
Activate Sheet 1.
Now press ALT and then click & drag the mouse to chalk out the region where U want the picture. ALT causes the picture to snap to the worksheet grid.
If there is a border around the picture. Select the picture. Choose Format, Object and remove the border.

If U have trouble locating the Camera tool, U could perform the following steps instead.

Select range RangeB On sheet 2.
Click Copy on the Edit menu.
Activate Sheet 1.
Select the cell in which you want the picture to appear.
Hold down SHIFT & on the Edit menu, click Paste Picture Link (a hidden menu option ).

The result is a similar snapshot that is updated as the source cells are changed or formatted. Try it out yourself! Now it is fairly easy to take the print since the snapshot is on the same page. U could take snapshots of ranges from different worksheets (or workbooks) onto a single new worksheet which can be printed at any point in time.