Images Pile Up when Filtering

Adam gets a weekly safety report in Excel. One of the columns has photos of things to be fixed inserted into the cells while another column has the name of the responsible person. If Adam filters based on person, he does get a filtered list, but all the photos get piled up one on top of the other. In other words, the result for the photos column is not filtered; the unwanted photos do not collapse with the row when it collapses.

You should be able to fix this easily enough by simply modifying the attributes of your graphics. The steps you follow depend on the version of Excel you are using. If you are using Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, follow these steps:

1. Select the image (or images) whose properties you need to change. You can select multiple images by clicking on one of the images and then holding down the Ctrl key as you click on each successive image.
2. Right-click the image (or images) you selected. Excel displays a Context menu.
3. Choose Size and Properties from the Context menu. Excel displays either the Size and Properties dialog box (Excel 2007) or Format Picture dialog box (Excel 2010).
4. Make sure the Properties tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Properties tab of the Format Picture dialog box.

5. Make sure the Move and Size with Cells check box is selected.
6. Click OK.

If you are using Excel 2013 or a later version of the program, use the following steps instead:

1. Select the image (or images) whose properties you need to change. You can select multiple images by clicking on one of the images and then holding down the Ctrl key as you click on each successive image.
2. Right-click the image (or images) you selected. Excel displays a Context menu.
3. Choose Size and Properties from the Context Menu. Excel displays the Format Picture task pane at the right side of the screen.
4. Make sure Properties task option is expanded. (If it isn't—if you can't see anything under the Properties option—click the small triangle to the left of the Properties option.) (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Properties option of the Format Picture task pane.

5. Make sure the Move and Size with Cells radio button is selected.
6. Close the Format Picture task pane.

That should do it; the pictures should now not pile up when you filter.

If your report is quite large, you might consider using a macro to change the attribute of the images. The following macro will step through each picture in the active worksheet and turn on the attribute:

Sub MoveAndSizePics()
    Dim s As Picture

    On Error Resume Next
    For Each s In ActiveSheet.Pictures
        s.Placement = xlMoveAndSize
    Next s
End Sub

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (13680) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.