Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Non-Tiled Background Pictures.

Non-Tiled Background Pictures

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 20, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

When you add a background picture to an Excel worksheet, the picture is "tiled" so that it fills the whole screen, over and over again. For some background images, this is a great effect. For others, it is bothersome. In these cases, you may want to have only a single copy of the background image appear on-screen.

There is no way to do this directly within Excel, however. The only option is the tiling of background images. You can reduce the bothersome effects of the tiling, though, by loading the background image into your favorite graphics editing program and simply increasing the size of the canvas on which the image is located. You should make the canvas the same size as a full sheet of paper, with the actual image centered on the canvas. Save the new image and use it for your background.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8149) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Non-Tiled Background Pictures.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Displaying Negative Percentages in Red

Excel includes quite a few different formats you can use for the information in a worksheet. One format that isn't as ...

Discover More

Filling a Drawing Object

Want to add some spice to the graphics in your worksheets? There are many colors and effects in Excel that allow you take ...

Discover More

Vertical Alignment of Sections

Using one of the page setup options in Word, you can specify that the paragraphs within the section be vertically aligned ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Positioning a Graphic in a Macro

Macros are a great way to process information in a worksheet. Part of that processing may involve moving graphics around ...

Discover More

Inserting a Watermark Behind Merged Cells

If you have a group of merged cells into which you want a user to enter information, you may want some sort of ...

Discover More

Cropping Graphics

Excel makes it easy to place a graphic in a worksheet. Once there, you may want to chop off a side (or two) of the ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine minus 1?

2024-02-23 12:12:31

Tomek

Using background is not that useful. it only affects the display; I didn't find any way to print it.
Even using graphic program to make the canvas the same size as a full sheet of paper, with the actual image centered on the canvas does not stop the background from tiling, unless you make your canvas so huge it cover the whole sheet A1:XFD1048576.
Also, the image is not scaled by your viewing zoom. It is linked to the size of the screen. If you zoom in, the image size stays the same screen size, so it changes its position versus cells. (see Figure 1 below) and (see Figure 2 below)

Figure 1. 

Figure 2. 


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.