Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 14, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
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, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Non-Tiled Background Pictures.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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:
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