Clip Art

Now it is Time to have Fun with Excel

Since you have worked so hard with the Basic Concepts in Excel I figured that it is time to show you some of the fun side of Excel.

Yes it is true you can have fun…

Working with Clip Art

Most computers have Clip Art built into the programs such as Microsoft Office, however, there are a few companies and the military and government organizations that like to save space by not adding the Clip Art portion of the program in. So if you are using a computer supplied by one of the above mentioned you will be able to read the steps but you will not be able to work through them.

I know that I am not going in order of the buttons in the Illustrations Group on the Insert Tab.

Clip Art

What makes Clip Art different from other images such as Pictures?

Clip Art basically are the images that look more cartoonish, hand drawn, and charactertures, you know when the artist has drawn a person and their head is too big for their body.

If you have not already done so go ahead and open an Excel Workbook. Then go to the Insert Tab on the Ribbon, there you will find a Group called Illustrations. You should see four buttons that you can choose from.
1. Picture – you can go anywhere on your system or network to find Pictures and import them into Excel.

2. Clip Art – this should bring up a selection of Clip Art that you can choose from. There are places that you can go to online and find many more collections of Clip Art. Be careful doing this because there are some web-sites that have viruses on them.

3. Shapes – you can choose from a large selection of shapes if you desire to create something for yourself. This can be done by using multiple shapes and arranging them how you want. Latter I will show you how to make a quick robot with Shapes.

4. SmartArt – this is a cool addition to the Excel program, you used to have to build these from scratch, or the ground up. I have a complete lesson on this latter in the Intermediate Concepts Section.

The Clip Art Button

When you click the Clip Art Button you will get a Dialog Box to open up. The Clip Art Dialog Box will have five sections to it.

1. Search For – if you have a specific item that you are looking for you can type it in the Search For Text Area then click the Go Button. In the Large white area below it will show you what if found that matched your criteria.

2. Search In – This section has a list of different places that you can find Clip Art. If it does not say All Collections use the drop down arrow and make sure that all the boxes are checked.

3. Results Should Be – here you can tell Excel what you want it to search for. Although the Photographs, Movies, and Sounds are not technically clip art.
     a. Clip Art
     b. Photographs
     c. Movies
     d. Sounds

4. The View Area – this is where the results of the search will appear.

5. The Three Buttons in the bottom
     a. Organize clips – here is where you can go if you have downloaded Clip Art from the internet, you can                  add them to the folder that you wish them to be in or you can create your own folders.
     b. Clip art on Office Online – this will take you to the Microsoft Office Online site where you can pick and choose from their selection of Clip Art.
     c. Tips for finding clips – this will take you to the Excel Help Screen.

Inserting Clip Art into your Spreadsheet

There are three ways that you can insert Clip Art into your Spreadsheet. After you have searched for the Clip Art that you wish to add;

1. The Double Click Method – you can click the Left Mouse Button twice and the Clip Art that you Double Clicked on will be placed into your Spreadsheet.

2. Drag and Drop – you can hover over the Clip Art that you wish to insert into your Spreadsheet and Hold the Left Mouse Button down and drag the Clip Art to where you wish to place it and let go.

3. The Drop Down Arrow – as you hover over the Clip Art that you want to insert into your Spreadsheet you will see a grey button appear down the right hand side of the Clip Art sample. If you Click on the Button you will get a Dialog Box that allows you to choose from several choices. When this Dialog Box appears you can choose Insert and it will put the selected Clip Art into your Spreadsheet.

4. Okay, so I misled you… There are actually four ways to add Clip Art, if you get the Dialog Box you can choose Copy and then Paste it into the Spreadsheet.