TUESDAY TIPS: Using Excel’s Camera functionality to create live snapshots

In a recent article, we looked at how Excel’s New Window functionality allows you to view a spreadsheet through different “windows” at the same time. In this post, we look at another powerful review tool which allows you to peek into a different part of your file: in this case, through the lens of the Camera functionality. While New Window allows full access to a file from different angles / views, the Camera allows you to take a snapshot of a section in your Excel file and paste it elsewhere as a live picture. The pasted picture remains linked to the source data, which means that it is continuously updated for any changes to the underlying information.

While Camera provides a somewhat more limited portal compared to New Window (since you are more constrained by screen size and cannot edit the snapshot directly), it can be incredibly useful for evaluating the impact of changes to variables on a small section of outputs. Unlike New Window, you can store these snapshots in your workbook.

But perhaps our favourite feature of the Camera functionality is that you can also paste these snapshots into PowerPoint and Word documents, while retaining the links to the underlying Excel file. This means you only need to copy the output from your file once – thereafter, updates to the Excel file will be reflected in the PowerPoint or Word document automatically as long as both files are open. (This approach does come with a health warning about external links – see below for details).

How to access the Camera functionality

Step 1) Go to Excel Options (File -> Options) and select “Quick Access Toolbar” from the menu on the left-hand side.
Step 2) In the section labelled “Choose commands from”, use the down arrow and select “All Commands” from the drop-down list.
Step 3) Select “Camera” from the list of commands (it is sorted alphabetically).
Step 4) Click on the “Add >>” button to add this command to your Quick Access Toolbar

Once you have followed these steps, the camera icon should be visible on your Quick Access Toolbar at the top of your Excel workbook.

How to use the Camera in Excel

Step 1) Highlight the section you would like to take a snapshot of.
Step 2) Click on the Camera icon at the top of your sheet – the “marching ants” will appear around the range which you have snapped, indicating that it has been copied.
Step 3) Click anywhere in your file and the picture will be pasted. Once pasted, you can move it elsewhere by cutting and pasting or dragging like any other object.

How to paste a snapshot into Word or PowerPoint

Follow Steps (1) and (2) as above, but instead of pasting the picture in Excel, go to your PowerPoint or Word document. Activate the Paste Special menu – you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + V and select “Paste Link” from the pop-up menu.  The link should update automatically when both files are open, alternatively, right-click on the image and select “Update Link” to refresh.

A word of warning

Links between different files should be used with extreme caution. The reason for this is that if you insert rows  or make other structural changes in either of the linked files while the other file is not open, the links can break / become misaligned. Typically, we would not recommend links between Excel files as it could result in errors that go unnoticed. However, we find that when used carefully, the pasted live picture in PowerPoint / Word can be very useful when preparing presentations fed by data from Excel. You could also break the links once you are happy with your presentation and the live-linked snapshot will convert to an ordinary picture.

More to come…

We will be publishing a new tip every Tuesday – follow our page on LinkedIn to be notified of our posts.
LinkedIn