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Need recommendations for using pictures to help instructions

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I am developing an Excel app and find text boxes and masboxed to be of limited value for the instrructional displays. I have great pics developed in Photoshop Elements that can be called hidden or visible with CTRL-SHIFT-H but am concerned about the memory that consume.

I'm looking for advice from other app developers regarding whether the use of pictures for help displays, and, if so, recommended a size limit for the pictures.

excelpictures-shapes-clip-art
MS Office Version: Microsoft 365
posted by: r_guild (rep: 6) on Sun May 9, 2021 at 1:18 pm
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Hi Robert

I'm not an app developer but guess the minimum size of pictures will depend on how the picture will be viewed (e.g 23" PC monitor vs projector) and its nature (photographic vs. clipart style). From your mention of Photoshop Elements, I assume they're photopraphic so you'll probably aim for 72dpi at whatever screen resolution is expected.

Regarding image visibility however, if your instructional images relate to use of your Excel app, then it might be more useful to make the images visible when a cell is first selected or changed (so the helpful image appears when needed). You could use an event macro to toggle an image (or set .Visible to msoTrue or msoFalse if needed). This one works when cell F8 is selected on Sheet1 :

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
If Intersect(Target, Sheet1.Range("F8")) Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
Sheet1.Shapes("Picture 1").Visible = Not Sheet1.Shapes("Picture 6").Visible
End Sub
Change the bits in bold to suit. If you've only one image on a sheet, Shapes(1) would work (or other numbers).

I assume you haven't limited your shapes to rectangular (see Microsoft's guidance Make a picture transparent  but note that saving an image with a transparent background from Photoshop Elements doesn't see to work so you have to set a contrasting colour using the Photoshop Elements' Magic Wand/ Fill or similar).

Hope this helps a little (and you get image size/ resolution answers from app developers).

posted by: John_Ru (rep: 6142) on Mon May 10, 2021 at 4:36 am
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Thanks for sharing. I came up with a solution that developers most likely use to resolve the issue. I insert the help pictures from disk when the user depresses CTRL-SHIFT-H and delete them when they repeat the key sequence.
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      ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert( _           "C:\Users\Robert\Documents\App Learning and Development\Excel\New Development\Startup-Instructions.jpg" _           ).Select                  selection.Top = 47       selection.Left = 150       selection.Height = 400 ----
  If ws.Shapes.Count > 0 Then     For Each shp In ActiveSheet.Shapes       If Left(shp.Name, 7) = "Picture" Then           shp.Delete       End If     Next shp   End If  
r_guild (rep: 6) May 12, '21 at 8:56 am
Robert

Okay but I offered that suggestion so that you don't have to get the user to repeat the key combination. It's up to you of course but personally I'd expend the Worksheet_SelectionChange macro to respond to various cells (using Case Selct on Target.Address). Your call of course!

I now see that your soultion is a kind of slideshow where the user gets the next picture when they press the key combination.
John_Ru (rep: 6142) May 12, '21 at 9:29 am
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