Changing image size in Excel print headers

There are some things which I do so regularly, I never need to write myself an instruction: the process is rehearsed again and again. Then there are other tasks which I do so rarely, that when I come to do them again, I have little recollection of how to do it.

While I have written before about using Excel for marking before (here), this particular post is on something slightly more technical: how to change the size of images which have been embedded into Excel print headers.

Why would we have an image in a header? Each instruction or feedback document which I pass to my students is 'led' with an organisational brand image. Not only does it make the documents look more professional, but it reminds students who is providing the training. It never hurts to do a bit more marketing! And when the organisation's branding changes, we need to be able to replace the old logos with the the new version. 

While inserting an image is pretty easy, adjusting the new image to show in the header at an appropriate size is more problematic. Hence the need for this post. 

OK. So there are two parts to the instructions. Firstly, we need to insert the raw image:

1. Open the Excel workbook, and navigate to the sheet. Go to the Page Layout ribbon, and in the Page Setup section, click on the bottom-righthand corner expansion arrow
2. In the Page Setup dialogue box, click on Header/Footer. Select your Header from the dropdown list
3. In the Header dialogue box, click in the section containing your image (usually shown as "&[Picture]"). Click the image button. A message box will appear saying that "Only one picture can be inserted into each section of the header". Click replace
   
   
   
   
   
4. A second message box may appear, saying "The service required to use this feature is turned off. Check your privacy settings". If this appears, click "Work offline"
   
   
   
   
   
5. Now an insert file window will appear - navigate to where your desired logo image is stored, select the file, and click "Open"
6. Click OK, and OK. 

Our new image should now be present. If we do to print preview, we should now see how it looks: and it may or may not be the right size. I tend to find that the images will be shouty-loud and huge in the print area, so usually want to down-sample them by at least 50%. And that brings us to the second part of the instructions, where we reformat the image size, as follows:

1. In the Excel workbook, on the sheet you wish to adjust the header image size, go to the View ribbon. In the Workbook Views section, select the Page Layout view
   
   
   
   
2. Click in the header area containing the image
3. Go to the Header & Footer ribbon
4. Select the Format Picture icon
5. In the Format Picture dialogue box, change the image size to the desired percentage, and click OK
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click out of the header and check the size (repeat to adjust)
7. Once happy, change back to the Normal view
8. Save.

I hope this is helpful!

Sam