Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to create a custom background for a cell or group of cells. Is it possible to insert a photo or file as the backround for a cell?

I searched the forums and didn't find anything on this topic.

Thanks for any help!

Sorry, no. Nothing is supported as a cell background except solid colors.

Support for images or patterns has been requested:
Issue 16642: Allow patterns as cells background
Issue 69092: there is no way to set image as background for cell
You can register there and add your vote (up to two) or comment.

If your requirement is static, such as for a name on the image, you could edit it in a drawing program and add the text, then insert the modified image into a cell, if that is possible.

I had played around with this a few months ago after someone had asked about hatching cell backgrounds. I never got around to posting it. The attached spreadsheet adds cell "backgrounds" by fitting drawing rectangles to the selected cells and then working with the rectangle area fill, including options for gradient, hatching, and bitmaps. For this to work as expected, some degree of transparency needs to be specified for the area fills. Also, there are issues involved in resizing cells and deleting rows and columns, so this is mostly meant to be suggestive.

Note that options to "Fill Cell Background" and "Clear Cell Background" appear on both the Format Menu and the Cell Selection Context Menu.

Some of the discussion of how this works belongs in the macro forum, but I'll start by posting it here. I haven't carefully reviewed the macros before posting, so there may be some irrelevant crap in there.