Drawing inside a spreadsheet is a useful way to highlight, circle, or call attention to specific areas or data points. Fortunately, Excel offers a series of built-in features to help you draw on your sheets. Let’s learn how to draw in Microsoft Excel.
How to Draw in Excel
Drawing in Excel gives you several key tools to succeed with your spreadsheet. You can circle specific points, you can highlight others, and you can easily erase and change your drawings. It’s easy to do, and it’s a unique and often forgotten way to make spreadsheets more interesting.
To draw in Excel, first find the ribbon at the top of your screen. This is the area containing options like Home, Insert, Page Layout, and more. The option you want is, predictably, labeled Draw. Go ahead and click on it, and you’ll see an array of drawing styles presented.
The first, most basic drawing feature is the simple Draw menu. Click on it, then click and hold your cursor on top of your sheets. You’ll be able to make a freehand, line-style drawing. This is especially useful if you want to circle specific content.
The pen styles group helps you change up the look and feel of the lines you’re drawing. Most notably, you can click on the yellow highlighter and use it to call out specific values or characters.
While the pen and pencil styles will obscure the content inside cells, the Highlighter feature works exactly like a real highlighter pen. It shades, rather than blocks, the values underneath it.
Want to undo a drawing? Simply click on the Eraser button, then click on any drawing once. You’ll see it disappear, and you can alter the style.
As you can see, it’s easy to draw in Microsoft Excel. This is a great way to circle, highlight, or call attention to any piece of content.
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