Question

We’re exporting a set of data using .net interop to Excel and our template file contains some images.

Depending on the amount of columns we’re exporting we want to position the image X pixels left of the last column depending on the image size/width. Using the record a macro function moving the Image around is a ‘no op’. Setting the Shape.Left position also won’t work.

The question

How do you position an image in excel using interop X pixels left from a cell or in a fixed X/Y position on screen where X/Y are pixel locations relative to a cell.

This did not work

Dim pixels As Integer = 40
Dim cell As Excel.Range = ws.Cells(10, 10)
s.Left = s.Left - 100

The ‘solution’

After debugging for a while we noticed that this did not work on my office version. Updating my office version to 2010 made the above example work again. We added another PictureShape to replace for office 2007 fixing our own problems.

Answer 1

Are you sure Shape.Left won’t work? If done correctly, it works fine. Try it like this (C#):

//This assumes shape is already assigned to the shape you want to move
//and ws is assigned to the worksheet
//set cell to whatever cell you want to move the image to
Excel.Range cell = ws.Cells[10, 10];
int pixels = 40; //Number of extra pixels over from the left edge of the cell
shape.Left = ((float)cell.Left + pixels);
shape.Top = ((float)cell.Top);

To vb it should be something like below, but I’m not a vb expert

Dim pixels As Integer = 40
Dim cell As Excel.Range = ws.Cells(10, 10)
s.Left = (CSng(cell.Left) + pixels) 'Note: if using cell.Left you must cast as single
s.Top = CSng(cell.Top)

Edit: I just created a test program in VB. The following code does, indeed, move my images.

    Dim oXL As Excel.Application
    Dim oWB As Excel.Workbook
    Dim oSheet As Excel.Worksheet
    Dim oRng As Excel.Range
    Dim oShape As Excel.Shape

    ' Start Excel and get Application object.
    oXL = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
    oXL.Visible = True

    ' Get a new workbook.
    oWB = oXL.Workbooks.Open("*insert_valid_path_here*")
    oSheet = oWB.ActiveSheet
    For Each oShape In oSheet.Shapes
        oShape.Left = oShape.Left + 9000
    Next

    ' Make sure Excel is visible and give the user control
    ' of Excel's lifetime.
    oXL.Visible = True
    oXL.UserControl = True

    ' Make sure that you release object references.
    oRng = Nothing
    oSheet = Nothing
    oWB = Nothing
    oXL.Quit()
    oXL = Nothing

I suspect you are either assigning shape incorrectly or you expect it to be in the wrong spot or you are saving incorrectly.