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Actual Window Manager And Transparent Spreadsheets

Actual Window Manager can be used to solve many problems and is really multifunctional, but recently we have received a letter from one of our users with the certain problem. The matter is that when working with Excel worksheets he wants to put an image under the spreadsheet list and make a picture of the screen.

Nothing is so simple when you use Actual Window Manager and the transparency effect.

Figure #0. This is what our user wants to achieve. Looks nice, right?

But let us discuss the solution of this interesting question step by step:

Step 1:

First of all we should open an Excel worksheet and enter all necessary data.

Figure #1. Microsoft Excel XP worksheet

Step 2:

Open an image file in another window, using an internal Windows viewer, e.g. ACDsee or any other image viewer you like.

Figure #2. An image is opened with internal Windows XP picture viewer (Windows Picture and Fax Viewer)

Step 3:

Make your worksheet active and click Stay Always-on-Top button in title bar.

Figure #3. 'Stay Always-On-Top' button

Step 4:

Make worksheet semi-transparent with the help of our Actual Window Manager. Right-clicking Make Transparent button displays a context menu where you can choose one of the predefined levels of transparency.

Figure #4. Transparency context menu.

With the help of this menu, you can easily choose the desired level of transparency.

Figure #5. An image is under Microsoft Excel worksheet (transparency effect is On)

Step 5:

Make the picture of the screen (Use 'Print Screen' key for that purpose). After that, your screenshot will be saved in clipboard.

Step 6:

Open Microsoft Paint or any other graphics editing application (Adobe Photoshop etc.).

Step 7:

Then use 'Paste' button in this graphics editing application (Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop etc.) to paste a picture.

Figure #6. Graphics editing application Microsoft Paint with our screenshot. Edit/Paste menu.

Now your picture file is ready. So, you may print this picture or save it on your hard drive.

And Here Is Another Solution of the Same Problem

If you want to work with Excel and see a picture as a background, all at the same time, make a picture a desktop background in Display Properties menu, and after that make Excel worksheet transparent.

Figure #7. 'Display Properties' menu.

Figure #8. Final result.

In this article we illustrated only one feature of Actual Window Manager but it will help you to save your time and efforts when you work with several applications simultaneously. It has more than 40 productive tools which you can use to control every window on your screen. Try it out - it is very handy and easy to use.

Useful Links

See the following links that will be your guides in getting acquainted with Actual Window Manager:

  • Download the fully-functional 60-days trial version of Actual Window Manager right now. It is completely free!
  • Actual Window Manager Home – the official page where you can download or order the risk-free version and read what users say about Actual Window Manager.
  • Actual Window Manager Help section – the full list of features available in Actual Window Manager.
  • Here you can find the information on how to create specific settings for any window.

Check out our articles. You can find other ways for using the features presented by Actual Window Manager which are sure to make your work easier!



 
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