How to Take a Screenshot of An Excel Sheet [7 Methods]

If you need to take a screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet for reporting or emailing needs, there are many ways to do that. 

The screenshot feature is indispensable in regular computer or mobile usage. Every now and then business owners, employees, developers, designers, and content creators share screenshots with their clients or internal stakeholders.

Windows 11 and other operating system comes with multiple built-in features to take screenshots. The Microsoft Excel desktop app itself lets you take screenshots using its own tool. Read on, as I explain all the possible ways to take screenshots in this clear and concise step-by-step guide.  

Take a Screenshot of an Excel Sheet: Using Print Screen

The easiest way to take a screenshot of your Excel file is using the Windows 11 hardware key Print Screen. Most standard Windows 11 and earlier keyboards come with this key. You can find this key to the left of the F12 button and on the top of the Insert key. 

Now that you located the Print Screen button, let’s learn how to go ahead with the process:

1. Open the Excel worksheet for which you need to take a screenshot.
2. Resize the worksheet so you only take a screengrab of Excel and not anything else.

3. Press the Alt + Print Screen keys together.
4. This command only takes a screengrab of the active window.
5. Now, open any image editor like Windows Paint or Adobe Photoshop.

6. Create a new or blank file and press Ctrl + V to paste the screenshot.
7. Make any changes you want and save the file as JPEG or PNG in a folder of your choosing.    

Take a Screenshot of an Excel Sheet: Using Excel Screenshot

Suppose, you’re working on an Excel report where you need to insert an image reference of another Excel sheet from a different Excel workbook. In this scenario, you can directly insert an automatic screengrab of the target Excel worksheet using the Excel Screenshot tool. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Open all the Excel workbooks from which you need to source screenshots.
2. Now, go to the Excel report file where you need to insert screenshots.
3. Click the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon menu.
4. In the Illustrations command section, click the Screenshot drop-down.

5. You’ll see thumbnails of the screenshot options under the Available Windows header.
6. Here, you see thumbnails of Excel worksheets that are open other than the one on which you’re working.
7. Click on any available thumbnails and Excel will automatically add a screenshot to your current Excel worksheet.

8. You may resize the screengrab if you want to.  

Take a Screenshot of an Excel Sheet: Using Screen Clipping

Now, in the above scenario, you want to take a screengrab of another Excel workbook by manually selecting the screenshot area. To do this, use the Excel Screen Clipping tool by following these steps: 

1. Ensure all the necessary Excel workbooks are open and not minimized to the Taskbar.
2. On the destination Excel sheet, click Insert.
3. From the Illustrations menu, expand the Screenshot command section.

4. Below the Available Windows header, you’ll find the Screen Clipping command.
5. Click Screen Clipping.

6. The screen will become frosted over or opaque temporarily.
7. You’ll see that the mouse cursor changed to a crosshair.
8. Use the crosshair to select a section on the target Excel worksheet for a screenshot.

9. Once you’re done selecting a screen area and let go of the mouse click, Excel will import a screenshot of the selected area in the destination worksheet.
10. As usual, you can resize and format it before sharing it with the client or supervisor.   

Take a Screenshot of an Excel Sheet: Using Windows Snipping Tool

Another intuitive way to take custom screenshots of Excel worksheets is by using the Windows Snipping Tool. The app comes out of the box with Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems. Here’s how to use it:

1. Open the Excel workbook from which you need to take a screenshot.

2. Press the Snipping Tool hotkey Windows + Shift + S to start snipping.
3. You’ll see an overlay or silhouette on your screen.
4. On top of the overlay, there are four choices for snipping and these are Rectangular mode, Freeform mode, Window mode, and Fullscreen mode.
5. You can use Rectangular mode to take custom snips.
6. Alternatively, you can utilize the Window mode to take full-worksheet screenshots.

7. Click any of the options and select a screenshot area.
8. Once done, the Snipping Tool will open the screenshot on its own editor.
9. There, you’ll find several annotation tools if you need to do some markup work on the image.
10. Now, click the Save button to export the image as a PNG, JPEG, or GIF file.

Take a Screenshot of an Excel Sheet: Using Windows Game Bar

Windows Game Bar is an interesting out-of-the-box app on Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs. Gamers use it for live streaming or screen recording. However, you can also use the tool to take fullscreen screenshots. Here’s how to use Windows Game Bar to take screenshots of Excel worksheets:

1. Open an Excel file; adjust the window size if you want, but don’t minimize it.

2. Now, press Windows + G to bring up the Windows Game Bar console.
3. There, you should see the Capture widget. 
4. Click the camera icon or the Take screenshot button.
5. Now, simply go to the following disk directory to access your screenshots:

C:\Users\Your User Account Name\Videos\Captures

Copy and Paste Excel Table or Datasets as Images

If you need to import thousands of Excel tables in a Word file for report creation purposes, using screenshots won’t be a good idea. Because this will increase the size of the final Word file. The same is true for a PowerPoint presentation deck you’re planning to create. 

When you’re in file size constraints, you can simply copy the Excel tables or datasets to the destination Word or PowerPoint file. This way, you use fewer bytes than screenshots and keep the file size within a reasonable range. Here’s how you can do this:

1. Open an Excel workbook and select a table that you want to export to a Word file.

2. Press Ctrl + C to copy the data from Excel.
3. Head over to the destination Word document and press Ctrl + V.

4. Click the Paste Options icon or press Ctrl.
5. Now, you should see six different data-pasting options.
6. Choose the fifth one named Picture. Alternatively, you can just press the U key on your keyboard.

8. You’ll get a greyscale image of the copied Excel dataset on the destination Word file.    

Automate Screenshot-Taking on Excel Using a VBA Code

For instance, you need to take thousands of screenshots from several large Excel workbooks. Doing this by following the above methods will be a challenging task. Instead, use the following VBA scripting approach to automate the entire process: 

1. Open all the target Excel workbooks and save those as Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook.

2. Once done, open one Macro-Enabled Excel workbook to take screenshots.
3. Press the Alt + F11 keys together to open the VBA editor.

4. On the VBA editor, click the Insert menu and choose Module from the context menu.
5. In the blank module, copy and paste the following VBA code:

'Name macro
Sub SavePicToFile()

'CopyPicture method with parameters xlscreen and xlBitmap using the selected cell range
Selection.CopyPicture xlScreen, xlBitmap

    'Hides alerts
    Application.DisplayAlerts = False

    Set tmp = ActiveSheet.Paste

    With tmp

        'Delete first series collection
        .SeriesCollection(1).Delete

        'Paste picture
        .Paste

        'Delete tmp object
        .Delete
    End With
End Sub

6. Click the Save button on the VBA editor and close it.

7. Now, select a data range on the Excel worksheet and hit Alt + F8.
8. Click Run on the Macro dialog box.
9. Select End to close the error dialog box.
10. Now, you should see a screenshot of the selection. 

11. Right-click on the image file and click Save as Picture.
12. Choose a folder location and file type to save your screenshot.

Conclusions

So far, you explored eight different ways to take screenshots of an Excel sheet to use as an email attachment or put it in a PowerPoint/Word report. 

The Print Screen and the Windows Snipping Tool are the easiest to operate. If you prefer taking screenshots inside the Excel app, try Excel Screenshot and Screen Clipping tools. Finally, if you’re an Excel power user, then you might want to try out the VBA method. 

Use the method you like and let me know how did it go by leaving a comment below. Also, if you see I missed any method on how to take screenshots on an Excel sheet, let me know by leaving a note.

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