Forum Discussion
Excel For Web: "Picture > Place In Cell" is Gone
The “Insert → Pictures → Place in Cell” feature is inconsistently available in Excel for the web, and there’s no "update" you can trigger on your end to bring it back in cases where it disappears.
No official update or setting toggle has been documented that restores this feature if it's missing. It appears to be a rollout issue or inconsistency that Microsoft hasn’t addressed in documentation or hotfixes, it’s a known limitation/bug.
Workarounds You Can Try…
Right-Click → “Place in Cell”
Some users have reported a partial workaround:
- Insert the picture via Insert → Pictures (which may default to “over cells”).
- Right-click the image, and if the context menu shows “Place in Cell”, select it.
- The image may end up in a different cell, but you can then cut and paste it to your desired location.
Use the IMAGE() function (works reliably in Excel web + desktop):
=IMAGE("https://example.com/myimage.png", "Alt text")
Check different browsers (Edge vs Chrome vs Firefox). Some people find the button behaves differently depending on the browser/session, but I'm not sure if it works at all because the function might have a bug.
On Excel for the web, “Place in Cell” is not fully working everywhere yet — it’s more of a “previewed feature.” If you need guaranteed functionality, the IMAGE() function is the only consistent method today.
My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!
Hope this will help you.