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Carl_61's avatar
Carl_61
Iron Contributor
Nov 10, 2024

Use of Icons within Excel

I am wanting to know if Icons can be used in formulas.  I have smoke detectors for instance whereby the 9 volt batteries are required to be replaced.  I have a sheet that gives me the location of the smoke detectors, when the battery has been installed and when it should be replaced.  I'd like to use a graphic image of a battery appear in a cell giving a visual of the battery needing to be changed.  I know I could use Custom Formatting but I curious if Icons can be selected and used for a purpose like this and if it can be done, how can it be done?

 

Thank you


Carl 

excel
Formulas and Functions

1 Reply

  • Riny_van_Eekelen's avatar
    Riny_van_Eekelen
    Platinum Contributor
    Nov 10, 2024

    'Icons' are graphical objects. You can turn them into pictures or shapes, but you can't reference them in formulas. At least, not that I know of.

    'Icon sets' are used in conditional formatting, but there aren't any in the shape of batteries.

    But you can use regular symbols from the Insert ribbon. They are just like any other character and you can use them in a formula as demonstrated in the picture below.

    I'm on a Mac now and found the empty battery symbol. I'm pretty sure Excel for the PC has a similar one. Personally I wouldn't bother and just color the 'Replace by' cell red if the day is on or before TODAY()

     

    EDIT: I assumed too much regarding symbols on the PC being similar to the ones on a Mac. This is the closest I could get to in Excel on a PC.

    So, an almost empty battery symbol has the UNICHAR value of 129707 in Excel for the PC. And that code works also on the Mac, producing the symbol shown in the first screenshot.

     

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