iWork '09: The Missing Manual

Inserting Pictures

As you start designing the inside pages of spreadsheet reports, the content inevitably becomes denser, giving way to more traditional columns and rows of grid data. That makes the judicious use of design elements even more important, not only to set the personality and tone of your report but also to add visual breaks for the reader, making it easier to digest the page as a whole. Pictures are especially helpful here, and Numbers, like all the iWork programs, gives you fast access to your iPhoto image library (and Aperture, too, if you have that software installed).

To add a picture from iPhoto, Aperture, or Photo Booth, click the Media button in the toolbar to summon the Media Browser (Figure 23-7). Click the Photos tab, browse to the picture to use, and drag it to a blank spot on the sheet canvas. The cursor grows a green + sign to let you know that you’re about to add the picture to the canvas. Drop it where you want it to appear. If the picture you want to use isn’t in iPhoto or Aperture, you can insert a picture from anywhere on your hard drive by selecting Insert → Choose and browsing to the file to include, or by dragging the file’s icon into your spreadsheet from the Finder.

Note

Be careful about where you drop your photo when dragging from the Media Browser. If you drop it onto a shape, Numbers turns that shape into an image mask for your picture, cropping the picture into the selected shape and removing the shape from your layout. More on image masks in ...