Excel show cell contents in another cell

Kim Parker · Apr 4, 2025

My Excel worksheet has a lot of pictures and a lot of comments. A lot of this is repetitive - that is the pictures are used in more than one cell. I am trying to keep the size down, so is there a way to load cell contents into another cell to show on a mouse click? Then when the cell is exited, the cell unloads the contents. So when I close the excel file, it stays at its regular size.

I found "Paste Link" and this would work if the cell contents would unload when closing the file.
Copy the cell value you want, Right click on the new destination and select paste select SPECIAL then select PASTE LINK.

I would rather not use macro or javascript.

kelper · Apr 4, 2025

Does this worksheet use formulae? Does it need to be a spreadsheet? Maybe a Word document would be better?

In most spreadsheets, you can 'insert' an image into or over adjacent cells. Each cell just 'points' to the image location.

So long as the spreadsheet can access the image location, the size of the image won't affect the size of the spreadsheet. You could have the same image hundreds of times with very little size increase.

Kim Parker · Apr 5, 2025

No, formulas aren't used. I use Excel because of the neat comment feature. While I use pictures in a cell, I also have more images in comments. It keeps clutter way down yet info is just a popup cell away. Good to know the size of the spreadsheet won't increase that much.
What would be the best way to show contents of a cell in another cell. This would be a picture in a comment.
Thanks!

Sleevy · Apr 5, 2025

Since you want to avoid macros or JavaScript, your best option is to use Excel's built-in hyperlink functionality combined with comments or tooltips to display additional content without permanently embedding pictures or repetitive data. Here’s how you can achieve a lightweight solution:

Option 1: Use Cell Comments (Notes) for Text & Images

If your repetitive content is mostly text or small images:

Insert a comment (right-click cell → New Note in newer Excel versions).
Paste the repeated text or image inside the comment.
The comment will only appear when hovering over the cell, keeping the file size small.

Limitation: Comments don’t support high-resolution images, but they’re great for small icons or text snippets.

Option 2: Use Hyperlinks to External References

If your images are reused often:

Store images in a hidden sheet (or even externally in a folder).
Insert hyperlinks in cells (right-click → Link → Place in This Document).
When clicked, the hyperlink jumps to the image location.

Pros:

No duplicate images stored in the file.
File size stays small.

Cons:

Requires manual clicking to view content.
External images won’t be embedded.

Option 3: Use Data Validation Input Messages (for Text Only)

If the repetitive content is just text:

Select the cell → Data → Data Validation.
Go to the Input Message tab.
Enter the repeated text.
This text will appear as a tooltip when the cell is selected.

Why Paste Link Doesn’t Reduce File Size

Paste Link creates a reference but still keeps the original object in the file.
Excel doesn’t "unload" content when closing—it always saves everything.

Best Workaround Without Macros

Since you want dynamic loading/unloading without macros, Option 1 (Comments/Notes) or Option 2 (Hyperlinks) are your best choices. They keep the file lean while allowing quick access to repeated content.

kelper · Apr 5, 2025

You should be using more appropriate software! Presentation software would be better, such as Powerpoint.

SlicEnDicE · Apr 5, 2025

kelper said:
You should be using more appropriate software! Presentation software would be better, such as Powerpoint.

WDYM? Excel is appropriate even for Raytraced animations. I use Excel for everything. The other office tools don't stretch and bend as much and are a bit too specific.

kelper · Apr 5, 2025

There must be a better way. Without downloading his spreadsheet, it's hard to understand what he really needs.

in WordPress (and generally in web development), reusing the same image multiple times in a document does not significantly increase the total size of the document — provided the image is not duplicated as separate files.

Here's how it works:
When you insert the same image multiple times, WordPress just references the same image URL each time.

The image is only downloaded once by the browser and cached locally.

This means the page load size doesn't increase linearly with each reuse of the image — the image's data is reused from the browser's cache.

The only added "weight" is a few bytes of HTML for each <img> tag.

kelper · Apr 5, 2025

OP might like to try LaTex

Get LaTeX - Mac OS, Windows, Linux

Kim Parker · Apr 11, 2025

Sleevy said:
Since you want to avoid macros or JavaScript, your best option is to use Excel's built-in hyperlink functionality combined with comments or tooltips to display additional content without permanently embedding pictures or repetitive data. Here’s how you can achieve a lightweight solution:

Since you want dynamic loading/unloading without macros, Option 1 (Comments/Notes) or Option 2 (Hyperlinks) are your best choices. They keep the file lean while allowing quick access to repeated content.

This would work, thanks! I was thinking of using hyperlinks, didn't know hyperlinks can keep filesize down.

Kim Parker · Apr 11, 2025

SlicEnDicE said:
WDYM? Excel is appropriate even for Raytraced animations. I use Excel for everything. The other office tools don't stretch and bend as much and are a bit too specific.

I'm with you, Excel is fantastic. I don't even crunch a number. I use it to make my pedigrees, list my web links and also hyperlinks in other worksheets. And Excel looks good doing it. Everything is neatly organized, with more info in the popup comments.
The problem with using other software, there is so much information to get in there that the pages look cluttered. Excel fixes that. I can write up an actual article in Word, insert into Excel as object in another sheet same workbook, then hyperlink. And everything is there.

Excel show cell contents in another cell

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Option 1: Use Cell Comments (Notes) for Text & Images​

Option 2: Use Hyperlinks to External References​

Option 3: Use Data Validation Input Messages (for Text Only)​

Why Paste Link Doesn’t Reduce File Size​

Best Workaround Without Macros​

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Similar threads

Option 1: Use Cell Comments (Notes) for Text & Images

Option 2: Use Hyperlinks to External References

Option 3: Use Data Validation Input Messages (for Text Only)

Why Paste Link Doesn’t Reduce File Size

Best Workaround Without Macros