Is there an Alternative to using the LoadPicture("bmp_or_icon_file_path") to loading Images in Excel 2007 VBA - image

Question

I have an Excel 2007 Worksheet with many buttons and labels that act as menu options (i.e. user clicks the buttons, labels with images) and is presented with forms, or some thing else.
These images / icons for the buttons and labels are loaded in VBA by assigning the Picture property of the Control and calling LoadPicture() method with the full image file path as parameter, like So.
With SomeFormObject
.cmdOpenFile.Picture = LoadPicture("F:\projectname\images\fileopen.BMP")
End With
This method of loading images for buttons, other controls is causing 2 issues.
1) It creates a dependency on the image files and physical location for every user, so if a user does not have the drive mapped and files present, the VBA fails with runtime error of file or path not found.
2)
The app gets very slow if the images are on a shared drive (which is the case)
I want to eliminate both issues and somehow load icons, images into control internally, without any external dependencies on external image files.
What is the best way to achieve this in Excel 2007 VBA?
I could not file any Visual Basic 6.0 / Visual Studio style "Resource File Editor" / feature with which to accomplish this.
Please advice! thank you
-Shiva #
mycodetrip.com

Answer 1

I really hope that there is a easier way to do this, but this is the only one I found:
The Idea is:
You keep the Pictures embedded in a Sheet and every time you want to set the pictures for the Command you export them from your worksheet to a file and load them through LoadPicture. The only way to export an embedded Picture through VBA that I found is by making it a Chart first.
The following code is based on 'Export pictures from Excel' from johnske
Option Explicit
Sub setAllPictures()
setPicture "Picture 18", "CommandButtonOpen"
setPicture "Picture 3", "CommandButtonClose"
End Sub
Sub setPicture(pictureName As String, commandName As String)
Dim pictureSheet As Worksheet
Dim targetSheet As Worksheet
Dim embeddedPicture As Picture
Dim pictureChart As Chart
Dim MyPicture As String
Dim PicWidth As Long
Dim PicHeight As Long
Set pictureSheet = Sheets("NameOfYourPictureSheet") ' <- to Change '
Set targetSheet = Sheets("NameOfYourSheet") ' <- to Change '
Set embeddedPicture = pictureSheet.Shapes(pictureName).OLEFormat.Object
With embeddedPicture
MyPicture = .Name
PicHeight = .ShapeRange.Height
PicWidth = .ShapeRange.Width
End With
Charts.Add
ActiveChart.Location Where:=xlLocationAsObject, Name:=pictureSheet.Name
Set pictureChart = ActiveChart
embeddedPicture.Border.LineStyle = 0
With pictureChart.Parent
.Width = PicWidth
.Height = PicHeight
End With
With pictureSheet
.Select
.Shapes(MyPicture).Copy
With pictureChart
.ChartArea.Select
.Paste
End With
.ChartObjects(1).Chart.Export Filename:="temp.jpg", FilterName:="jpg"
End With
pictureChart.Parent.Delete
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
targetSheet.Shapes(commandName).OLEFormat.Object.Object.Picture = LoadPicture("temp.jpg")
Set pictureChart = Nothing
Set embeddedPicture = Nothing
Set targetSheet = Nothing
Set pictureSheet = Nothing
End Sub
Sub listPictures()
' Helper Function to get the Names of the Picture-Shapes '
Dim pictureSheet As Worksheet
Dim sheetShape As Shape
Set pictureSheet = Sheets("NameOfYourSheet")
For Each sheetShape In pictureSheet.Shapes
If Left(sheetShape.Name, 7) = "Picture" Then Debug.Print sheetShape.Name
Next sheetShape
Set sheetShape = Nothing
Set pictureSheet = Nothing
End Sub
To Conclude:
Loading the Images from a Mapped Networked Drive seems less messy, and there shouldn't be that much of a speed difference.

Answer 2

2 alternatives i can think of: form.img.picture=pastepicture , and = oleobjects("ActiveXPictureName").object.picture.