Inserting an Online Picture to Excel with VBA

Question

I'm currently working on a project and need to fill in cells with pictures via URLs. All URLs are in one column, and I'd like to load the images in an adjacent column. I'm no VBA expert, but I found some code that worked, but for some reason I get an error (usually 5 images in) that says:

Run-time error '1004': Unable to get the Insert property of the Pictures Class

Again, I'm using a system where URLs are in one column i.e.:

xxxx.com/xxxx1.jpg

xxxx.com/xxxx2.jpg

xxxx.com/xxxx3.jpg

xxxx.com/xxxx4.jpg

Through some searching, I found that it could be linked to my Excel version (using 2010), though I'm not completely sure.

Here's the current code I'm using:

Sub URLPictureInsert()
Dim cell, shp As Shape, target As Range
    Set Rng = ActiveSheet.Range("a5:a50") ' range with URLs
    For Each cell In Rng
       filenam = cell
       ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(filenam).Select

  Set shp = Selection.ShapeRange.Item(1)
   With shp
      .LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
      .Width = 100
      .Height = 100
      .Cut
   End With
   Cells(cell.Row, cell.Column + 1).PasteSpecial
Next

End Sub

Any help would be much appreciated!

Original code source: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/659968-insert-image-into-cell-url-macro.html

Answer 1

This is an almost identical solution that I posted about a month ago:

Excel VBA Insert Images From Image Name in Column

Sub InsertPic()
Dim pic As String 'file path of pic
Dim myPicture As Picture 'embedded pic
Dim rng As Range 'range over which we will iterate
Dim cl As Range 'iterator

Set rng = Range("B1:B7")  '<~~ Modify this range as needed. Assumes image link URL in column A.
For Each cl In rng
pic = cl.Offset(0, -1)

    Set myPicture = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(pic)
    '
    'you can play with this to manipulate the size & position of the picture.
    ' currently this shrinks the picture to fit inside the cell.
    With myPicture
        .ShapeRange.LockAspectRatio = msoFalse
        .Width = cl.Width
        .Height = cl.Height
        .Top = Rows(cl.Row).Top
        .Left = Columns(cl.Column).Left
    End With
    '

 Next

 End Sub

Answer 2

I know this thread is 5 years old but just wanted to say it really helped me with a project. I'm using VBA to bring in data from an orders database. When I click on an order from those results it brings in more details about the orders including an image URL. The problem I had was that the code above was designed to add the image in place of the URL. I wanted to replace the image from a previous query with the image from the new query. After some tweaks I got it working but it was just laying a new image on top of the old image. In time my Excel file could get really big so here's my solution. The only problem I have right now is that it deletes my company's logo that I put on the sheet. There may be a way to be more selective, or I could just change the procedure to insert the logo from another sheet in the workbook every time it deletes pictures but that seems a bit cheesy.

Sub InsertPic()

Dim productImageUrl As String
Dim productImage As Picture     'Declare image picture object
Dim productImageUrlRng As Range 'Declare range object to contain image URL
Dim productImageRng As Range    'Location image will be placed
'Delete any existing pictures:


Set productImageRng = ActiveSheet.Range("J1:J15") 'Where I want to put the image
Set productImageUrlRng = Range("BA2")  'Cell containing image URL
productImageUrl = productImageUrlRng

productImageRng.Select
'productImageRng.Delete --Does not delete pictures in range
ActiveSheet.Pictures.Delete     'Delete existing images
Set productImage = ActiveSheet.Pictures.Insert(productImageUrl)

With productImage
    .ShapeRange.LockAspectRatio = msoTrue
    '.Width = productImageRng.Width
    .Height = productImageRng.Height
    ' .Top = Rows(cl.Row).Top
    ' .Left = Columns(cl.Column).Left
End With
End Sub