How to get excel to insert a new image with Applescript? - excel

Question

I have the following Applescript:
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
tell active workbook
make new picture at end with properties {save with document:true, file name:"/Users/yuval/Pictures/foobar.jpg"}
end tell
end tell
According to several sources, this should work.
However, every time I run the script I get the message
Microsoft Excel got an error: Can’t make class picture.
In the description, I see the error
error "Microsoft Excel got an error: Can’t make class picture." number
-2710 from picture to class
After two hours of searching, I have absolutely no clue what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Details:
Running Microsoft Excel 2011 on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Answer 1

Two things, though the caveat here is that I am working in Excel 2008, but Applescript implementations don't change substantially without fanfare:
First, make sure you are using the proper file path format. Applescript historically works with HFS paths, not POSIX
set theFilePath to "Macintosh HD:Users:UserName:Path:To:File.pic" --choose file
Second, make sure you are acting on the appropriate object. I was able to make this work with active sheet because active workbook wasn't a property in the Dictionary:
tell application "Microsoft Excel"
tell active sheet
make new picture at end with properties {file name:theFilePath}
end tell
end tell
The above code combined worked for me.