Screenshots & Visual Verification¶

Use screenshots when appearance matters and an interactive desktop is available. They are optional for data-only tasks and are not a prerequisite for successful unattended work.

Current capture commands, quality choices, and output options come from CLI help or MCP tool descriptions.

Choose the capture scope¶

Choose a bounded range for the requested layout, or inspect used cells and embedded charts together. Capture photographs the live Excel window, briefly showing it and bringing it forward. It requires an unlocked interactive desktop; disconnected Remote Desktop sessions can prevent capture.

Protected sheets and initially hidden windows are supported without modifying the workbook or clipboard. Capture handles Windows display scaling without changing the application's display settings. Large ranges can be zoomed and stitched. If the result reports truncation, capture smaller areas rather than claiming that the whole sheet was checked.

Layout Checks¶

For a requested chart, inspect its source and intended destination, create or move it, then check overlap warnings and the visible result. This example assumes the session and Sales sheet already exist and the placement is authorized:

chart(action: 'create-from-range', workbook_session_id: sessionId, sheet_name: 'Sales',
      source_range_address: 'A1:D20', chart_type: 'ColumnClustered',
      target_range: 'F2:K15')
screenshot(action: 'capture', workbook_session_id: sessionId, sheet_name: 'Sales',
           range_address: 'A1:M25')

excelcli -q chart create-from-range --session $sessionId --sheet-name Sales --source-range-address A1:D20 --chart-type ColumnClustered --target-range F2:K15
excelcli -q screenshot capture --session $sessionId --sheet-name Sales --range-address A1:M25 --quality High --output screenshot.png

Check each result. Leave room between charts and check again after meaningful layout fixes, not every routine write. Configure PivotTable fields and refresh its data before judging its layout.

If capture is unavailable, inspect chart bounds and data and state the visual limitation. Do not repeatedly retry an unavailable desktop or prevent an authorized save/close solely because capture failed.