.... sheets and keeping them lined up;

The problem i'm having is quite frustrating. I have 3 sheets generated each
has been sized exactly the same (each cell is 100x100 pixels)

The 1st sheet contains a hexagonal map grid. using A1 style reference the
top-left corner is indexed by C3 and the lower-right corner is referenced by
AF50. Column A and B are blank (100x100) in all sheets; Rows 1 and 2 are
blank (100x100) too.

The second sheet contains generated text in a tiny font. The columns are
staggered with the even cells (B,D,F...) are aligned horizontally on the
bottom, odd cells are aligned horizontally on the top. (this makes the text
appear to center in each hexagon)

The third sheet contains very large text (using the Character map with
eudcedit to make arrows that point in the 6 possible directions for each
hexagon. up(0°), down(180°), up-right(60°), down-right(120°),
down-left(240°), up-left(300°). The alignment is the same as the 2nd sheet
with even/odds staggered.

Now I have combined these 3 sheets using the insertobject; "create from
file"; with link checked (because all of this data changes dynamically and
the text and arrows should move to reflect the current condition of my data).

The problem is that these 3 embeded-linked objects will not seem to stay
lined up. The hexmap will sometimes shift up by one row, I can not find any
pattern with this. Is there an easier solution? The sizing seems to have a
mind of its own. (sometimes with creating the link.. the object is smaller
than the actual file and only the top left quadrant of data appear. When I
try to resize the object... the visible data just shrinks or grows with mouse
drags (instead of showing more of the data in the other 3 quadrants)

Is there a way to pick up a bitmap and put it at a very specific point in a
cell? The arrows(in a very large font) might could be saved as plain BMP
files and used that way (if i could control the placement)

Im considering using VB to generate this combination too (but i wanted to
exhaust the excel options first, then I have to learn VB...)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

(using both excel2003 and 2000; but im about to upgrade the 2nd machine)
--
Regards,
John