Working with images

Images can include scanned slides, maps, photographs, and historical documents.  PowerPoint accepts many image formats including JPG, BMP, and GIF.  It is also supposed to accept PCT files as long as you rename them to end in .pct. 

Working with images is much like working with text.  Many slide templates have one or more preset image boxes (“Placeholders”), which look something like this:

Inserting an image

If you already have an image box on your slide, just click on the picture icon () inside the box.  PowerPoint will then prompt you to choose an image from your computer.  Select it and click Insert.  You can also insert ClipArt with the ClipArt icon ( or , depending on your version of PowerPoint).  ClipArt is a database of mostly cartoony images that comes free with Microsoft Office.  Microsoft has more free images available for download at http://office.microsoft.com/clipart.

You can insert an image even without an image box. Simply go to >Insert - Picture - From File (or ClipArt). Locate the picture you want and click Insert.  You also have shortcuts to these options on your drawing toolbar (they use the same two icons pictured above).

Moving an image

Click once anywhere on it and drag it to wherever you want.

slide with a combination of images and text boxes

Resizing an image Drag on the white circles around its edges.  If you drag a corner, the picture will grow or shrink without changing shape.  Dragging one of the side-circles will distort the original image.  As with text boxes, the small green circle above the picture allows you to rotate it.  If you want an image to fill the whole slide, you can resize it, or you can just set it as the background for that individual slide.  See background section above.

Deleting an image or empty image box

Just click once on the image to select it, and hit the Delete key.  You will be left with an empty image box, so you can either insert something new into it or delete that by clicking once on its edge and hitting Delete. 

Advanced options

Double-click on the picture.  Under the Colours and Lines tab, you can add a border to your image just like to a text box (see Working with text section).  Under the Picture tab, you can compress an image (make it smaller so that it will load faster – great for TIFF format images).  Depending on its format, you may also be able to change it to black & white, wash it out, and adjust its brightness or contrast.  For some bizarre reason, you cannot do this to background pictures.

You can get a few more options (including cropping) from the Picture toolbar. Right-click on the image and choose Show Picture Toolbar.

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