When you're developing a PowerPoint presentation, you want to create slides that communicate
the information to your audience and that they will find appealing.
If you've chosen a slide layout that has a placeholder for images, you can insert the
picture using the command in the placeholder.
Here let me select my text and move it to this text box.
There, now you can see that the placeholder in the layout I am using has the Insert Picture
command.
Now, I could use one of these other commands to insert charts, tables, or other objects,
or I could just start typing text in the placeholder.
But I want to insert a picture that I have stored on my computer into this slide so all
I need to do is click the Insert picture command in the placeholder.
If you are working with a slide that does not have a placeholder like this for a picture,
you can still insert one.
Just go to the Insert tab and select the Picture command in the Illustrations group.
The Insert picture dialog box appears and I just need to locate the picture I want to
use.
I remember saving it on my Desktop.
Here it is, Team Photo.
I'll just click the picture to select it, and then click Insert.
As you can see, the picture appears where the placeholder used to be.
Now, after I inserted the picture, a new tab is visible.
This is the Picture Tools Format tab.
This tab is only visible when the picture is selected.
This is PowerPoint's way of only giving us what we need, when we need it.
Before we talk about all the neat things you can do using the features on this tab, let's
resize and move the picture.
To resize an image, click a corner sizing handle, and while holding down the mouse button,
drag the image until it is the size that you want.
And then release the mouse button.
As long as you use one of the corner sizing handles, your picture will retain the same
proportions.
You probably will not want to use the side sizing handles, these change the picture's
size but don't keep the same proportions, so your picture may look a little funny if
you use these.
When you insert a picture into a placeholder, the picture shows up centered in the placeholder.
But, you can move it around if you want to.
Just click and hold the mouse button, and drag the picture to the desired location.
Now release the button.
I actually do like it centered, so I'll just undo that action.
Now, you may be wondering about the green circle.
This is the Free Rotate feature you can just click and hold the mouse button and rotate
the picture in various directions.
Text boxes, clip art, pictures, and shapes can all be moved and resized in this way.
Let's take a look at some of the formatting features on the Picture Tools Format tab.
You can do so many different things to format your pictures.
The 2007 Office suite includes these new picture styles that previous versions did not include.
I absolutely love these.
You can apply a style to your picture to give it a different look and really make it more
professional looking.
As we hover over each of the styles, you'll see a Live Preview of it in the presentation.
If you want to see other styles, click the More drop-down arrow.Here, I like this one.
Just click a style to select it.
You have the ability to modify the style using these three commands.
Let's take a look at this first command.Picture Shape.
Now you can see from the menu that there are many different shapes you can apply to your
picture.
To see how it will look, just click a shape to select it and your picture shape will change.
Some of these shapes are simple and some are kind of silly, like this sun.
And not all of them will look good or make sense for your presentation.
For example, my presentation is about team building for work, so this multiplication
sign wouldn't make much sense.
But, if I were a math teacher, some of the equation signs might look good in a presentation.
It's all about making choices that are right for your presentation.
I actually want to go back to my original shape and style.
You can also change the border color.
Just click the Picture Border command and hover your mouse over the color options to
see how the theme or standard color options will look.
If you see one that you like, just click it to select it.
There are a couple of other things you can do from this menu you can choose to not have
an outline around the picture, or you can choose More Outline Colors to open the Colors
dialog box and choose from even more color options.
You can also change the line Weight or make it a dashed line.
If you want to make the line thicker or thinner, select Weight and then hover over the line
options.
If you don't see what you want, you can choose More Lines to open a dialog box with even
more choices.