The greeting card I'm working on is almost done. I've typed up everything I want to include
on the front, and on the inside. The only thing missing? Pictures!
Adding pictures to your publication is a great way to make it more effective and more visually
appealing. It all starts with the Insert tab.
In this example, I already know which picture I want to use here. It's a photo that I have
saved to my computer. That means we can click the Picture command, navigate to where it's
being kept, then click the button to insertit.
There are lots of things you can do to enhance your pictures in Publisher. First, I'm going
to make this one a little smaller using the sizing handles here, or in the corners - all
you have to do is click and drag. Then we'll move the photo roughly into place - again,
by clicking and dragging your mouse.
Now we can start formatting the picture so it fits the style of the card. For that, you'll
find everything you need on the Picture Tools Format tab, which appears any time you have
a picture selected.
One of the quickest ways to enhance your publication is to apply a picture style. This works especially
well with photos. As you can see from the preview, there are several different shapes
and styles to choose from. Each one gives your picture a different look.
Next, we're going to crop the photo to eliminate some of this negative space on the right.
Just click the Crop command, then click and drag the cropping handles until you're satisfied
with the result. This can be done with any type of picture, whether it's formatted like
this one, or not at all.
Now I'm going to reposition my picture one last time before we add a caption to it.
This feature is popular in publications like brochures with product descriptions, and newsletter
articles. I'm looking for something very simple that I can center right below the photo. There
- that looks nice.
Now we can turn our attention to the inside of the card. We'll also go back to the Insert
tab. I don't have an image for this part of my publication, but I'll bet we can find something
in clip art. Publisher's clip art gallery is full of pictures, graphics, and other media
that you can search using keywords. Just enter your search term in the box, then click Go.
Let's see. This one looks good. To add it to my publication, I'm going to click the
thumbnail then close this window so we can take a good look.
See what happened to the text when I inserted the picture? This can happen any time you
have an object positioned near a text box. To fix that, we'll need to change the picture's
text wrap settings. Just make sure it's selected, then go back to the Format tab. Now click
Wrap Text, and this, we'll choose None.
Finally, one of the most basic edits you can make to a picture is modifying its brightness
or contrast, here in the Adjust group. Although these tools are separated into two different
commands, I find they work best when you use them together. Here's how it works.
Click Brightness to increase or decrease how dark the picture is. We'll increase this one
by just 10%.
Click Contrast to either increase or decrease the contrast.
You can also change the color of the picture to better fit your publication. Just click
Recolor, then choose from black & white, sepia tone, or one of the options that incorporates
your color scheme. On second thought, I'm happy with mine the way it is.
If you ever change your mind about any of the formatting choices you've made - whether
it's the color, or the picture style - you can always change back to the original, using
the Reset Picture command.
But, like I said, I'm happy with what we've put together. I think the right imagery can
really help you communicate your message, whether you choose to use clip art, other
graphics, or your own photos. Publisher gives you so many options.