The right image can add impact to that big presentation, an important report, or even an e-mail message that needs to make a statement. But, if you are not a photography expert, do you really have the time to find, edit, and manage the pictures you would like to use?
You might be surprised at how fast and easy it can be.
This article will show you timesaving tips for accessing, editing, and using pictures throughout the work you do every day. We’ll look at features in Microsoft Windows XP, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office 2003 that can help you make quick work of whatever image you want to project.
Perhaps the perfect picture you want for your report is on the Web or in your digital camera. Maybe the picture you need is not yet a picture at all. Regardless, getting just about any picture onto your computer can be incredibly fast and simple to do.
Here are four quick and easy options for accessing the picture you need:
1.
Save pictures from the Web. To save a picture from a Web page to your computer, just right-click. When you right-click a picture on a Web page in Internet Explorer, you get the options to save, e-mail, or even print the picture, as shown below.
When you click Save Picture As, a dialog box opens where you can browse to a location on your computer and save the picture.
Note Before using an image from any Web page, particularly for commercial purposes, it is always a good idea to be sure you have permission to use the image. Keep in mind that many photos you see on the Web may be protected by copyright, whether or not a copyright notice appears on the page.
This shortcut menu appears when you right-click a picture on a Web page in Internet Explorer.
2.
Save pictures from your camera. Need to get pictures from a digital camera onto a computer that does not have the camera software installed? When you connect most digital cameras to a computer running Windows XP, you automatically get the option to open the Scanner and Camera Wizard, which can help you download and name your files in no time. Get the steps for downloading pictures from your digital camera or learn more about digital photography.
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Take a picture of your screen using just your keyboard. Have you ever wanted to share something on your screen with a colleague or include it in a document? Just press the PRINT SCREEN key on your keyboard (that key is often abbreviated to Prnt Scr or something similar) to copy the entire screen. You can then open a file in the program of your choice (such as a Microsoft Office Excel or Microsoft Office Word) and press CTRL+V (or on the Edit menu click Paste) to paste the image.
Tip To take a picture of just the top window open on your screen (such as an open dialog box), hold the ALT key while pressing the PRINT SCREEN key.
4.
Select a picture from Office Online Clip Art. There are over 140,000 pieces of free Clip Art and other media available at Office Online. Clip Art pictures include a wide range of photos and drawings that you can browse by category or search for by keyword. Browse and download Clip Art images or learn how to customize Clip Art images later in this article.
5.
Take a picture of almost anything on your screen with Microsoft Office OneNote. When you want to take a picture of a specific part of your screen, such as a quote or an article you find on the Web, use the Create Screen Clipping feature in OneNote to give you more flexibility than the Print Screen tool discussed above. When you take a screen clipping with OneNote, you automatically save a copy of the picture to OneNote and add it to your Clipboard at the same time, so that you can paste that image wherever you need it.
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To create a screen clipping, first right-click the OneNote icon in the system tray and then click Create Screen Clipping, as shown here.
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Then, as you see below, drag to highlight the portion of the screen you want to save as a picture. When you are happy with the highlighted portion, just click the mouse to take the picture.
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Once you take the picture, it will appear on a OneNote page along with a time stamp showing when the picture was taken. And, if you took the picture from a Web site, the time stamp will also include a hyperlink to that page.
However, taking the picture also copies the picture to the Clipboard. So, after you take the screen clipping, you can open another program, such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Word, or Excel, and just press CTRL+V to paste the picture into your document. Get more information on capturing screen images with OneNote.
Tip After you take a screen clipping with OneNote or using your keyboard, you can save it as its own file by pasting the clipping into Microsoft Paint. To do this, on the Start menu point to All Programs, then to Accessories, and then click Paint. After Paint opens, press CTRL+V to paste your image into a new paint file, which you can then save as needed.
The right picture can help emphasize an important point, or make it easier to brainstorm with colleagues. Sometimes, the perfect picture can even make your day a little better.
Check out some fast and effective ways to include pictures in many aspects of your work:
1.
Add a picture to your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file. Once you save a picture to your computer, there are two easy options for getting it into your document perfectly every time.
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Click the Insert Picture icon shown below on the Drawing toolbar in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint to browse to and select the picture you want to add to your file. The option to insert a picture from a file is also available on the Insert menu in each program.
Note The Drawing toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint by default. If you do not see this toolbar, on the View menu point to Toolbars, and then click Drawing.
You can use the Insert Picture icon on the Drawing toolbar in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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If you copy a picture or other graphic from another program or file, you can paste it into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint instead of inserting it. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special to open a dialog box similar to the one you see here. Then, select from available picture formats to find the best resolution for your image.
When you use the Paste Special dialog box to paste an image into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, the picture types available will depend upon the type of graphic you copied.
Tip When using Paste Special to paste a graphic that originated in one Office program into another Office program (such as copying an Excel chart to Word or PowerPoint), the picture type Picture (Enhanced Metafile) will usually provide the best quality image for the smallest file size.
Insert a document into OneNote as a picture. Instead of printing a document before your meeting in order to take notes on it, insert a copy of the document into OneNote as a picture and you can take notes directly on the face of the document without it ever leaving your computer. Learn about inserting documents into OneNote as pictures.
You may not be a photography expert or have any experience editing photos at all, but you can still edit pictures in Microsoft Office to get exactly what you want every time.
Here are three easy and powerful methods for customizing pictures in Office:
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Use Picture Manager to crop, resize, recolor, and otherwise tweak your picture to perfection. Picture Manager is one of the tools available with Microsoft Office. You can use Picture Manager to edit pictures, export them to different picture file formats for use in other programs, or just to organize and access all of your pictures more easily. To find Picture Manager, click the Windows Start button, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Office, and then point to Microsoft Office Tools. Learn about working with pictures in Picture Manager.
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Use the Picture toolbar in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Publisher for fast and flexible image editing. Once you insert or paste a picture into an Office document, you might be surprised at how much customization you can do. The Picture toolbar will usually open automatically when you select a picture. If it does not, right-click the picture, and select Show Picture Toolbar.
All of the tools pointed out on the Picture toolbar shown here are available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Publisher. The Picture toolbars in some of these programs contain additional options as well.
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Ungroup Clip Art drawings to create your own custom image. Instead of starting from scratch when you need to create a custom graphic, save time by customizing Clip Art. Most Clip Art drawings can be ungrouped in PowerPoint, so that you can extract and customize just the elements you need, such as in the logo example shown here. Get help on ungrouping and editing Clip Art.
Ungroup a Clip Art drawing and extract just the pieces you need for creating your perfect image.
Stephanie Krieger
Stephanie Krieger is a Microsoft Office System MVP as well as author of the books Advanced Microsoft Office Documents 2007 Edition Inside Out (February 2007) and Microsoft Office Document Designer. As a professional document consultant, she has helped many global companies develop enterprise solutions for Microsoft Office and taught numerous professionals to build great documents by understanding how the Office programs “think.” Stephanie writes regularly for several Microsoft Web pages and frequently delivers Microsoft webcasts. Visit her blog, arouet.net, for Microsoft Office tips as well as information about new and upcoming publications and webcasts.
