How to insert graphics into Word and PowerPoint
From Clip Art... and From File...
From Clip Art... (copyright-free clipart)
The quickest and easiest way to illustrate a story is to use the clip art that comes with your applications. They are copyright-free, small in size, editable, and easy to insert. Microsoft Office applications share clip art through the searchable Clip Art Gallery.
Clip Art Gallery links to Clip Art Online, Microsoft's enormous multimedia archives, using Internet Explorer. Users may search, select, and download any number of clip art files free of charge. In the latest version of Office 10 (Office XP), the Gallery's capabilities have been augmented to include user art and online art into searches. Users can add their own pictures and graphics files to the Gallery for easy searching and modify searches using check boxs.
Search Everywhere or be specificMicrosoft and many other applications come with their own clipart collection. By purchasing the program you have purchased the permission to use that clipart. Therefore, by using clipart you eliminate the need to include copyright information.
Two common sources for graphics: Clip Art... and From File...The Clip Art Search screen will look differently depending on your setup. If you look closely you will see that all Microsoft applications Mac and PC offer additional clip art online if you cannot find what you need in your own collection.
Word & PowerPoint XP
Clip Art Search Options Window in XP
Word & PowerPoint 2000
Clip Art search window in Word2000. You may search at the top, click on a category collection in the main window, or search online using the Clips Online icon at the topMacintosh Word and PowerPoint Version.X
Word v.x for Macintosh Clip Art Search Window looks similar to Word2000. Notice the Online... button, which takes you to Microsoft's online Clip Art galleryAs you import graphics, your should space them through your story in a balanced way, perhaps alternating from left to right. Pictures can be moved by dragging and dropping them, and they can be set to wrap around text by double-clicking on the image and selecting your wrap preferences and horizontal positioning. To see an example of a short story using nothing but non-copyrighted clipart, read the story of Ms. Brody's technology integration project.
It is likely you will be importing some or all pictures from your hard drive. Either you collected them from the Internet (use appropriate copyright information) or scanned them or used a digital camera. Pictures taken from the Internet are usually already at an appropriately small size for inserting into your story. If you created the picture yourself with a scanner or digital camera, your file size may be too large and your graphics files need to be resized first.
Examine file size by right-clicking by using My Computer using Detail view, or right-click on any picture file and select properties, or simply insert the file into your Word document. If, when you import the picture, it appears in your document as HUGE! then your file size is probably bigger than necessary and can be further reduced.
Consider resizing the picture (Sidebar) using a graphics editor. As a general rule, graphics for screen viewing should be no more bigger that 256 kb ( a quarter-megabyte), and are usually far smaller. For example, the screenshot of the Macintosh Clip Art Search Window above is only 75 kb.
File size and display size are separate. You can stretch or shrink any graphic regardless of its size. Once you are satisfied with your graphics' file sizes, you can alter their display size in the document by clicking and dragging a corner handle that appears when the graphic is selected.
Always resize using the corner handles. If you use the top or side handles, you may distort your picture's aspect ratio.
Resized correctly with corners Resized poorly from side, top, and bottom handles
Note: You cannot use animated graphics in Word. The moving clip art you often see on the Internet only moves when it is in an HTML Web page or displayed in a PowerPoint presentation.
An animated .GIF picture like this pencil sharpener will not move in Word. However, if you saved your Word document as a Web page when you were finished and viewed it with your browser, it would move.
