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Sizing and Cropping Photos
Here's something important to know: in and of itself, cropping and sizing a picture in PowerPoint does not reduce the overall size of the PowerPoint presentation file. When you insert a picture, PowerPoint stores the whole thing at its original size and continues to store it that way regardless of any manipulations you perform upon it within PowerPoint. That's why I have recommended throughout this chapter that you do any editing of the photo in a third-party image program, before you import it into PowerPoint.
There's a big "however," though, as of PowerPoint 2002. If you use the Compress Pictures option (from the Picture toolbar), it will discard any cropped portions of the images. That means that the file size will decrease with the cropping, and that you won't be able to reverse the cropping later.
Sizing a Photo
Sizing a photo is just like sizing any other object. Drag its selection handles. Drag a corner to maintain the aspect ratio, or drag a side to distort it. (Distorting a photo is seldom a good idea, though, unless you're after some weird funhouse effect.)
You can also specify an exact size for a photo the same as with drawn objects (see Chapter 7). Right-click the photo, choose Format Picture, and then specify a size on the Size tab, as shown in Figure 8-9.
Figure 8-9: Specify an exact size for the photo on the Size tab.
The most straightforward way to specify the size is in inches in the Height and Width boxes. These measurements correspond to the markers on the on-screen ruler in Normal view. The size of a slide varies depending on how you have it set up (by using File⇨Page Setup), but an average slide size is 10 inches wide by 7.5 inches tall. You can also size the photo using the Scale controls, in which you adjust the size based on a percentage of the original size.
| Note | The Scale is based on the original size, not on the current size. So, for example, if you set the Height and Width to 50%, close the dialog box, then reopen it, and set them each to 75%, the net result will be 75% of the original, not 75% of the 50%. You can override this by deselecting the Relative to original picture size checkbox, however (see Figure 8-9). |
If you are setting up a presentation for the primary purpose of showing full-screen graphics, you might want to use the Best scale for slide-show checkbox. This enables you to choose a screen resolution, such as 640 × 480 or 800 × 600, and size the pictures so that they will show to best advantage in that resolution. Choose the resolution that corresponds to the display setting on the PC on which you will show the presentation. To determine what the resolution is on a PC, right-click the Windows desktop, choose Properties, and then look on the Settings tab.
| Tip | When possible, develop your presentation at the same Windows screen resolution as the PC on which you will present the show. |
Cropping a Photo
Cropping is for those times when you want only a part of the image and not the whole thing. For example, you might have a great photo of a person or animal, but there is extraneous detail around it, as shown in Figure 8-10. You can crop out the important object in the image with the cropping tool.
Figure 8-10: This picture can benefit from cropping.
| Caution | Remember that cropping in PowerPoint does not reduce the file size, and does not really discard the cropped-out parts; it merely masks them (unless you use Compress Pictures). Therefore, if keeping the file size small is important, you'll want to crop the picture in an image-editing program rather than in PowerPoint. |
You can crop two sides at once by cropping at the corner of the image, or crop each side individually by cropping at the sides. To crop an image, do the following:
Select the image.
Click the Crop tool on the Picture toolbar. Your mouse pointer changes to a cropping tool (see Figure 8-10).
| Note | If the Picture toolbar does not automatically appear when you click the picture, choose View⇨Toolbars⇨Picture. Or, you can right-click the picture and choose Show Picture Toolbar from the shortcut menu. |
Position the pointer over a side handle of the image frame, on a side where you want to cut some of the image off.
Drag the handle inward toward the center of the image until only the part of the image on that side that you want to keep is in the dotted line.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each side. Then click the Cropping tool again, or press Esc to turn cropping off.
After cropping, move or resize the image as needed. Figure 8-11 shows the result of cropping the image from Figure 8-10.
Figure 8-11: The picture has been improved by cropping and then resizing it.
To undo a crop, reenter cropping mode by clicking the Cropping tool again and then drag the side(s) back outward again. Or, you can simply reset the photo, as described in the following section.
You can also crop "by the numbers" with the Crop settings in the Format Picture dialog box (on the Picture tab). In Figure 8-12, for example, the picture is being cropped at the Left by 0.7", top by 1.17", right by 0.52", and bottom by 0.03".
Figure 8-12: Pictures can be cropped by entering crop measurements on the Picture tab.
Resetting a Photo
Once the picture is in PowerPoint, any manipulations you do to it are strictly on the surface. It changes how the picture appears on the slide, but it doesn't change how next section).
Here are two ways to reset a picture:
Select the photo and then click the Reset Picture button on the Picture toolbar.
Double-click the picture-or right-click the picture and choose Format Picture-and then on the Picture tab, click the Reset button.
