How to Erase Part of a Picture in PowerPoint for Office 365

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PowerPoint allows you to easily edit the pictures in your presentations. One common editing task is erasing part of an image – for example, removing the background so you can overlay text or other images. Here’s a step-by-step guide to erasing part of a picture in PowerPoint for Office 365.

Select the Picture to Edit

  1. Open the PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide containing the picture you want to edit.
  2. Click the picture to select it. A border will appear around the image indicating it is selected.

Access the Picture Format Tools

  1. With the picture selected, the Picture Format tab will appear in the ribbon menu at the top of the screen. Click this tab.
  2. The Picture Format tab contains all the necessary tools for editing your image. These tools are grouped into sections like Adjust, Picture Styles, etc.

Remove the Background

  1. In the Adjust group, click the Remove Background button.
  2. PowerPoint will automatically detect and highlight the background area for removal. The background will be colored magenta.
  3. If PowerPoint did not properly detect the background, click the Mark Areas to Remove button in the Background Removal menu and use the drawing pencil to manually mark the background areas for removal.

Erase Foreground Elements

  1. To erase part of the foreground or subject of the photo:
    • Click the Mark Areas to Remove button
    • Use the drawing pencil to sketch over the parts of the image you want to erase. These areas will be colored magenta.
  2. To undo any markings, click the Delete Mark button and sketch over any incorrect magenta areas.
  3. When done, click Keep Changes to erase the marked areas.

Crop the Image

The Crop tool allows you to remove outer areas of an image to hone in on a particular region:

  1. In the Size group, click the Crop button.
  2. Click and drag the crop handles on the image borders to frame the part of the image you want to keep.
  3. Adjust and move the crop area as needed.
  4. Click outside the image or press Enter to finalize the crop.

Additional Touch Up

Use the other editing tools on the Picture Format tab to do additional image touch ups:

  • Color – Adjust image brightness, contrast, saturation
  • Artistic Effects – Apply filters like pencil sketch, grunge, etc.
  • Picture Effects – Add borders, reflections, and other effects
  • Picture Styles – Apply preset color and contrast variations

Experiment with these different tools to get the edited image looking just right!

Save the Edited Image

When you’ve finished editing, you can right click the image and choose Save as Picture to export the edited photo out of PowerPoint.

Or you can simply leave the image in place on the slide – the editing is automatically saved as part of the presentation file.

So that’s how you can easily erase parts of a picture using PowerPoint’s built-in image editing tools! With a bit of practice, you’ll be erasing backgrounds, cropping away unwanted areas, and enhancing your images in no time.

More Tips for Working with Images in PowerPoint

Here are some additional tips for working with pictures in your PowerPoint presentations:

Insert Pictures

  • From File: Click the Insert tab > Pictures to select an image file from your computer
  • From Online: Click Online Pictures on the Insert tab to search and download web images

Resize Images

  • Click and drag the sizing handles on the image corners or sides
  • Go to Picture Format > Size and enter exact dimensions

Image File Compression

To reduce file size:

  • Compress Pictures: Reduces resolution while maintaining image quality
  • Crop Out Unneeded Areas: Delete outer background areas
  • Change File Type To JPEG: JPEG uses compression which reduces file size

Image Transparency

To make the background transparent:

  • Select image
  • Go to Picture Format > Color > Set Transparent Color
  • Click on the image background color to set transparency

Create A Photo Collage

Insert multiple images onto a single slide, overlap them, rotate them, and resize them to create a photo collage. This works great for showcasing multiple products, group photos, etc.

Animate Images

You can add motion to images using PowerPoint’s animation effects:

  • Entrance Animations: Images slide in or fade onto the slide
  • Emphasis Animations: Images grow, shrink, spin, pulse, etc.
  • Exit Animations: Images exit the slide in various motions

Image Placeholders

Take advantage of PowerPoint slide layouts featuring dedicated image placeholder frames. This ensures your images retain their aspect ratio and optimal resolution when resizing.

So those are some additional tips and tricks for working with pictures in PowerPoint! With this comprehensive guide, you should now feel confident inserting, editing, formatting, and animating images in your presentations.

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