Formatting pictures in PowerPoint 2016 allows you to enhance your presentations visually. With just a few clicks, you can crop, correct, recolor, and add artistic effects to images. Read on to learn my top tips for making your PowerPoint pictures pop!
Cropping Images
Cropping is one of the handiest formatting tools for pictures. It lets you:
- Focus on the most important part of a photo
- Remove distracting or unnecessary background details
- Customize the aspect ratio to fit your slide better
To crop a picture:
- Select the picture
- Go to the Picture Format tab
- Click Crop
- Adjust the cropping handles to frame the part of the image you want to keep
- Click outside the picture when finished
Cropping is non-destructive in PowerPoint – you can reset the crop at any time to restore the full image.
💡Pro Tip: Crop images before inserting them onto slides to save file space. Cropped areas add to file size even if they’re not visible!
Image Corrections
It’s common for pictures to be a little dark, blurry, or off-color. PowerPoint’s Corrections tools in the Adjust group let you fix issues like:
- Brightness
- Contrast
- Sharpness
- Color saturation
There are handy presets you can use, or manually adjust the settings. Sharpening a soft photo or increasing color saturation often makes a big difference.
Recolor and Artistic Effects
If you want to get creative with your images, explore the recolor and effects options!
To recolor a picture:
- Select the image
- Go to Recolor in the Adjust group
- Choose a preset color option
To add artistic effects:
- Select the picture
- Go to Artistic Effects in the Adjust group
- Browse the gallery and hover over effects to preview them
- Click an effect to apply it
From black and white to watercolor paint and colored pencil sketches – artistic effects open up interesting possibilities!
Compress Images
As you format pictures in PowerPoint, the file size grows. Compressing images reduces their resolution to make presentations smaller and easier to share.
To compress pictures:
- Select the images
- Go to the Format tab
- Click Compress Pictures
- Adjust settings as needed and click OK
Compress thoughtfully – overly compressed images may become pixelated or blurry. I suggest compressing a copy of your presentation rather than the original.
Reset Pictures
After cropping, correcting color, and applying artistic effects, you may decide you prefer the original image. No problem!
- Select the picture
- Go to the Adjust group
- Click Reset Picture
This restores the image to its original state, before any formatting changes.
Have fun exploring all the possibilities for formatting pictures in PowerPoint 2016! Taking a few minutes to crop, recolor, or sharpen images can really amplify your message and engage your audience.
