Cropping and Resizing a Picture

You can crop clip art to isolate just one portion of the picture. Because clip art uses vector image technology, you can crop, or cut out, even the smallest part of it and then enlarge it, and the clip art will still be recognizable. You can also crop bitmapped pictures, but if you enlarge the area you cropped, you lose picture detail. You can crop an image by hand using the Crop button on the Picture toolbar. You can also crop or scale a picture using the Format Picture dialog box, which gives you precise control over the dimensions of the area you want to modify.

Crop a Picture Quickly

Click the picture you want to crop.

Click the Crop button on the Picture toolbar.

Drag the sizing handles until the borders surround the area you want to crop.

Click outside the image when you are finished.

Redisplay a Cropped Picture

Click the picture you want to restore.

Click the Crop button on the Picture toolbar.

Drag the sizing handles to reveal the areas that were originally cropped.

Click outside the image when you are finished.

Crop a Picture Precisely

Right-click the picture you want to crop, and then click Format Picture.

Click the Picture tab.

Adjust the values in the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom boxes to crop the image to the exact dimensions you want.

Click OK.

See Also

See " Rotating and Flipping an Object " on page 234 for information on rotating and flipping a picture.

Scale a Picture

Right-click the picture you want to scale, and then click Format Picture.

Click the Size tab.

Adjust the values in the Height and Width boxes to scale the image to the dimensions you want.

To keep the proportions equal, select the Lock Aspect Ratio and Relative To Original Picture Size check boxes.

Click OK.

Did You Know?

You can use the mouse and Shift key to scale a picture . Press and hold Shift, and then drag a resize handle.