Inserting Bitmap Images

Bitmap images are a type of graphic object you can use to enhance the visual power of slides. The procedures for obtaining and manipulating these images are sometimes a bit different than those for clip art.

Understanding Bitmap Images

Clip art images, like those described earlier in this chapter, are called vector graphics or vector images. For example, a straight line in a vector image consists of two points, or vectors. The computer generates the line between these two points, so regardless how you change the points, the line is always smooth and complete.

Bitmap images, on the other hand, require a bit, or dot, at each point along the way. It's as if the line were painted, and if you make it longer, the paint pulls apart. If you stretch a bitmap image, the image distorts because the computer doesn't know how to fill in the missing information. Such distortions are sometimes referred to as the "jaggies" because the image has jagged edges (see Figure 6.16).

Figure 6.16. Distorted (enlarged) bitmap images often have jagged edges.

Bitmap images (such as photographs or scanned images from books or other sources) usually appear more complete and more realistic that clip art images. Bitmap images are also much larger than vector images when saved to disk. Having many of them in a slide show can slow down the presentation. But the drawbacks of these larger images are usually outweighed by the detail and realism they provide.

Inserting Images from Files

Bitmap images are typically separate files you save on your hard drive. It helps to remember their filenames and where you saved them. You then can follow these steps to insert a bitmap image:

1. Choose Insert, Picture, From File. You can also click the Insert Picture button on the Drawing toolbar. PowerPoint displays the Insert Picture dialog box (see Figure 6.17), which is similar to the Open, Save, and other file management dialog boxes. When you're inserting an image, by default it starts in the My Pictures folder under My Documents.

   Figure 6.17. Insert bitmap images by inserting pictures from file.

   

2. Find the picture you want either in the selected folder or by browsing to the location where you saved the bitmap image.

3. Select the image and click Insert to place the image on the slide (see Figure 6.18).

Figure 6.18. Bitmap images can be sized and rotated by using the sizing and rotation handles.

Note that the image appears with sizing and rotation handles, just like other images and text objects. You can move, size, or rotate the bitmap image.

Acquiring Images

PowerPoint provides hundreds of clip art images but only a handful of bitmap images. However, for effective presentations, much of what you need will be in the form of bitmap images you acquire through other sources, such as by using a scanner, digital camera, the Internet, or screen shots.

Using a Scanner

A common source for bitmap images is a scanner. If you don't have ready access to a scanner, you might want to consider purchasing one. Even very inexpensive scanners are quite adequate for the kind of images you use in PowerPoint.

You can scan images separately, save them, and later insert them into PowerPoint, or you can scan images directly into PowerPoint. To scan an image directly into PowerPoint, follow these steps:

1. Choose Insert, Picture, From Scanner or Camera. PowerPoint displays the Insert Picture from Scanner or Camera dialog box (see Figure 6.19).

   Figure 6.19. You can use devices you have set up on your computer, such as scanners or cameras, to capture images directly into PowerPoint.

   

2. Select your scanner in the Device drop-down list box.

3. Choose the resolution quality you want. Web Quality is all that's required for PowerPoint presentations because both PowerPoint and Web sites seen in browsers use a computer's screen resolution, usually only about 72 dots per inch (dpi). Print Quality does not make images any better in PowerPoint, but it does increase the saved file size of a scanned image significantly.

4. To customize what gets scanned and inserted, click Custom Insert. If you just choose Insert, you get a default scan size and location that might not match exactly what you are trying to scan.

5. Windows starts your scanner software, which varies depending on your scanner and your computer setup. Even the most elementary programs, however, give you several options that might be valuable (see Figure 6.20, which shows a simple scanning program):

   Figure 6.20. This scanning program lets you customize the size and other qualities of a scan before inserting it into PowerPoint.

   

   • Color Usually you can choose whether to scan in color or grayscale (usually best for photos), or pure black and white (usually best for line art drawings).

   • Quality You might have to try various settings to determine which will give you the optimal crispness you want.

   • dpi dpi stands for dots-per-inch and refers to the number of dots you see onscreen. 72 100 dpi is entirely adequate for most screen presentations, whereas 300 dpi or better gives better print quality. Keep the dpi relatively low for screen or Web presentations.

   • Size This is one area that you really can use to your advantage. Because bitmap images tend to distort and have jagged edges when you enlarge them in PowerPoint, it's best to scan them at roughly the same size at which you want them to appear in a slide show. For example, if you scan a 1-inch by 1-inch photo and enlarge it to 4 inches by 4 inches in PowerPoint, it will look quite grainy and rough. If you scan it at 400% from your scanning software, the result will likely be much smoother.

   • Brightness/contrast Some software enables you to change brightness and contrast settings before you scan to give you a richer, clearer picture.

6. Choose Scan or whatever button finalizes a scan in your scanning software. The scanner does its work, and returns you to PowerPoint, inserting the resulting scanned image (see Figure 6.21).

   Figure 6.21. A scanned image can add realism and visual impact to a slide.

   

Note that although you can fiddle with scanning and touch-up options when you acquire an image, you'll always get the best results when the original is of high quality.

Using Images from a Digital Camera

Digital cameras are readily available and make it easy to acquire timely, relevant photos for up-to-the-minute slide shows. You can capture product images, photos of building progress, pictures of company staff, and more (see Figure 6.22).

Figure 6.22. Photos captured by a digital camera make it possible to prepare up-to-the-minute presentations.

Digital cameras typically come with software that enables you to save images directly to your computer's hard drive. After doing so, you follow the steps for inserting a picture from file, as noted in the "Inserting Images from Files" section, earlier in this chapter.

However, you can also insert images directly from your camera if you have the proper connections between your camera and your computer, as well as the software that enables you to do so. If this is set up properly, choose Insert, Picture, From

Scanner or Camera and in the resulting dialog box (refer to Figure 6.19), simply choose your camera from the Device drop-down list box. Then choose Custom Insert to select the picture you want.

Using Images from the Internet

Another rich resource for bitmap images is the World Wide Web. Although you have to take care to comply with copyright laws, you can find many Web sites that offer free images, including photos, clip art, and decorative lines, borders, and buttons.

To insert an image into a slide show from an Internet Web site, follow these steps:

1. Switch to your Internet browser and right-click the image you want to download.

2. From the context menu, in Netscape choose Save Image As, or in Internet Explorer choose Save Picture As.

3. Provide a name and location on your hard drive (for example, c:\My Pictures\webimage.jpg). Use the same filename extension as used on the Web site (for example, .gif or .jpg).

4. Click OK to save the image.

5. Switch back to PowerPoint and choose Insert, Picture, From File.

6. Browse to the location where you saved the image, select the image, and choose Insert.

Caution

Just because images can be downloaded from the Internet does not mean they are free. Copyright laws and restrictions apply to Internet graphics as they do to print graphics. If you aren't sure whether you can use a graphic image, you should ask the owner of the Web site that contains the image.

After PowerPoint inserts the image, you can select the image and move, size, or rotate it as you would any other PowerPoint object.

If you don't want to keep the image as a separate file, you can simply right-click the image in your browser, choose Copy from the context menu, and then switch back to PowerPoint and paste the image on a slide.

Capturing and Inserting Screen Shots

You'll find, sometimes, that you'd like to show images from your computer in a slide show. For example, if you're training others in a certain software program, you might want to display dialog boxes or other screen activity. Or if you're teaching students about a Web site but don't have an Internet connection (or have a very slow one), you might want to capture Web site screens as viewed in a browser.

To capture an entire screen and insert the screen shot in your slide show, follow these steps:

1. Get to the screen you want to capture (for example, a Web site in your browser).

2. Press the PrtSc (Print Screen) key on your keyboard. Windows copies an image of the entire screen to the Windows Clipboard.

3. Switch to the appropriate slide in your slide show and choose Edit, Paste to copy the screen shot to the slide (see Figure 6.23).

   Figure 6.23. Screen shots are easy-to-capture bitmap images.

   

4. Size the image so that it fills the entire screen.

When you play the slide show, it appears that you are showing the actual Web site. In fact, it's so realistic that you might find yourself trying to click buttons on the screen shot of your browser!

If you want to copy less than a full screen, you can copy only the active window (for example, a dialog box) by holding down the Alt key and pressing PrtSc.

Using the Picture Toolbar to Modify Bitmap Images

Earlier in this chapter, you learned how to use the Format Picture dialog box to modify clip art images. You can use the same methods to modify bitmap images as well.

However, you can also use the Picture toolbar to modify either clip art or bitmap images. To activate the Picture toolbar, simply right-click an image and from the context menu choose Show Picture Toolbar. You can also choose View, Toolbars and select the Picture Toolbar. PowerPoint displays the Picture toolbar (see Figure 6.24).

Figure 6.24. Use the Picture toolbar to quickly and easily modify both clip art and bitmap images.

From the toolbar, you can quickly access the same features you find in the Format Picture dialog box, but in some cases, the features are even easier to use. For example, cropping an image by using the Picture toolbar icon enables you to see what you're cropping. Hover the mouse pointer over each button to see what it's used for.

To close the Picture toolbar, simply click its Close button or right-click an image and from the context menu choose Hide Picture Toolbar.

Note

PowerPoint has several useful tools for making basic modifications to both clip art and bitmap images. However, if you're serious about fine-tuning bitmap images, especially photographs, you'll probably want to investigate using other programs outside of PowerPoint, such as Photoshop.