Cropping a Picture

You can crop a picture to remove a portion of it. Cropping doesn't resize the image or change its proportions it just cuts off part of it as though you cut it out with scissors. You can't crop drawing objects or WordArt images.

Follow these steps to crop a picture:

1. Select your picture.

2. Click the Crop button on the Picture toolbar. (If you don't see the Picture toolbar, choose View, Toolbars, Picture, or right-click the picture and choose Show Picture Toolbar in the context menu.)

3. You will see a special cropping pointer, and the sizing handles around the image will be replaced with black cropping handles. Point to a cropping handle, start dragging, and release the mouse button when the desired portion is cropped out (see Figure 17.8). (If you want to crop one side only, drag a side cropping handle. To drag two sides at once, drag a corner cropping handle.)

   Figure 17.8. Drag a sizing handle with the cropping pointer to cut out a part of the image.

   

   

   If you want to crop equally on two opposite sides of a picture, hold the Ctrl key down as you drag the center sizing handle on either side. If you want to crop all four sides of a picture equally, hold down the Ctrl key as you drag one of the corner sizing handles.

   
   

4. Click the Crop button again to turn it off.

If you crop a picture and then change your mind, you can use the cropping pointer to "uncrop" the image (drag outward from the center of the picture) and Word will fill in the portion of the picture that you had cropped out.