Chapter 12: Using and Organizing Clip Art

Clip art is pre-drawn art that comes with PowerPoint or that is available from other sources (such as through the Internet). There are thousands of images that you can use royalty-free in your work, without having to draw your own. For example, suppose you are creating a presentation about snow skiing equipment. Rather than hiring an artist to draw a picture of a skier, you can use one of PowerPoint's stock drawings of skiers and save yourself a bundle.

Being an owner of a Microsoft Office product entitles you to the use of the huge clip art collection that Microsoft maintains on its Web site, and if you are connected to the Internet while you are using PowerPoint, PowerPoint can automatically pull clips from that collection as easily as it can from your own hard drive. You can also use the Clip Organizer to catalog and organize artwork in a variety of other formats, including photos that you scan, photos that you take with your digital camera, and drawings and pictures that you acquire from the Internet and from other people.

In this chapter you learn how to select and insert clip art in your presentations, how to integrate photos and images from other sources into the Clip Organizer, and how to organize your clips for easy access.

Choosing Appropriate Clip Art

Don't just use any old image! You must never use clip art simply because you can; it must be a well-thought-out decision. Here are some reasons for using clip art, and ways to make it look good:

• If your message is very serious, or you are conveying bad news, don't use clip art. It looks frivolous in these situations.

• Use cartoonish images only if you specifically want to impart a lighthearted, fun feel to your presentation.

• The clip art included with Office has many styles of drawings, ranging from simple black-and-white shapes to very complex, shaded color drawings and photographs. Try to stick with one type of image rather than bouncing among several drawing styles.

• Use only one piece of clip art on each slide. Also, do not use clip art on every slide, or it becomes overpowering.

• Don't repeat the same clip art on more than one slide in the presentation unless you have a specific reason to do so.

• If you can't find clip art that is exactly right for the slide, then don't use any. It is better to have none than to have an inappropriate image.

• If clip art is important, and Office doesn't have what you want, you can buy more. Don't try to struggle along with the clips that come with Office if it isn't meeting your needs; impressive clip art collections are available at reasonable prices at your local computer store, as well as online.