Background Transparancy for BMP Files Pasted into PowerPoint

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QQ30 - 13 Dec 2006 04:51 GMT

I'm currently using Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 SP3. Used Microsoft Paint 5.1
to disect .bmp files into pieces. Copied and pasted each piece into
PowerPoint. Used the Set Transparancy Color tool on the picture tool par to
make background of each image file transparent. Worked fine as long as I
save as PowerPoint files. Problems arose when I tried to save the file as
Web pages or convert it to flash format. All background transparent in
PowerPoint slides became opaque. Don't know what happened there. I'd love
to maintain the background transparancy when converting to Web pages or flash
files. Anyone has ideas? Help is greatly appreciated.

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Bill Dilworth - 13 Dec 2006 15:01 GMT

BMP image format does not support transparency, PowerPoint is adjusting one
color inside the BMP to be transparent. However, when viewing the HTML,
PowerPoint isn't involved so does not make this adjustment.

You might have a much easier time of it if you saved the images in PNG or
GIF formats (which do support transparency).

Also, I would suggest changing your method of insertion of the pictures. In
PowerPoint it is a good practice to always save the images to the hard
drive, then insert them via Insert => Pictures => From File. When copy &
pasting, PowerPoint sometimes brings over more than you intended and creates
an wanted OLE object.

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Bill Dilworth
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> I'm currently using Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 SP3. Used Microsoft Paint
> 5.1
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> flash
> files. Anyone has ideas? Help is greatly appreciated.

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Steve Rindsberg - 13 Dec 2006 15:58 GMT

> BMP image format does not support transparency, PowerPoint is adjusting one
> color inside the BMP to be transparent. However, when viewing the HTML,
> PowerPoint isn't involved so does not make this adjustment.

But that leaves us with a problem: when it creates HTML, PPT doesn't make BMP
files, and (at least in 2003) when I bring in a BMP and make it transparent,
PPT makes a GIF version of the image (with transparency set) and includes that
in the HTML file set.

2002 may behave differently but I don't believe so.

There may be differences between the two re what gets pasted from MS Paint by
default (embedded image as in 2003 or MSPaint OLE object). That might have
some bearing on it. For that and other reasons, definitely go with saving the
image to disk from Paint and using Insert, Picture, From File to add it to PPT.

>You might have a much easier time of it if you saved the images in PNG or
> GIF formats (which do support transparency).
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> pasting, PowerPoint sometimes brings over more than you intended and creates
> an wanted OLE object.

-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

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QQ30 - 14 Dec 2006 04:03 GMT

I tried PPT 2003 to convert files with bmp images, and it worked. 2003 does
behave differently than 2002 in some subtle ways.

Tried other approaches suggested here. All worked out fine.

Thanks a lot for the helpful suggestions.

QQ30

> > BMP image format does not support transparency, PowerPoint is adjusting one
> > color inside the BMP to be transparent. However, when viewing the HTML,
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> PPTools: www.pptools.com
> ================================================

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