T Conrad replied:

Jan,

The powerpoint picture toolbar has some rudimentary photo/picture editing
tools. These tools are also available in Word. Crop, brighten, compress,
contrast, etc.

MS Office, has several distinctions between drawings and pictures. A picture
is a unified object that is in one of several image formats (.jpg,.png, ,bmp,
,tif). Pictures can be cropped, resized, brightened, etc., drawing objects
cannot be cropped... etc.

A drawing, i.e., is usually composed of a series of objects created using
MS-DRAW autoshapes (rectangels, lines, circles, freeform, etc.) The objects
may be grouped or ungrouped. When these objects are pasted into Word, the
default paste method is MS Office Draw objects. Generally, a drawing object
in Word behaves exactly like a drawing object in powerpoint. (Exception, if
your word options are set to use the drawing canvas, then the drawing objects
will insert to a drawing canvas. The canvas functions as a container for all
of the other drawing objects.)

To get a croppable drawing (image)
In powerpoint, select the drawing objects that make-up your picture. If you
want the whole slide select all. Group the objects into a single object.
You must paste the selection into word or powerpoint as an some form of
image (.jpg, png, enhanced metafile, .bmp), using the paste special command
(edit menu, paste special). When you paste the image the background may
change. If you did not have a colored background, then the total background
may change to black.

Since an image pasted into word requires alignment information, I personally
find it easier to perform a paste special into powerpoint, make my
adjustments to the picture, and then select, copy and paste the image into
word. Once the picture is in word, I then perform the necessary alignments,
sizing etc.

Tom C

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