Cropping is a familiar photographic term that means cutting off an unwanted part of a picture. Cropping is also used when referring to graphic images. Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to crop images as desired using a simple dragging motion. This is an especially useful feature when you are working with existing graphics in a new or edited presentation. While you may want to use many of the existing graphic images, you may not need them in their entirety. Of course you could simply modify the existing graphics and reinsert them in the presentation. But what can you do when the original graphics are embedded (not linked) — and you don't have the source files? Fortunately, you can skip recreating the graphics and just crop them as desired.

To crop a graphic in PowerPoint

1. Open the desired PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide that contains the graphic to edit.



2. Enable the Picture toolbar. (On the View menu, select Toolbars > Picture).






3. Select the graphic to crop. After selecting a graphic, all tools on the Picture toolbar should appear "active" — not grayed out.






4. Click the Crop tool. This is the selected tool above. (Roll over tools and hold for a tool description to appear).



5. Position the Crop tool on one of the handles around the selected graphic — in the area you wish to crop. Slowly drag toward the center of the graphic. The dotted line shows what is cropped.



6. When you are finished, release the mouse button. The cropped graphic appears on the slide. If you make a mistake, simply select CTRL + Z to undo the crop.