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May 11, 2007
Manipulating More Than Words in Word
Dear Larry,
How do I insert and manipulate images in Word?
F. D.
Dear F. D.,
Before you insert a picture or graphic of any sort into a Word
document (or an e-mail for that matter), I recommend you first “resize” the
image. Resizing an image doesn’t mean you’re changing the physical dimensions of
the picture. On the contrary, when you resize an image, you simply end up with a
picture that takes up far less disk space. For example, a typical image from a
5-megapixel camera might occupy as much as 3 megabytes in size. Resizing the
same picture could result in a 150-kilobyte image, a 95% reduction.
Think about it. You’d probably be limited to attaching a
single unresized picture to an e-mail, whereas you could easily attach twenty
resized photos in its place. Similarly, inserting a half-dozen unresized images
into a Word document could catapult the file to an unwieldy 15-20 megabytes.
You’re almost always better off working with resized images in this case.
If you’re running Windows XP, the easiest way to resize an
image would be to use the free Microsoft PowerToy that can be downloaded from
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe.
If you’re a Windows Vista user, use the free VSO image resizer at
http://www.vso-software.fr/download_product_direct.php?product=vir. In both
cases, once you install the resizing program, you can right-click a picture file
and choose Resize Image. The result will be a copy of the photo that occupies
far less disk space. (I recommend you select the 1024x768 resizing option.)
Okay, so you’ve successfully resized your photo and are ready
to add it to your Word document. For Word versions 2003 and earlier, click
Insert, Picture, From File, then locate and select the photo or graphic you want
to insert. (In Word 2007, select the Insert ribbon, then click Picture.)
Once the picture is in your document, you may want to make it
bigger or smaller (now we’re talking inches, not megabytes). To do so,
left-click the picture. This will cause handles—little squares—to appear on all
four corners and edges of the image. Position your mouse over one of the corner
handles, then click and drag to alter the picture’s physical size. (If you click
and drag a handle on one of the edges, you’ll end up distorting the image.)
By default, when you insert an image into a Word document, it
is aligned “in line with text.” Chances are, you’d prefer that any text in your
document wraps all the way around the picture in much the same way that text
wraps around pictures in newspapers and magazines. To accomplish this,
right-click the picture in the document, then left-click Format Picture. Next,
click the Layout tab and choose Tight.
Once you’ve mastered these tasks, you might want to explore
additional imaging features in Word such as cropping and captioning. Enjoy!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
