Word supports several popular digital photo
formats, including TIF, JPG, PNG, and others. Most digital cameras and
scanners can save images in all these formats. Different formats
provide varying levels of image quality, so if you need a photo to be
of a specific quality, be sure to check its file format. If possible,
open the photo in a digital photo-editing program such as Photoshop or
Paint Shop Pro (or the software that came with your digital camera or
scanner) to check its quality before inserting it into your document.
In Word, inserting a photo is easy. When your photo
is in place, you can modify it in lots of different ways. The next few
pages show you how to add a photo to a document.
When you insert a picture into a document, Word
automatically places the picture at the insertion point’s location,
sticking it right in line with any text that might already be there. As
a result, your photo becomes an inline picture (or inline image).
That means the picture behaves like text, even though it’s something
else entirely. Inline pictures can be hard to deal with because they
can jump around, create a big gap in the middle of the text, and
generally just get in the way.
To cause the least disruption to your text, it may
be best to place an empty paragraph return where you want to insert the
picture.
Adding a Picture to a Document
The following steps show you how to insert a photo
from a file stored on one of your computer’s disks. You can locate and
choose a photo without leaving Word. Here’s what to do:
1. | Place the insertion point where you want to insert the picture.
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2. | On the Insert tab, click the Picture button. The Insert Picture dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 1. (This dialog box looks and functions just like Word’s Open dialog box.)
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3. | Navigate to the drive and folder that contain the picture; then select the picture.
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4. | Click Insert. Word places the picture in the document. When the picture is selected, the Picture Tools Format tab appears on the Ribbon.
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When Word inserts a picture, it maintains
the picture’s original size. Don’t be surprised if the picture is so
big that it overwhelms the rest of the document or so small that it
looks silly.
