With the picture still selected, access the Crop drop-down gallery and select the Aspect Ratio option to bring up a sub-gallery, as shown in Figure 5.

With this option you can crop the picture to a common aspect ratio (the ratio between picture width and picture height) so that it easily fits into a picture frame.

Learn more about this option in our Crop to Shape tutorial. Select the picture or pictures that you want to crop to a specific shape. When a picture is cropped to a specific shape, it automatically trims to fill the geometry of the shape and picture proportion is maintained. Enables you to crop the picture into a specific shape.

Once you are happy with what you have achieved, press the Enter key or double-click the picture to perform the crop.Then click and drag the picture contents to reposition as required.įigure 4: Picture being repositioned within the content placeholder To do that, place your cursor anywhere in the middle of the placeholder away from the edges so that your cursor changes to a four-headed arrow as shown in Figure 4, below. You can also move the picture within the placeholder area to show more important areas of the picture.To crop equally on all four sides at the same time, press and hold Ctrl key while you drag any corner handle inwards.įigure 3: Result of applying Crop option on a picture in a placeholder.To crop equally on two sides at the same time, press and hold Ctrl key while you drag the side handle on either side inwards.For example, if you want to crop from the right side, drag the right side handle. To crop one side of the picture, drag the side handle of that side inward.Typically, you will see four corner handles and four side handles. When you select this tool (which is equal to simply clicking the Crop button within the Size group), dark crop handles appear on the edge of the picture (or on the edge of the shape if you are cropping any picture used as a fill), as shown in Figure 3. This basic Crop tool is used to make a simple crop.Let us explore all the five Crop options and their capabilities: This opens the Crop drop-down gallery with five crop options, as you can see in Figure 2, above.They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options. These tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time.

Note: The Picture Tools Format tab is a Contextual tab. Activate this contextual tab by clicking on it, and click the down-arrow below the Crop button (highlighted in blue within Figure 2).įigure 2: Crop button within the Picture Tools Format tab Select the picture to display the Picture Tools Format tab (highlighted in red within Figure 2) of the Ribbon. We are assuming you already have a picture inserted on your slide, or a shape filled with a picture.The Crop tool lets you achieve these edits and more, and cropping works with both pictures that are inserted on slides, or with pictures that constitute a shape fill.įollow these steps to explore more in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows: Cropping the same picture in the sample on the right focuses attention solely on the starfish, and creates a more powerful visual.įigure 1: Picture cropped to focus attention on a particular element Cropping an area removes extraneous areas, and lets you add focus to the areas of the picture that are appropriate to the topic of your presentation.įor example the picture on the left side in Figure 1 below, shows starfish on a beach. In other words, you must ponder and decide whether you want to use PowerPoint's Crop options. Even if it is relevant, you should consider making it more pertinent by removing the areas that may be not required. After inserting a picture in your slide, you should first consider if the picture you have used complements the message of your presentation and slide.

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