PowerPoint picture cropping

[Guest]

Once I select a picture in PowerPoint, the crop symbol won't activate. This
applies to only some of the pictures in the presentation.

 

[Guest]

You don't mention what version of PPT you are using. If some of your images
were inserted by using the PhotoAlbum in 2002 or later, they are inserted as
the background of an autoshape - and the crop tool can't be used.

Post back here if this does not clear up your mystery.

Martha

 

[Bill Dilworth]

You can crop pictures that are pictures, but not pictures that are the
background of shapes.

How were the images inserted into the presentation?

--

Bill Dilworth
Microsoft PPT MVP Team
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answer most of our questions, before com
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Change org to com to defuse anti-spam,
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..
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[S Simmons]

Cate,
Check to make sure your picture is not grouped with another picture. If so,
ungroup the pictures, deselect, and then reselect the image you want to
crop.
Sharon

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Once I select a picture in PowerPoint, the crop symbol won't activate. This
applies to only some of the pictures in the presentation.

Pictures can be bitmap or vector graphics (ie, pictures made up of lots of dots
or pictures made up of lines, rectangles, circles, text and such).

You can only crop bitmap graphics.

Quick test: rightclick the picture and see if Grouping, Ungroup is grayed out
or not. If it's not grayed out, it's a vector graphics picture and can't be
cropped.

You can ungroup it and edit the component parts, then regroup them or (possibly
simpler) choose Edit, Copy then choose Edit, Paste Special and pick PNG as the
type.

That'll give you a bitmap graphics version you can crop.

 

[Adam Crowley]

Pictures can be bitmap or vector graphics (ie, pictures made up of lots of dots
or pictures made up of lines, rectangles, circles, text and such).

You can only crop bitmap graphics.

I'm veering away from the point a little here but I can crop imported vector
files until I ungroup them/convert them to a MS Office drawing object.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'm veering away from the point a little here but I can crop imported vector
files until I ungroup them/convert them to a MS Office drawing object.

Not away from the point at all.

Razzlefrazzleframmelgrampuadflkj ....

So you can. Can't count on ANYTHING anymore.

It does some odd things with the size of the group you get afterwards too,
doesn't it? That is, crop the vector graphic, ungroup and get a group that
thinks it's the size of the cropped graphic though the full thing appears.

In 2003, anyhow. In 2000 it works a bit differently yet.

Anyhow, thanks for the correction.

 

[Adam Crowley]

It does some odd things with the size of the group you get afterwards too,
doesn't it? That is, crop the vector graphic, ungroup and get a group that
thinks it's the size of the cropped graphic though the full thing appears.

In 2003, anyhow. In 2000 it works a bit differently yet.

In 2002/3 it seems that imported vectors contain a transparent box that acts
as a mask, which appears (if transparent objects can do that) when you
ungroup it. By default it's the full size of the image, so it doesn't mask
anything, but if you crop it and then ungroup it the size of the transparent
box is the size of the crop. Maybe. In 2000 (and presumably before that)
you just lose the cropping info.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

In 2002/3 it seems that imported vectors contain a transparent box that acts
as a mask, which appears (if transparent objects can do that) when you
ungroup it. By default it's the full size of the image, so it doesn't mask
anything, but if you crop it and then ungroup it the size of the transparent
box is the size of the crop. Maybe. In 2000 (and presumably before that)
you just lose the cropping info.

That fits with what I'm seeing, ayup.

 

[Guest]

Problem resolved!! Discovered the pix were TIF format. I resaved as jpegs,
imported to the PP Presentation and the crop tool worked! Thanks to everyone
who replied.

 

[Guest]

Glad your problem was solved, but I sure don't understand why. I am able to
crop tif images in PowerPoint, so the fact they were tifs can't be the cause
of your problem.