Ungroup a picture

[Guest]

I am trying to edit an imported picture in Powerpoint XP. When I try to ungroup the picture I get the message "This is an imported picture, not a group. Do you want to convert it to a Mircosoft Office Drawing Group?" I click yes and nothing. The picture is still grouped together. It appears that I can still ungroup it, but the same message comes across. The picture does not ungroup. Any ideas......help!!

 

[Kathryn Jacobs]

Rich,
In the situations where you are going to get that message, the first ungroup
does the conversion to a grouped object. Second and further ungroups change
the grouping with in the object. If you really want to be able to work with
the pieces, you need to ungroup it at least twice and in many cases as many
as four or five times.

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Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
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[Kathryn Jacobs]

Rich,
Silly question, I know, but are you answering the question with a yes?
Assuming you are, I would like to see the slide and graphic. If it isn't
proprietary, could you send me a one slide presentation with the offending
item? I'll investigate from here and see what I can find.

(DO NOT post the attachment here! Send it to the address on this post,
without the not, or the address on PowerPointAnswers.com.)
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Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
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Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Echo S]

Kathyrn,
I tried to ungroup it at least 10 times. No go. The object still will
not ungroup. Continue to get the message. "This is an imported picture,
not a group. Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing
object?"

What kind of graphic is it, and what version of PPT are you using?

 

[Michael Koerner]

Using Windows Explorer, what is the extension for the graphic image? If you do
not have file Extensions turned on. Still within Explorer, right click on the
file and then select properties. Come back with the information you find.

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Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


Hi
Unfortunately I do not know what type of graphic it is. It is one which has
been used, reused, etc... I am using PPT XP.

 

[christinaworks]

did you try to convert it?
Sometimes a vector graphic will convert into it's pieces and be editable
just like a collection of objects. Be aware tho, that if there are gradient
colors that each color change in your gradient will come out as a separate
piece.

christinaworks

 

[Guest]

Hello al
Thanks for the comments. However, after some looking into this 'unknown' picture I have found out the following: The 'picture was taken using a feature of the software we use in the instruments we sell. The software allows the user to take a snapshot of what they see on the screen. This snapshot then goes immediately into the clipboard. If the user does not save the picture (in the clipboard - which they didn't in this and many cases) it gets pasted into their presentation (PPT or Word). Seems like there is no way to ungroup or edit something which has no extension. It can not be converted either since there is nothing to convert it from........

 

[Kathryn Jacobs]

While this makes sense, it doesn't make your life any easier does it? All
is not lost though. Do you have a graphics editing tool? If so, can you copy
the graphic from the slide, paste it into the graphics tool, save it, and
then mess with color and font replacement to make your changes?

While this method can be an absolute bear to work through, I have done it
with PaintShopPro. (I know that it is able to be done with other drawing/
graphics tools as well.

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PPT MVP
If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, and whatever else there is time for
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am trying to edit an imported picture in Powerpoint XP. When I try to ungroup

the picture I get the message "This is an imported picture, not a group. Do you
want to convert it to a Mircosoft Office Drawing Group?" I click yes and nothing.
The picture is still grouped together. It appears that I can still ungroup it,
but the same message comes across. The picture does not ungroup. Any
ideas......help!!

Some pictures are nothing but bitmaps and can't be ungrouped.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

OK, what you have is a screenshot, a collection of dots that happens to *look*
like text and other stuff, but it's not ungroupable.

You can select it and copy it, the paste into MS PhotoEditor and save to PNG or
the like to get a file of the original image that you can work with in a photo
editing program. Or Photo Editor itself, if you like.

 

[Echo S]

OK, what you have is a screenshot, a collection of dots that happens to *look*
like text and other stuff, but it's not ungroupable.

You can select it and copy it, the paste into MS PhotoEditor and save to PNG or
the like to get a file of the original image that you can work with in a photo
editing program. Or Photo Editor itself, if you like.

Or, in some versions of PPT, you can right-click and Save As Picture.
This is an option in PPT 2002 (aka XP), which is what Rich is using
IIRC.

 

[Glen Millar]

Hi,

I have seen this before. The option to ungroup an image is available, and
PowerPoint pretends to ungroup, but it refuses to ungroup further. I wish I
could remember what type of image it was.

--
Regards,

Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP
http://www.powerpointworkbench.com/
Please tell us your ppt version, and get back to us here
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[Steve Rindsberg]

Or, in some versions of PPT, you can right-click and Save As Picture.

This is an option in PPT 2002 (aka XP), which is what Rich is using
IIRC.

Ah, right, thanks. Around here, LCD isn't the screen, it's an acronym for
Lowest Common Denominator. Working motto. <g>

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have seen this before. The option to ungroup an image is available, and

PowerPoint pretends to ungroup, but it refuses to ungroup further. I wish I
could remember what type of image it was.

Sometimes you get this or similar weirdness with EPS graphics, especially
those from Macs.

 

[Glen Millar]

Steve,

It may have been an eps out of Deltagraph.

--
Regards,

Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP
http://www.powerpointworkbench.com/
Please tell us your ppt version, and get back to us here
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Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,

It may have been an eps out of Deltagraph.

EPS in general don't ungroup the way you'd expect them to. This isn't a fault
of PPT or of EPS, just a natural consequence of the way that EPS are
constructed.

An ordinary vector graphics file is like something constructed out of
tinker-toys. You can disassemble it, change it, move the parts around, etc.

An EPS is more like a book about building the same graphic with tinker-toys.

It's got a picture on the cover (the EPS Preview or Header image) and inside, a
bunch of instructions for building the graphic (in Printer, not English). All
PPT can do is ungroup it into the cover image (usually pretty low rez) and the
instrux, which it doesn't understand, so it either throws 'em away or (in older
versions of PPT) leaves them hanging around as an invisible mystery object.