PowerPoint – decomposing Clip Art

In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can add Clip Art to your presentation, by going to the “Insert” menu.  Some clip art is Windows Metafiles (.wmf) files.  The .wmf files are the cartoon-like images.

The nice thing about .wmf files is that you can decompose them into editable parts.  Let’s say you have an image of a woman with a briefcase, and you want to remove the briefcase from the picture.  It is very simple to do this.  Simply add the .wmf file to your slide.  Right click on the image, and go to Group > Ungroup.  PowerPoint will display the following message:  “This is an imported picture, not a group.  Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office Drawing Object?”  Click Yes.  Once again, right click on the image, and go to Group > Ungroup.  Simply click on the components you wish to delete and delete them.

When you are done editing the image, select all the components of the image, right-click and select Group > Group.  You have just edited a Windows Metafile!

PowerPoint: Designing Buttons for the web

PowerPoint is becoming so powerful.  A lot of the functions that before you could only do in Photoshop, now you can do in PowerPoint.  You can make buttons in PowerPoint that will look great on your webpage.

• On the main menu, click Insert > Shapes and find the rounded rectangle.  Place that in your slide.
• Right click on the button and select “Edit Text.”  Add text to the button.
• Choose a gradient.  Left click on the button and select the format tab.  Under “Shape Fill,” choose “Gradient” and choose the gradient you like.
• When the button is ready for your webpage, right click on the button and select “Save as Picture.”  Make sure to save the graphic as a png.  This way, the rounded corners will be transparent.

Button made in PowerPoint

This is an easy way to make an attractive button for your web page.  You do not need to learn Photoshop or Fireworks to make an attractive button for your web page.  Nowadays, you can use PowerPoint as your graphics editor.