Microsoft Office, especially PowerPoint and Word, have simple and easy ways to ‘jazz up’ a simple image, flag or logo with one of the many framing options.
Instead of just copying a graphic into a document or slide, try one of these variations. They retain the original image but give it a different look.
Note: some of our examples are corporate logos. They come with rules about how they are supposed to be used. Some of the things we’ll be doing break, or at least severely bend, those limitations.
Quick Styles
Picture Format | Picture Styles | Quick Styles are the easy way to apply a little touch to any picture or graphic. Live Preview is available, so just hover over each style to see how it looks in the slide or document.
Quick Styles are a mashup of various picture effects, some are intended to show off what Office can do more than be useful in docs or slides.
Some Quick Styles will crop the original image. That might be OK for some pictures but usually unacceptable for logos or flags.
Like other ‘quick’ and in-built options in Office, they tend to be overused, showing up over and over again in presentations and documents.
Let’s look at the more detailed framing options available which make your documents look professional and you an Office expert!
Picture Border
Picture Format | Picture Styles | Picture Border is a lot more than a simple line around the logo. Start by selecting a color.
Weight
Choose a thickness or weight of the line. Weight can be combined with the Sketched and Dashes options.
Sketched
Sketched is relatively new in Office 365. It adds some ‘wriggly’ border options.
Sketchy or wriggly lines in Icons and SVG graphics
Now … Sketchy Shapes the video!
Dashes
Short or Long dashes in various combinations.
Format Picture | Fill & Line
Open the Format Picture pane then Fill & Line to see all the border / framing options. Make sure you choose options under the ‘Line’ heading not the similar ‘Fill’ choices above it.
The pane shows options not on the menus like Transparency, Dash Type, Cap type and Join type.
Transparency
Transparency, as you’d expect, lets the border color fade into the document or slide background.
Two line borders aka Compound Type
Compound Type gives you choices for multi-line borders with thin and thick lines, inner or outer. Plus one triple-line option.
Corner Shape aka Join Type
Join Type defines the corner shape – Round, Bevel or Miter (Square).
Line ends aka Cap Type
For broken border e.g. dashes, join type controls the ends of each mark – Square, Round or Flat.
Gradient Line
Gradient line isn’t on the menu, it’s on the side-pane Format Picture | Fill & Line.
Choose Gradient Line for some two-tone effects. There are Preset Gradients plus individual options.
Two ways to add Gradient or Rainbow text or background effects in Word
Add the US Flag into Word, Excel or PowerPoint
Converting SVG into JPG, PNG or other raster image format
Change image color to a custom color in Office
Apple’s new image format HEIC and Microsoft Office
British Library images for your PowerPoint presentations
Unique image source for your PowerPoint or Word documents
Public Domain images from ‘The Met’.
