PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials

Find free photos

Photos make great backgrounds for slides, but you need to find the right ones. The secret to finding free photos is to know how to use Microsoft's tools effectively and where to look on the Web.

Find photos in PowerPoint

Many people don't know how to find photos in PowerPoint. In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, do the following:

1. On the Drawing toolbar, click the Insert Clip Art button or choose Insert Picture > Clip Art. The Clip Art task pane opens.
2. In the Search For text box, enter a keyword to search for. For example, enter sky.
3. Click the down arrow of the Search In drop-down list to specify where you want to look. You can leave Everywhere check box checked to look on your computer, in MS Office collections, and on Microsoft's Web site. (By including Web Collections, you'll also be searching Microsoft's Clip Art and Media site.
4. Click the down arrow of the Results Should Be drop-down list. Here's the secret. Uncheck everything except photographs.
5. Click Go and you'll get only sky photos.

Find public domain photos on the Web

You often see sites selling royalty-free photos, but you have to pay for them. That may be the way to go if you want the largest selection to choose from. But you can find lots of photos, especially beautiful nature photos, that are in the public domain. This means that you can use them for any purpose, private or commercial. You just can't copyright them, since they in the public domain.

One site with a great collection — and an excellent explanation of what public domain means and what to watch out for — is PD Photo.org. This site has gorgeous photos that you can use. Here's a beach picture:

The U.S. government has three sites with extensive collections of great photos:

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a great library of water photos. Here's an example:

You are supposed to give them credit as in, "Thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce." Of course, you don't want to do this on a photo that you use as a background for a slide, but you can do it on your last slide or in small print at the bottom of your first slide.

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pictures/Graphics site has lots of great photos and drawings. Here's an example:

The request a credit such as the following: Credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

• NASA has an extensive photo collection, but it's not very easy to search and many of the photos are taken for their technical characteristics, rather than their beauty. Nevertheless, you can find some great shots. The main site is at http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/.

Try their Earth from Space page. Here's the eye of Hurricane Ivan and a great photo of noctilucent clouds (they also explain what those are). They also want you to acknowledge NASA as the source (as I'm now doing).

Free photo sites

There are a number of other sites that offer free photos, with varying rules about how you can use them. Some are sites that let photographers contribute their own photos.

An excellent site is stock.xchng. This is a huge, well-trafficked site. You can upload your own photos, and find zillions that you can use. The site is easy to search, as well.

Another site is morgueFile. It offers free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.

Flickr, which you've probably heard of, is another site that lets people contribute their own images. Many are simply personal photos, but you can still find some good ones.

ImageAfter lets you search by category or color. These photos are free for most uses.

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