A reader wrote:
“Love your web site! I found it during a Google search for help and I hope you can solve my problem. How can I insert a large number of photos into an EXISTING PowerPoint 2003 presentation? I started a new Photo album and now I want to add about 50 more photos but NOT one at a time! Is there a way I can insert multiple photos an easier way? I tried clicking the new photo album tag but that just started another presentation which I did not want. I am sure there is a way if only I can find it – please say you have the answer! I also have PowerPoint 2010 if I can insert the images using that version but I find 2003 easier. Keep up the good work, Ellen, we need helpful experts like you.”
With a request like that, I have to answer!
Creating a photo album
The Photo Album feature lets you insert multiple images at once. It’s true that it always creates a new presentation and I don’t know why that is. But it’s SO easy to move those new slides to your original presentation.
Let’s start with the steps to create a photo album:
Choose Insert, Photo Album, New Photo Album. (In PowerPoint 2003, choose Insert, Picture, New Photo Album.) You see the Photo Album dialog box.- Click the File/Disk button to choose the images that you want to insert. Navigate to the folder that contains the images. To insert many at once, click the first image file and scroll to the last image. Press the Shift key and click the last image. This selects all of the images between the first and last that you clicked. To select multiple specific images but not all of them, click the first image and then press the Ctrl key as you click another image; continue until you have selected all of the images you want.
- Click the Insert button. Note: At this point, you can repeat the previous step and add images from a different folder.
- In the Album Layout section, choose a layout from the Picture Layout drop-down list. Fit to slide will do its best to cover the entire slide, but without distorting the image.. You can also put 2 or 4 images on a slide and you can add space for a title.
- If you choose any layout except Fit to Slide, you have an option for a frame shape. such as a rounded rectangle. Choose the option you want from the Frame Shape drop-down list.
- Click Create. PowerPoint creates a new presentation file with your images formatted as you specified. For some reason the slide background is black, at least in PowerPoint 2013, where I’m testing these steps. To change the background color, select all of the slides in the left-hand pane. (Use the same Shift key method I explained above.) Then right-click one of the selected slides and choose Format Background. Choose the color you want from the Color drop-down list.
If you want to save this new presentation, do so now. However, if you just want to copy the slides to an existing presentation, you don’t need to save the photo album.
Copying the slides to an existing presentation
But suppose that you want (as the reader does) to add these slides to an existing presentation? Here are the steps:
- In the left-hand pane, select the slides. The first slide is a simple slide that says “Photo Album.” You probably don’t want that slide, so just select the rest of the slides.
- Copy to the Clipboard. You can press Ctrl + C or right-click a slide and choose Copy.
Open or display the existing presentation.- In the left-hand pane, click where you want the new slides to go.
- Paste from the Clipboard. You can press Ctrl + V or right-click and choose Paste.
- Notice the Paste Options icon at the bottom of the pasted slides. (See the red arrow to the right.) You can click its down arrow to display options. These look somewhat different in different versions of PowerPoint, but they allow you to use the destination theme / formatting (the default, so that all of the slides look like they belong in the same presentation), use source formatting, or paste an image of the slide. If you want to change the default option, choose it from the list.
You may have to do some manual formatting on each slide, but this method will certainly save you time compared to inserting images slide by slide by slide!
Do you sometimes need to import a number of images into an existing presentation? Have you used the Photo Album feature? Leave a comment and share your experience and techniques!
Head slap!! Do I ever wish I had known about the photo album feature a long time ago.
Can’t tell you how much time I have spent uploading individual photos.
Thank you for this tip, Ellen.
Dona, Glad to help! I know, when you don’t know that a feature exists, it’s hard to look for it. I suppose that a good rule of thumb is that if you’re spending a huge amount of time doing something, there’s probably a quicker way.
As the reader seems to have a photo album then with it open you can add to it by editing the photo album. It’s on the same insert photo album menu but you need to click on the downward arrow and select Edit photo album. Then you can add the images and click update.
There are so many time-savers built in to PPT. Too bad I don’t more time to look for them, but am I glad you are willing to share them.
Ellen, you are a lifesaver!
I made the extra photos into a simple 2003 PowerPoint, copied them, then pasted them into the Photo Album thus completing my presentation. I did the same with 2010 version and it also works.
Many, many thanks,
Beryl
how many pictures can I put in power point >> I’m looking at 3200 with music
I don’t know if PowerPoint has an absolute limit, but mostly it will depend on the memory of your computer and your video card/driver. 3200 sounds like trouble to me. You might want to divide it up into multiple presentations and link from one to the other.
Here’s one way to do that: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/link-to-other-presentations-and-return-to-the-original-presentation/.
Here’s another technique that would make this more seamless: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/how-to-use-your-remote-to-switch-to-another-presentation-in-powerpoint-2007-2010/
Here are some ideas for reducing the size of a presentation: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/reduce-the-size-of-your-presentation-files/
I made a template to fit what I’m importing. I made it portrait. PowerPoint made them landscape. how do i make it stay portrait?
hi I know that this is a bit old BUT I want to import from an album as a background in an existing pres with slide text and speaker notes all in place – the pictures go with each slide in order – this method inserts and moves all existing slides to the end of the inserts – is there a way?
cheers
Dan
Hi, I just found you while looking how to import multiple background images into an already written presentation. Look forward to reading more of your tips as they really look like life and time savers. I have a lot of pictures that I would like to use as back ground on different slides.. any tips already written. Thanks in advance. Debbie
Hi, thanks so much for this, spent hours trying to import a set of pictures as a part of an existing PP. So, now I have my nine new slides with their pictures, can I layer them? So that I Have one page that people can click into if they want to see all the photos?
I have the same question as Dan from 2017. Is there any way to accomplish this? I know how to insert a photo album and how to insert text from an outline, but is there a way to do both in the same presentation?
I’m trying to work on a 500 slide presentation, and I really don’t want to have to edit them all by hand.
Thanks!
I have a question. I don’t know if this is the right place but here goes. I am working on an existing powerpoint presentation, matching the slides in the video to the presentation. All was going well until I couldn’t find a ride in the presentation that was shown in the video. I was about the just screen capture. So I deleted the graphic on one of the slides, intending to to use it as a template and paste the screen capture from the video onto the slide. Low and behold, when I selected the graphic on the slide and hit delete a different slide was revealed. I found that the missing slides that were in the video were stacked behind each other on one slide.
Now here is the problem, when I copied and pasted the slide into a new presentation the print was blurry, significantly so. Has anyone run across anything like this? I admit that I am not super proficient in powerpoint, so maybe this is a common practice and I just don’t know it.
Hope someone can help.
Beverly, I really don’t understand. Were you doing screen captures of frames in the video to create images to put on slides?
It’s certainly possible to put images on top of each other, which sounds like what happened.
Was the print part of a screen capture or was it PowerPoint text?