Crop PowerPoint image - explained quickly and easily

Anyone who works with Microsoft Office 2021 Standard or Microsoft Office 365 Home under one of the Windows 11 operating systems, for example, will sooner or later also use the PowerPoint presentation programme. There are a few tricks and turns that make working with it much easier. For example, you can easily crop a PowerPoint image to highlight certain PowerPoint image sections. Our instructions show how this works.

Why do you have to crop a PowerPoint image?

You don’t have to – but you can! And that’s exactly the big advantage that Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Business, Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Family offer. After all, it is usually the case that in both the business and private spheres, you don’t necessarily want or need to see everything that can be seen on an image that you want to present. Or it is important to draw attention to only a single section of the picture. The possibility of highlighting image sections and cropping images with PowerPoint 2021, for example, is therefore ideal. After all, a presentation with images lives through appealing motifs, impressive image details and surprising shapes. This underlines the message of a text and arouses the viewer’s curiosity. If you can crop a digital photo and highlight it as a PowerPoint image section, you can greatly enhance your presentation on a PC with Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Pro N operating system.

Cropping images – this is how it works

You do not need a special programme to crop a PowerPoint image. With the tool under Windows 11 Education or Windows 11 Enterprise itself, you can easily crop a photo in just a few steps:

  • Under tab „Insert→ Images“, the motif is first inserted at the appropriate place on the slide.
  • Leave the image activated and then go to the „Image tools“tab
  • In the „Size“ group, click on „Crop“
  • Now the photo can be cropped – to a specific shape or according to a desired aspect ratio.
  • The marked section in the picture can now be enlarged, reduced or moved to the desired size with the help of the crop marks.
  • When everything is the way you want it, all you have to do is click next to the shape so that PowerPoint saves the changes.

With the Image Format → Reset Image → Reset Image and Size tab, the whole process can be undone.

PowerPoint Bild zuschneiden

Crop more than one PowerPoint image at a time

Sometimes it is practical to be able to crop not just one, but several images at the same time with PowerPoint under Windows 11 Pro for Workstation, for example. For example, when two images are placed next to each other on the slide but are too large or too small. Then simply hold down the CTRL key and drag the side crop marker inwards or outwards accordingly. If you want to crop all four sides of the PowerPoint images, you again hold down the CTRL key and then drag one of the crop marks at a corner accordingly.

The special shape creates atmosphere

If pictures are always displayed in a rectangular or square shape, they can become a bit boring. However, you can create a special atmosphere if you not only crop PowerPoint pictures, but also give them an unusual form of presentation.

  • To do this, select an image and clickon the upper half of the “ Crop“button in the „ Image format“ tab
  • Select „Crop toshape
  • Select the appropriate shape such as an ellipse, a circle, a hexagon or similar. The photo now automatically appears with the outline of the selected shape.
  • Then click on the upper half of the „Crop“ button to make the crop marks appear.
  • Now adjust the size and proportion of the shape.
  • Within the shape, the image can be moved to find the right crop.
  • A mouse click outside the marks saves the picture in its chosen shape.
  • With the keyboard command „Ctrl + Z“ the result can be undone.

Header image: ©vladim_ka, stock.adobe.com