How to add Online Pictures to your PowerPoint Presentations

In this tutorial, you will be creating a new PowerPoint presentation where you’ll learn how to insert online pictures from online sources such as the Bing Search Engine and OneDrive.  You’ll also learn how to resize the picture after it has been inserted.

1.  Start PowerPoint 2016 and then create a new presentation using the Ion Boardroom Template as shown below.
   
2. Click the Design Tab > Variants Group and select the Green Variant.
   
   
3. In the title placeholder type Hiking Adventures and then in the subtitle placeholder, type Half and Full Day Hikes as shown below.
   
4. Click the Home Tab > Slides Group and click the New Slide arrow and choose the Two Content layout from the layout gallery.  In the title placeholder, type Come Prepared.
5. In the left placeholder, type List of Items to Bring and then press ENTER.  Press the Tab key on your keyboard to increase the list level and type the 4 bullet item list as shown below pressing ENTER after each line.
6. Click the Home Tab > Paragraph Group and click the Decrease List Level button and type Food and Water and then press ENTER.  Press the Tab key on your keyboard to increase the list level again and type the 4 bullet list items as shown below pressing ENTER after each line.

Working with Online Pictures

You can search for Online Images in PowerPoint to use in your presentations.  PowerPoint uses the Bing Search Engine but you can also search for images on your Facebook, Flickr or OneDrive if you are logged into your Microsoft account.

When using the Bing Search engine, you can search for all available images, ClipArt, Photographs, Line Drawings or transparent images under the “Type” heading.  By default, PowerPoint will display all images available with the Creative Commons Only option which means that you can use these pictures under the Creative Commons License in your presentations. While most of these images are royalty free, it’s worthwhile to check the website link shown with the image to check if there any particular Creative Commons license requirements you need to abide by.

PowerPoint no longer provides the option to insert ClipArt directly into your presentations, but you can still find thousands of ClipArt images under the Online Pictures option.  Just select ClipArt under the Type menu as shown below.  Note:  If you want to search all of the Bing images, you can select the “All” option under Type.  Keep in mind that you will need to obey copyright law for all of the copyrighted images displayed.

After you insert a picture, you can resize it and position it anywhere on your slide.  Once you insert the picture, the Format Tool tab will appear.  On the Format Tool tab, you can also change the appearance and style of the picture.

Insert and Resize an Online Image

1. With slide 2 still selected, click the Online Pictures icon to display the insert pictures search window or alternatively click the Insert tab  > Online Pictures on the Ribbon.
   
2. In the Insert Pictures window, next to the Bing Image search box, type hiking and then press ENTER.  The search results will appear.
   
3. Scroll the search results to to find a picture you like then click the chosen picture to select it and then click the Insert button to insert the image.  The image is inserted into the right content placeholder.
4. With the image still selected, click the Picture Tools > Format Contextual Tab > Size Group and in the Height box, type 2.5 and then press ENTER.  Note:  You can also resize the image using the re-sizing handles.  If you do this, hold down the Shift key to keep the image in perspective.
   

Insert Pictures from OneDrive in PowerPoint 2016

OneDrive is Microsoft’s free cloud-based storage solution whose purpose is to provide a single place for you to store and access your files.  OneDrive is particularly useful for individuals and businesses that use PowerPoint or other Office products as you can store and access your Office files, pictures, and other files all from one central location. This allows you the ability to insert images directly from your OneDrive account into your PowerPoint presentations.

If you’re using OneDrive for storage and already have some pictures uploaded, you can insert them directly from your OneDrive Account.  You will need to be signed in to your OneDrive account insert pictures from OneDrive.  Here are instructions on how to get a OneDrive account.

1. Add a New Slide and choose the Title with Content layout.  Click the Online Pictures icon as explained above to display the insert pictures search window or alternatively click the Insert tab  > Online Pictures on the Ribbon.  The Insert Pictures dialog box will appear. Choose OneDrive as shown in the example below.
   
2. Choose Pictures and the screen where you can see your uploaded pictures will appear.  Select the picture of your choice and click Insert.

Save your presentation to your computer or OneDrive account for use in the next tutorial where we will import slides from another presentation and edit and format pictures.