Modifying Images

The ability to add graphic images to your documents allows you to meet the needs of your students who are visual learners, and helps promote understanding. But sometimes an image that you find may not be exactly what you need. Or, your image may be too large to use in your target document. You can crop it or scale it, which resizes it by a certain percentage. In addition, if you save it as either a JPG or A GIF formatted file, the compression used will reduce the actual size of the file itself. This is always a good idea! Image editing software can be used to modify images with a variety of purposes. This page explains some basic image editing techniques.   Crop Resize Recolor Rotate Enhance Convert Format Most computers are sold with basic image editing software, called Microsoft Paint. If the computer also has Microsoft Office installed, it may come with either Microsoft Photo Editor or Microsoft Office Picture Manager. These programs provide more editing tools to help you modify your images. For more sophisticated edits, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, and Microsoft Photo Elements are leading image design and editing programs available on the market. Photo Editor - Installation (Optional) If you do not see a directory in your programs listing named "Microsoft Office Tools" then you most likely do not have the Photo Editor installed. It's very useful at helping you to modify your images. Follow these steps to add it to your system. 1. Insert the Microsoft Office XP CD-ROM into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. If the Office XP Setup program does not start automatically, follow these steps: a. Click Start, and then click Run. b. In the Open box, type drive:\Setup.exe, where drive is the letter of your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.  2. Start to step through the setup process, and then select Customize for the type of setup to perform. 3. When you reach the Selecting Features step, uncheck the boxes to all of the applications since these have already been installed. 4. Under Features to install, expand Office Tools. (Click on the plus sign to the left of Office Tools) 5. Click Microsoft Photo Editor, and then click Run from My Computer. 6. Click Install Now. 7. Click OK when Office XP Setup has completed successfully. Crop To crop an image click on the marquis tool ( a rectangle draw with dotted lines) and draw a frame around the desired area in the picture. Click on Image and drag down to Crop... Click OK. Resize To resize an image click on the marquis tool ( a rectangle draw with dotted lines) and draw a frame around the desired area in the picture. Click on Image and drag down to Crop... Click OK. Recolor You can use MS Paint to recolor solid areas of images, but you will need a more sophisticated program to recolor areas that are made up of many shades of a certain color. Open the file in Paint. Select the Paint Can tool to fill the area with a new color. Select a color and place the tip of the paint can within the area to be replaced. Click. Rotate Click on Image and drag down to Rotate... Decide upon an orientation and the number of degrees you wish to rotate. Click OK. Enhance Microsoft Photo Editor provides many different effects which you can apply to your image to enhance its appearance.   Open your picture in Photo Editor. Click on Effects and drag down to your choice. Set parameters fro the type of effect you have chosen. Click OK. Convert Format Always remember to convert your images to either a .jpg or a .gif formatted file. Also, provide a different name for your image file so that you always have the original in case you need to start over.