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Getting Images into PowerPoint

¹ Department of Radiology, Rm. E3/311, University of Wisconsin, 600 Highland Ave., Madison, Wl 53792-3252

Received June 7, 2001; accepted after revision August 10, 2001.

 
Address correspondence to K. L. Schreibman.

Introduction

Top Introduction Getting Images into Your... Importing Images into PowerPoint Positioning, Stretching, and... References

 
As radiologists, getting images into our presentations is of primary importance. This article will address some techniques for importing and manipulating images in PowerPoint (Microsoft, Redmond, WA).

Getting Images into Your PC

Top Introduction Getting Images into Your... Importing Images into PowerPoint Positioning, Stretching, and... References

 
This article will not directly address the issue of getting images into your PC, which has been the major obstacle in creating digital presentations. A decade ago, this was a nonissue; there were very few methods for digitizing analog images. I suspect a decade from now this will no longer be an issue, because most, if not all, images will be digital and easily moved across computer platforms. But for now, getting images from the outside world into your computer is anything but trivial.

My preferred method is to move digital images directly from our PACS (picture archiving and communication system) onto the harddrive of my PC, which is not necessarily a simple step. In my experience, PACS vendors have been slow in providing portals to allow us to export images from the DICOM (Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine) domain into the PC domain. For groups considering a PACS purchase in the near future, I suggest specifying an "export to PC" function as a design requirement.

Many have turned to digital cameras as a way of capturing analog images. There are now many moderately priced digital cameras with adequate resolution to make this a viable option. If you are considering getting a digital camera, resolution should not be the sole criterion for deciding which model to buy. Perhaps a more important factor is ease and speed of image transfer from the camera to your computer.

I have found a flatbed scanner to be vital for digitizing pictures out of textbooks or journals. A dedicated slide scanner is a useful tool for converting preexisting 35-mm slides into digital images. Ultimately, if you are serious about creating digital lectures you will likely need to have one or more of these pieces of equipment at your disposal.

Regardless of the method you use to get images into your PC, you must be mindful of the overall size of the image. Radiologists are familiar with the concept of resolution and understand the notion of line-pairs per millimeter and even pixels per centimeter. People often ask, at what DPI (dots per inch) should they scan their films? This is not the correct question. With regard to displaying your images with a cathode-ray tube monitor or a liquid crystal display (LCD) projector, the question is not the resolution per area, but how many pixels you need to completely fill your screen.

Digital images are composed of pixels (short for "picture elements"). The number of pixels displayed by most good LCD projectors, as well as most good notebook computers, is 1024 horizontally x 768 vertically. For on-screen slide shows, you want to use images with sizes approximating these dimensions. Images with dimensions much smaller than 1024 x 768 could lead to quantization artifacts when magnifying the image (i.e., the individual pixels would show). Images with matrix sizes larger than 1024 x 768 are not necessarily bad, but it is a waste of memory to acquire data at resolutions higher than you can display. Also, too many excessively large images can cause loading delays when running your slide show. Those who are just beginning digital image acquisition should experiment with various matrix sizes to see what best fits your needs before beginning the process in earnest. Few things are worse than spending hours converting your slide collection to digital images, only to discover you used an improper format.

After you begin acquiring digital images, the next hurdle is devising a scheme to organize and store them. People quickly develop their own organization system that makes sense to them. Organizing images is like developing flash cards when studying for the boards: the system makes sense to the person who creates it but to no one else. Keep in mind that these electronic images represent confidential information, and you should give some thought to restricting access to patient identity. The privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 states that health care providers are required to "secure patient records containing individually identifiable health information so that they are not readily available to those who do not need them" [1].

With regard to the long-term storage of images, at the present time burning your own CDs is clearly the best option. CD writers are now relatively inexpensive, and CDs themselves are virtually free (especially if you watch your Sunday newspaper for computer store advertisements offering 100% rebates). Because CDs are universally readable, they are a good method for sharing your images with others.

Importing Images into PowerPoint

Top Introduction Getting Images into Your... Importing Images into PowerPoint Positioning, Stretching, and... References

 
Once you have mastered getting images into your computer, getting the images into PowerPoint is easy. I typically use the Insert Picture function that can be accessed as follows:

Click on the "Insert" command on the top toolbar, which brings up a submenu.

Click on the "Picture" command to bring up a smaller submenu.

Click on "From File." A window will now open.

You may have to use the "Look in" line to navigate to the folder that contains your desired image.

Double-click on the desired image to insert it into PowerPoint.

PowerPoint will remember this folder, so if you once again do an Insert Picture From File command, it will take you back to this same folder. This feature is convenient when you are inserting several images from one folder.

In the window that lists your images, you may want to experiment with turning on the Preview View. This preview shows you a thumbnail (i.e., a miniature version) of the image, although this option can be painfully slow when dealing with larger images and slower processors.

If you are going to be inserting a lot of images, you may want to turn on the "Picture Toolbar." To do this:

Click on the "View" command on the top toolbar, which brings up a submenu.

Click on the "Toolbars" command, which brings up a list of all available toolbars. The active toolbars are indicated by a check mark.

Click on "Picture" to activate the Picture Toolbar.

The Picture toolbar contains a button that looks like the sun over two mountains. This button is a shortcut for the Insert Picture From File command, and is extremely handy for those of us with lots of images to insert. You can even add this button to your own custom toolbars.

I recently discovered a useful technique for bringing many images into PowerPoint at once: "Photo Album." This is a free add-in program, available from the Office 2000 (Microsoft) download web site (http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/album.aspx).

Check it out.

Positioning, Stretching, and Cropping

Top Introduction Getting Images into Your... Importing Images into PowerPoint Positioning, Stretching, and... References

 
Once you have your image in PowerPoint, you have a lot of flexibility as to where you position it, as well as the ability to stretch or crop the image. Unfortunately, under the older versions of PowerPoint you cannot rotate or flip your image. If you need to change the orientation of the image, you must do this outside of PowerPoint. The new XP version of PowerPoint allows image rotation, but at the time of this writing I have not yet had a chance to evaluate this feature.

Despite being unable to rotate images in PowerPoint, you still have a lot of control as to how you position and size your image within the slide. You should enlarge your images so they completely fill the screen. Too much background visible behind your image represents space that could be filled by enlarging the image.

Images are easily enlarged in PowerPoint. However, you need to be sure to enlarge your images proportionately, not to simply stretch them in one direction. The trick is to stretch an image from the corner, not from the side.

To manipulate your image within PowerPoint, click once on the image. Eight little white squares now appear around your image, one on each corner and one on each edge. Notice the cursor changes appearance depending on its position relative to the image.

If you move your cursor over the image itself, it turns into a four-headed arrow. If you now hold down the left mouse button, you can move the image wherever you like on the slide without changing its size.

If you move the cursor directly over one of the white squares in the middle of a side of the image, the cursor becomes a two headed horizontally oriented arrow. If you now click and hold the left mouse button, you can stretch the image side to side. You probably do not want to do this because doing so enlarges the image disproportionately, something we try to avoid in radiology.

However, if you move the cursor over a white square in one of the corners of the image, the cursor becomes a diagonally oriented two-headed arrow. In most instances, if you click and drag one of these corner squares, you will be able to resize the image proportionately (i.e., the horizontal and vertical dimensions will change by the same degree). Always enlarge or stretch an image from the corner.

By moving and resizing your image, you can now fill the slide from top to bottom or from right to left.

Occasionally, dragging a corner of the image will not resize it proportionately. If this happens, it is easily remedied.

First, click once on the image to select it. (The little white edge and corner squares come on, confirming the object was selected.)

Under the top menu, click on "Format," then on "Picture." The Format Picture window will open. (A shortcut to this window is to right-click while your cursor is over the image, and click "Format Picture" on the context-sensitive menu.)

Now click on the top tab labeled "Size."

Make sure there is a check mark in the box labeled "Lock aspect ratio." You may now close this format window.

Now dragging the corner of the image will resize it proportionately. (Typically, images come in with the lock aspect ratio box checked as the default. But sometimes they don't.)

In addition to resizing your images, it is often necessary to crop them to remove undesired portions of the image, such as excessively large black borders or extraneous information. Important: You must always crop the name of the patient off the image before displaying your slide to any audience. This is not only courtesy, it is the law.

To crop:

Select the image by clicking on it once.

Click the crop button. (The crop button is on the picture toolbar and looks like a pair of overlapping right angles.)

The crop button will now be highlighted. In addition, the cursor will change its appearance and resemble the crop button.

Now move this crop—cursor directly over the white square along the edge you wish to crop. By holding down the left mouse button, you can drag that edge inward, cropping away that portion of your image. By judiciously cropping the edges, you can limit the image to display just the region of interest.

Deactivate the crop function by reclicking the crop button. You can now reposition and resize your image to appropriately fill your slide.

Note that the PowerPoint crop command does not discard the cropped portion of your image. At any time in the future, you may uncrop the image to reexpose the hidden portions.

Before you import too many images into your PowerPoint presentation, you should make sure the aspect ratio of the slides themselves is properly set. Aspect ratio refers to the width of a slide relative to its height, and this ratio is greater for 35-mm slides than for computer screens and digital projectors. This step should be the first thing you check when creating a new presentation. Under the "File" command on the top toolbar, click "Page Setup," which opens the Page Setup window. Make sure the line under "Slides sized for:" is set to "On-screen Show." You can now click "OK" and forget about it.

Have fun playing with your images. Next in this series, I will address "Mastering The Master Slide."

References

Top Introduction Getting Images into Your... Importing Images into PowerPoint Positioning, Stretching, and... References

 

1. Standards for privacy of individually identifiable health information, last revised 7/6/01. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. Available at www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa. Accessed August 9, 2001

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