by Akionomics

Created on: February 24, 2008   Last Updated: September 22, 2011

You're in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint and you decided that you need pictures to lighten up your report or presentation. After a little searching you found a small database of pictures called clipart. Finding nothing useful you see the hyperlink that says "additional clip art online at http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/.

I know your finger is itching to click that link. Don't. Clip art is almost a branding to Microsoft Office's graphical pictures. While they get the job done, people can almost immediately tell whether or not you went the extra mile in a presentation. They can tell if you just randomly grabbed some abstract picture and stuck it somewhere in your project in order to somewhat relate what you're trying to discuss. So why find "clip art" when you can just download images you want and edit them. If you're going for the tacky 3rd grade report it may be fine, but if you want something that wows people, there's nothing finer than being relevant.

If you do decide to find something more suitable, go to http://www.flickr.com and find your "A". Once you arrive at the homepage you can type a keyword and hit what users have in mind. Just type the object you want or a description, a characteristic that brings to mind what you are thinking about. Each picture is tagged with a word for you to find.

If you're really stretched for pictures, try searching through: http://photobucket.com/. Much like the flickr website, these are user generated so you'll find it more meaningful.

You can try random searches with google images: http://images.google.com/. Most of the time its not really reliable due to the fact that word attachments/descriptions or "tags" to pictures are sometimes non-existent or misleading. Google's search engine is more limited in terms of inaccuracy. However its always nice to have a third alternative choice.

Once you grab the image, all the editing you really need to do is already in the program you're using. Powerpoint and Word can "crop", "size", and "rotate" the pictures within the program itself with just a few simple intuitive clicks. A professional is most definitely not needed.

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