Integrating Images and External Materials

Integrating or inserting pictures in your document is fun and it improves the impression
of your document. A common use of inserting a picture on a document is when you are creating
a resumé.

Kinds of Materials
There are various kinds of materials Microsoft® Word is capable of integrating to make
your document richer, more impressive, and more informative.

1. Pictures – generally, these are electronic or digital pictures or photographs you have saved in
any local storage device. There are three commonly used types of picture files. You can identify
them by the extension on their file names.
a. JPG – this is pronounced as “jay-peg,” and is the short form for .jpeg or file extension
for the Joint Photographic Experts Group picture file. Like all the rest of the image file
extensions, it identifies the kind of data compression process that is uses to make it more
compatible and portable through the Internet. This type of image file can support 16.7 million
colors that’s why it is suitable for use when working with full color photographic images.
Unfortunately, it does not support transparency. But if you are looking for the best quality
image to integrate with your document, then this is the image file type for you.
b. GIF – file extension for the Graphics Interchange Format image file. This type of image
file is capable of displaying transparencies. Therefore, it is good for blending with other
materials or elements in your document. It is also capable of displaying simple animation. It can
only support up to 256 colors that is why .GIF is much better for logos, drawings, small text,
black and white images, or low-resolution files.
c. PNG – this is pronounced as “ping.” It stands for Portable Network Graphics that was
built around the capabilities of .GIF. Its development was basically for the purpose of
transporting images on the internet at faster rates. It is also good with transparencies but
unlike .GIFs, it does not support animation but it can display up to about 16 million colors. .PNG
allows the control of the transparency level or opacity of images.

2. Clip Art – this is generally a .GIF type; line art drawings or images used as generic
representation for ideas and objects that you might want to integrate in your document.
Microsoft® Word has a library of clip arts that is built in or can be downloaded and used freely.
There are still other clip arts that you can either purchase or freely download and use that
come from third-part providers.
3. Shapes – these are printable objects or materials that you can integrate in your document to
enhance its appearance to allow you to have some tools to use for composing and representing
ideas or messages. If you are designing the layout for a poster or other graphic material for
advertising, you might find this useful.
4. Smart Art – generally, these are predefined sets of different shapes grouped together to
form ideas that are organizational or structural in nature. If you want to graphically represent
an organization, process, relationships, or flow for infographic documents, then you will find
this easy and handy to use.
5. Chart – another type of material that you can integrate with your Word document that
allows you to represent data characteristics and trends. This is quite useful when you are
preparing reports that correlate and present data in a graphical manner. You can create charts
that can be in your document either directly in Microsoft® Word or imported from external files
like Microsoft® Excel.
6. Screenshot – sometimes, creating reports or manuals for training or procedures will require
the integration of a more realistic image of what you are discussing on your report or manual.
Nothing can get you more realistic image than a screenshot. Microsoft® Word even provides a
snipping tool for your screen shots so you can select and display only the part that you exactly
like to capture on your screen.

Image Placement

1. In Line with Text – this setting is usually used when you need to place your image at the
beginning of the paragraph.
2. Square – this setting allows the image you inserted to be placed anywhere within the
paragraph with the text going around the image in a square pattern like a frame.
3. Tight – this setting can mostly achieved if you are using an image that supports transparency
like a .GIF or .PNG file.
4. Through – this setting allows the text on your document to flow even tighter, taking the
contours and shape of the image. Again, this can be best used with a .GIF or .PNG type of
image.
5. Top and Bottom – this setting pushes the texts away vertically to the top and/or the bottom
of the image so that the image occupies a whole text line on its own as in the example.
6. Behind Text – this allows your image to be dragged and placed anywhere on your document
but with the all texts floating in front of it. It effectively makes your image look like a
background.
7. In Front of Text – as it suggests, this setting allows your image to be placed right on top of
the text as if your image was dropped right on it.

The steps on inserting images to a Word document:

1. Open the Sample Letter.docx from your Desktop.
2. Place your insertion point or cursor to where you want the image or picture to appear.
Just right at the very beginning of the first paragraph will do.
3. Go to the Illustrations group under the Insert tab on the ribbon or menu.
4. Click on Picture ―→ Insert Picture from File.
5. The Insert Picture dialog box will pop up almost similar to your file explorer window.
Navigate to your Desktop and click on the Solar.jpg file.
6. Click the Insert button to insert a copy of the Solar.jpg picture on your document.
7. Right-click on the image then click on the Wrap Text sub-menu. On the fly out, click on
the Square option. Remember that this setting will flow around your image like a
rectangular frame.
8. Drag your image to the desired location on the document so that your document.
9. Repeat steps 2 through 6. Only this time, place the insertion point at the very end of the
document and insert the Joe.png image. This is actually the digital signature of our
fictional character, Joe Green.
10. Again, right-click on the image then click on the Wrap Text sub-menu. This time, on the
fly out, click on the Behind Text option. This should allow you to place the signature
image arbitrarily along the printed name on the document, so it would look exactly like
a real signature. We chose this option because our signature image, in this example,
does not have transparent background. If it were, setting it In front of Text would be a
better option.
11. Now we need to work on the chart. This will require us to work with the wizard to set up
the parameters of our chart. On your document, place your insertion point or cursor on
the position where you want the chart to appear.
12. In the Illustrations group under the Insert tab, click on Chart. This will bring up the
Insert Chart dialog box.
13. On the right pane, inside the Insert Chart dialog box, scroll down to the Pie row, and
select Exploded Pie in 3D.
14. An excel worksheet will pop up showing the default data that Microsoft® Word uses for
the chart. For the sake of our example, modify the data on the worksheet so that the
heading “Sales” will read “Volume” and the labels 1st to 4th QTR will read “Europe,”
“America,” “Middle East,” and “Asia,” respectively.
15. Drag the chart’s corner handle to suitable size.
16. Click on the chart’s Text Wrap option and select Top and Bottom.
17. Drag the chart to the center of the page in between the second and third paragraph of
your document.
18. Save your document.