PPT97: Transparent Image Support in PowerPoint 97 and 98 (159014)

SUMMARY

PowerPoint 97 supports transparency in bitmapped images. If you insert a bitmap into a slide, you can make one of its colors transparent. In addition, if your bitmap already has transparency, and it is in one of the following graphic formats, it appears transparent when you insert it into your slide:

CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format 89a (.gif)
Portable Network Graphics Format (.png)
Tagged Image File Format (.tif)

NOTE: If you insert a TARGA (.tga) image into a slide, PowerPoint ignores the transparency information.

MORE INFORMATION

To make part of your image transparent, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use the Set Transparent Color Feature

On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.
Select the graphic file you want and then click Insert.
If the Picture Toolbar does not appear, right-click the graphic and then click Show Picture Toolbar on the menu that appears.
Click the Set Transparent Color button.
Click a part of the picture that is the color you want to make transparent.

This method is ideal for color images that were created by a graphics program or for black and white images that were scanned. It may not work well with color images that were scanned. These images often have very subtle color changes. For example, the apparently black background of a scanned picture of the Earth may actually consist of several colors of very dark gray. In this case, if you try to mask out the background, you may still see some dark streaks after you set the transparent color.

Method 2: Use Microsoft Photo Editor

This method requires that you install the optional Microsoft Photo Editor component that ships with Microsoft Office 97.

NOTE: This method works best for scanned color images because you can actually choose a range of similar colors to mark as transparent.

Open your presentation in PowerPoint and click Object on the Insert menu.
In the Object Type list, click Microsoft Photo Editor 3.0 Photo and click OK.

Photo Editor will start. Perform these steps:
1. In the New dialog box, click "Open an Existing Picture" and click OK.
2. In the Open dialog box, select the file you want to import and click Open.
3. Click the Set Transparent Color button on the toolbar.
4. Click a region of the picture that you want to make transparent.
5. In the Change Color To Transparent dialog box, click OK.
  
  The selected region is now filled with a gray and white checkerboard pattern.
6. If you see unwanted streaks in your picture, click the Set Transparent Color button again and click a region of your picture that is already transparent.
7. In the Change Color to Transparent dialog box, move the Color Similarity slider to the right. Click OK.
8. Repeat steps f and g until the correct parts of the picture have the gray and white checkerboard effect.
9. On the File menu, click Exit And Return.