Put Your Image in a Star in PowerPoint

Many times, you may want to add an image within a star shaped container, or any other container shape, such as a diamond, a teardrop, or even a triangle. This is quite easy to achieve, and involves two basic PowerPoint techniques. The first technique is to add a shape, and the second is to fill the shape with an image. Here's how you do it in almost any version of PowerPoint, since PowerPoint 2007 until the recent versions.

1. Create a new presentation (Ctrl+N) and insert a blank slide or insert a blank slide in an existing presentation, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Presentation with a new blank slide
2. Bring up the Shapes gallery (see Figure 2) in PowerPoint, and locate the Stars and Banners category, and choose any of the star styles, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2. And yes, don't bother too much about which star style would be appropriate for your image since you can always change the shape later.
3. 
   Figure 2: Choose a star shape
3. Draw a star on the slide (see Figure 3). Select the star, right-click and choose the Format Shape option.
4. 
   Figure 3: Format Shape option
4. Depending upon your version of PowerPoint, you may end up bringing up a dialog box or a Task Pane. What you need to next is add a picture as a fill to your shape.
5. Your shape will now have a picture fill, as shown in Figure 4, below.
6. 
   Figure 4: Shape with picture fill

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Changing the Shape

You might want an eight-pointed star rather than a five-pointed star. Or, you might want to choose a conventional square or circle instead. If you already have a picture fill in a shape, you can change the shape without the fill being effected, as shown in the result you see in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Shape changed

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