It's always been possible to add pictures from an online source within PowerPoint. For more than a decade, this online
source has been the pictures available online at Office.com. Now with a recent update, this option is no longer available in
PowerPoint 2013. Instead, you can use the Online Pictures
option. This feature is very helpful as you are not limited to just the pictures available on your system. You
get other picture sources, some of which also include
Creative Commons
pictures. And all this happens within PowerPoint -- there's no need to open your web browser.
Similar to what we learned in the Insert
Picture in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial, there are two ways to insert an online picture on your slide in PowerPoint:
- You use a layout that includes a Content placeholder
- You insert a picture within a slide irrespective of its layout
Whichever option you choose depends upon your requirement -- we cover both of them in the following steps:
- Launch PowerPoint 2013. You will see the
Presentation Gallery -- here,
select the Blank Presentation to open a blank presentation with a new slide.
Change the layout of this slide to
Title and Content by selecting the Home tab | Layout |
Title and Content option. This results in the slide layout you see in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Online Pictures button within Content placeholder
Notice that this layout has a Content placeholder that lets you add bulleted text or any of the 6 other
content types in the slide -- these 6 content types are indicated by the 6 buttons you see within the Content placeholder
(see Figure 1). Click on the Online Pictures button in the Content placeholder, as
highlighted in red within Figure 1, above.
Alternatively, if you want to add a picture on an existing slide that has no Content placeholder, you can select the
Insert tab of the Ribbon, and click
the Online Pictures button (highlighted in red within
Figure 2).
Figure 2: Online Pictures button within the Insert tab
- Either option brings up the Insert Pictures dialog box, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Insert Pictures dialog box
Within the Insert Pictures dialog box you'll find a list of online picture service providers, as shown in
Figure 3, above. Additionally, if you are signed in within PowerPoint via your
Microsoft Account, you will see yourOneDrive account and
any other services connected.
Note: Does the Insert Pictures dialog box look different when you access it, compared to
what's shown in Figure 3, above? That may be because you may be connected to different services via your
Microsoft Account. It may also be because this option is an online service, that's prone to change continuously.
Options within the Insert Pictures dialog box are explained below, as marked in Figure 3,
above.
- Bing Image Search: This option shows all the picture search result directly from Bing.
Learn more on our
Insert Picture from Bing in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial.
Tip: Want to explore how you can search images using Bing's amazing image search functions? Refer to
our
Bing Image Search tutorial.
- Flickr: You can get pictures within your Flickr photostream. Learn more in our
Insert Picture from Flickr in
PowerPoint 2013 tutorial.
- OneDrive: Within this option, you can access pictures uploaded to your OneDrive account and insert them within your PowerPoint slides. To learn more refer to our
Insert Picture from OneDrive
in PowerPoint 2013 tutorial.
- Also insert from: Other than the options explained above, you may see additional picture sources
within this section. In this case, you can see that a
Facebook option is
available. To use this option, you first have to connect your Facebook account to your Microsoft account. Explore more
in our Add Services in PowerPoint 2013
tutorial.
Choose any of the picture sources, and select the picture you want to add to your slide.
Make sure to save your presentation.
Cannot Access the Insert Pictures Dialog Box?
Cannot access the
Insert Pictures dialog box, shown in
Figure 3 earlier on this page? That
may be because you are not connected online or Microsoft's servers are facing some temporary connectivity issues. You may
see a different dialog box, as shown in
Figure 4, below. In this case, just click on the
Work
offline button (highlighted in
red within
Figure 4, below), and you
will see the local
Insert Pictures option, as detailed in our
Insert Picture in PowerPoint 2013
tutorial.
Figure 4: Work offline button
See Also:
Insert Online Pictures in
PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Insert Online Pictures in PowerPoint 2016
for Mac
