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Filters for Pictures in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn how to apply filters to pictures in PowerPoint 2011.

Author: Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2011
OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: April 20th 2012
Last Updated: April 20th 2012

In PowerPoint, you can make changes to inserted pictures by applying corrections or, by using recolor options. In addition, you can also apply any of the several filters available to add a completely different look to your pictures -- some filters can change the texture of your pictures and others can make pictures look like paintings or sketches. Whichever filter you choose, make sure you play around with all the options available to be aware of the surprisingly different results you can achieve right within PowerPoint. In this tutorial, we will show you how to apply filters to the pictures to make them to look more like a sketch, drawing or a painting. Follow these steps to learn more:

Open your presentation and insert a picture on the required slide. If the picture is already there on your slide, just select it and double click to activate the Format Picture tab of the Ribbon as shown in Figure 1 (highlighted in red).

Figure 1: Format Picture tab of the Ribbon activated
Within the Format Picture tab, locate the Adjust group (see Figure 2) and click the Filters button (highlighted in red in Figure 2) to access the Filters drop-down gallery that displays preview thumbnails of the selected picture with various pre-applied filters as you can see in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Filters drop-down gallery
If you hover the mouse cursor over any preview thumbnail, you will be able to see a tool tip with the name of the filter applied to that preview thumbnail, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Name of the filter being displayed as a tool tip
To apply any filter to the selected picture, just click on it. In Figure 4, you can see the Photocopy filter applied to the selected picture. Compare picture in Figures 1 and 4.

Figure 4: Filter applied to the selected picture
Once you have applied a filter to the picture, you can fine-tune the effect to control the resultant effect. To do that, first make sure that the picture is selected, then select the Artistic Filter Options, the last option within the Filters gallery (highlighted in blue in Figure 3, above). This will summon the Format Picture dialog box, along with the Artistic Filters option selected in the sidebar as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Artistic Filters option selected within the Format Picture dialog box

Note that the options available within this dialog box will differ, depending upon the Filter applied to your picture.

In the dialog box shown in Figure 5, not only you can fine-tune the filter already applied, but also select a new filter from the Artistic filter button (highlighted in red in Figure 5). Once you get the desired result, click the OK button to close the Format Picture dialog box and get back to your slide.

Note: When you are making changes to the picture within the Format Picture dialog box, you can see the live preview of the changes on the selected picture. So, always place the Format Picture dialog box away from the selected picture on the slide.

In Figure 6 you can see the selected picture after fine-tuning the filter effect applied earlier. Compare Figures 4 and 6.

Figure 6: Selected picture with fine-tuned filter effect

Tip: You can follow the same procedure explained above to apply filters to the picture used as a fill for a shape.

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