Help Desk Geek – Help Desk Tips For IT Pros

As a desktop publisher, Microsoft Publisher has far more design and object placement options than a word processor such as Word. Allowing you to place images, text, and other object elements anywhere on the page, you can create professional looking documents with Publisher that go beyond the linear layout of word processors and other programs.

One of the most basic functions in Publisher is placing a picture or image into your document. Unfortunately, Publisher makes a few assumptions about how you will use the picture and makes your images look differently than you expected. Read on to learn how to add an image to a Microsoft Publisher document and resize it to its original size.

Adding a Picture to Microsoft Publisher

To begin, open up Microsoft Publisher and start a new, blank document. On the left hand side of the application, locate the Objects toolbar. If the Objects toolbar is not on the left hand side of the application, click on View>Toolbars>Objects.

On the Objects toolbar, locate the button with a picture of a mountain and sun on it. If you hover your mouse over this button, the tooltip indicates to you that this is the Picture Frame tool. Click on the Picture Frame button and select Picture from File from the menu.

When you click on the Picture from File menu option, your mouse pointer will change to indicate that you are in Picture Frame mode. Click on the document, drag your mouse a little bit, and then let go of the mouse button. It really doesn’t matter how large you make the picture frame because it will change size depending on the size of the image in it. Also, it doesn’t matter where you place the frame because you can move it anywhere you want once the image is inside.

Publisher will automatically open up the Insert Picture browser window so you can select the picture you want to insert into your document. Browse to and click on the image you want to insert and click the Insert button.

Notice that Publisher puts a dotted line boundary indicator around the new object you just placed into your document. This is for design purposes only and will not show up when printed. However, you may have noticed that the image is not the size you expected it to be. For some reason, Publisher automatically resizes pictures when first inserted into a document.

If you want your pictures to be the same size as the originals, you need to format the picture and resize it to 100%.

Formatting a Picture’s Size in Publisher

To resize a picture in Microsoft Publisher, right click on the picture and select Format Picture from the menu.

In the Format Picture window, click on the Size tab and then on the Reset button. The numbers in the Scale label boxes will change to indicate 100% and the Height and Width numbers will now match the Original Size numbers below.

Notice that the picture you inserted into the document is now its original size.

Importing a picture into a Microsoft Publisher document is simple using the Picture Frame function. Like all elements in Publisher, pictures are objects that can be resized and moved to any location in the document. However, when you first insert a picture, you may need to resize the Picture Frame and, consequently, the picture to its original size.