Using PowerPoint’s new illustrations

PowerPoint is adding new types of graphics and expanding existing ones. These are all available in Office 365, because they are constantly being updated.

One of the most recent additions is called Illustrations. Here are two examples on a slide…

They are in grayscale with a pop of yellow but you can:

• Easily change the color
• Ungroup them and turn them into editable PowerPoint objects

Inserting illustrations

To insert illustrations, choose Insert, Pictures, Stock Images. In the dialog box that opens, choose the Illustrations tab.

You’ll see a variety of topics to choose from but you can also search by keyword.

Select the illustration or illustrations you want and click Insert.

Changing the color of illustrations

When you insert an illustration, you can change the color from the default yellow to any color you want. Here are the steps:

1. Select the illustration.
2. On the Graphics Format tab, choose Graphics Fill.
3. Choose the color you want.

Only the sections that are yellow will take on the new color. The sections that are gray or black will remain unchanged.

Here is the same slide with the color changed. I changed each illustration to a different color.

Converting illustrations to PowerPoint objects

Illustrations are SVG files (like icons). For more information on icons, see this blog post. SVG files are vector files, which means they’re defined by equations, rather than dots (like JPG and PNG images such as photos).

To get more flexibility, ungroup it:

1. Right-click and choose Ungroup.
2. At the dialog box asking if you want to convert it to PowerPoint objects, click Yes.
3. Right-click and choose Ungroup again.

Once you ungroup the illustration, it is a PowerPoint object — or a collection of objects, not an SVG file, but that gives you more flexibility. For example, you can fill objects with as many colors as you want, as I did here. Each item is a separate object, but you can group them again if you want. That makes them easier to move, for example.

Finding your own illustrations

What if you either don’t have PowerPoint 365 or you want to find your own icons? There are many sources. A popular one is Pixabay.com. Look for illustrations and then either SVG or AI (Adobe Illustrator) images.

If you download an AI file and don’t have Illustrator, you can use zamzar.com to convert the file from AI to SVG.

Watch the video

This 16-minute video, part of one of my Power Pointers Quarter Hour lessons, shows how to manipulate the new illustrations.

Next steps

Try out illustrations for yourself and leave a comment! And please share this post with others who might not know about illustrations in PowerPoint 365.