Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Size pictures precisely to your own measurements, layer the pictures and control the overlap, and group pictures so they move as one object.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Pictures - Size, Layers, Group.docx181.8 KB Pictures - Size, Layers, Group - Solution.docx
293.8 KB
Quick reference
Pictures - Size, Layers, Group
Size pictures precisely to your own measurements, layer the pictures and control the overlap, and group pictures so they move as one object.
When to use
Pictures are incredibly versatile and you will use the size, layer, and group features almost every time a picture is on your publication.
Instructions:
- Begin by opening a blank publication.
- Click the Insert Ribbon and click Pictures.
- Choose any 3 pictures in your files.
- Notice the pictures drop alongside the publication into the Scratch area.
Ultimately, picture placement is your control. If no picture placeholder is used, Publisher inserts to the Scratch area. - Click and drag to move the pictures individually or as one unit onto the publication page. Arrange them horizontally or diagonally to each other.
- Resize the pictures: click the Picture Tools ribbon, type “2” into the height box.
- Bring Forward, Send Backward will Layer the pictures to overlap one another.
Click the Picture Tools ribbon…
- Group the pictures to protect the placement as they are moved in the publication.
Ctrl + click all pictures to be grouped, click Picture Tools, Group (or Ctrl Shift G.)
Computer Tips
- Ctrl + scroll to zoom in is faster than pointing to the bottom right zoom controls. Zoom in or out quickly by holding down Ctrl and scroll with your mouse wheel.
- To un-do anything, simply press Ctrl + Z, or click the un-do button on the Quick Access Toolbar:
- Ctrl + click each picture to select multiple pics to format simultaneously.
- 00:04 I'm going to start with a blank newsletter publication at this point to insert some
- 00:08 pictures and show you some features about working with pictures.
- 00:12 On the insert ribbon, please click pictures and go ahead and
- 00:15 find a few pictures that you can work with.
- 00:17 I already had these saved from the previous newsletter.
- 00:20 Notice when I hit insert, they landed into the scratch area, that is great because if
- 00:24 I did have text on my screen it's not interrupting or rearranging text.
- 00:29 Notice also they have handles on them.
- 00:30 Whatever has handles can be selected, clicked, and
- 00:33 dragged onto the publication even all four of them at the same time.
- 00:37 I am going to zoom in a little bit so we can see what's happening.
- 00:40 Now I can work with each one individually or
- 00:43 since they are still selected, I'll just work with the entire group.
- 00:46 Notice my Picture Tools formatting, ribbon is up and
- 00:49 it would be great if you would just float around and read each one of these.
- 00:54 There's a tool tip that shows up.
- 00:55 It's basically teaching you how the software works.
- 00:58 Now there's Arrange Thumbnails, we've used that before.
- 01:00 When I click on that, look what happens.
- 01:03 It shrinks my entire publication and puts all those photos into that scratch area.
- 01:07 Now I can click and drag what's called a lasso around these to select them, or
- 01:11 I could click and Ctrl click, click, click to select them.
- 01:15 Your personal preference, just get them selected.
- 01:17 Move them back on to the newsletter, so we can go ahead and work with them.
- 01:21 What I want to do is resize these photos, each one to be 2 inches high.
- 01:26 So in the size area, I'll click right here in the height section and
- 01:30 type a 2 and hit my Tab to move on to the next one.
- 01:33 Each one of them is now 2 inches high.
- 01:35 What if I want them to be 3 inches wide?
- 01:37 Click the 3, click back into the previous one,
- 01:40 each one is now 3 inches high.
- 01:41 Now if you click on each one individually,
- 01:43 you will see they are 3 by 3, 3 by 3.
- 01:46 That probably distorted them, but at this point it doesn't really matter.
- 01:50 Now I want to select all again.
- 01:51 Now, I can Ctrl click, click, click, but
- 01:53 they're kind of stacked on top of each other.
- 01:56 I can click and drag a lasso to select them all, or
- 01:59 I can press Ctrl+A which is the universal select all.
- 02:02 Now if I had text on my screen, Ctrl+A would select all the text so
- 02:06 be aware of that, there were three ways to select everything.
- 02:09 Ctrl click, click, click, click and drag a lasso, or
- 02:12 Ctrl+A to select all of them well.
- 02:14 Well, I want to align these middle.
- 02:17 Now this is going to pile them up like a deck of cards, click, there.
- 02:21 Good luck, getting this picture to go behind unless you know
- 02:25 the Bring Forward and the Send Backward buttons right up here.
- 02:28 Now they're in two places.
- 02:31 On the Picture Tools Format, we have Bring Forward, Send Backward.
- 02:34 We also have the right-click on the little tiny mini bar.
- 02:37 We have a little button that says, Bring forward, Send Backward.
- 02:42 All right, now it's a little small.
- 02:43 So I'm going to go ahead an increase the size and move this over to the left.
- 02:48 I'm going to right-click and I'm going to send backward.
- 02:51 Now this is layering these.
- 02:53 You can't really tell that I just layered those.
- 02:54 Let me just spread these apart.
- 02:56 It will make a little more sense if we can actually see these.
- 02:59 So I've got a pile of pictures and I want to layer them.
- 03:02 So I can bring forward, I can send backward, send backward, send backward.
- 03:07 Click this one over here, bring forward.
- 03:10 Send backward, send backward, send backwards.
- 03:12 Can you see how they layer it around that?
- 03:14 It might be easier actually if I had my boundaries showing here.
- 03:17 Let me click on my boundaries, here we go.
- 03:19 Click on this one.
- 03:21 And this time I'm going to right-click, and I'm going to send backwards,
- 03:25 send backwards, send backwards.
- 03:28 Can you see how they're burying or unburying themselves?
- 03:30 Another way to control this is with the beloved Graphics Manager,
- 03:33 which we've used in multiple lessons.
- 03:35 So it's great that you have this on your quick access toolbar.
- 03:38 Click the Graphics Manager, and
- 03:40 I can click on any one of these to actually select it.
- 03:43 And then I can come to my format and I could say, bring forward or hit the drag
- 03:47 down, bring to front or send backward, or hit the drop down, send to back.
- 03:52 It's kind of a great feature.
- 03:53 Okay, one of the great feature is the Move As group.
- 03:56 Let's bring this guy forward, he's got to come forward, let's see.
- 03:59 Okay, bring forward, bring forward, bring forward, there we go.
- 04:03 I want to click on drag and select all these pictures.
- 04:06 And now I'm going to group them, there is a button up here says group.
- 04:09 When I group these or Ctrl+Shift+G as the tool type is showing us, group these.
- 04:14 Now they will move as a group wherever I want them to always stay together.
- 04:18 Grouping your photos or shapes is a great feature in not just Publisher but
- 04:23 other programs as well.
- 04:25 All right, that's it for working with a pile of pictures,
- 04:31 sizing them, layering them, and grouping them.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.