PowerPoint 2003 - Charts and Graphics - Rotate Images or WordArt

SUMMARY: Rotate images, photos, clip-art, and WordArt in your PowerPoint 2003 presentations.

Have you inserted an image, clip-art, photograph, or WordArt text in a Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 presentation and noticed the angle was not quite right? Perhaps a piece of WordArt should be angled slightly as to draw attention, or a photograph needs to be flipped 90 degrees due to the orientation of the camera when the picture was taken.

PowerPoint offers several ways to rotate images and WordArt:

To rotate a picture 90 degrees to the left:

1. In PowerPoint 2003, click on a picture to change.

2. The picture toolbar should appear, as shown below:

3. If this toolbar does not appear, right-click the image and select "Show Picture Toolbar".

4. Click on the "Rotate Left 90" button (see the screenshot to the right).

To rotate a picture or WordArt by angle number:

1. Right-click a piece of WordArt and choose "Format WordArt" from the popup menu that appears. Or, double-click a picture to show the "Format Picture" dialog box.

2. Click the "Size" tab.

3. Next to "Rotation", select the angle of desired rotation in positive or negative degrees.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

Using Free Rotate:

This is the most interactive of rotation methods.

1. Click on a piece of WordArt or a picture. Dots will surround the image, but a green dot will appear at the top.

2. Move your mouse to the green dot and the mouse pointer should change to a curvy line that signifies rotation.

3. Hold the left mouse button down and the mouse pointer will change again to four curvy lines. Simply move the mouse to rotate the image as desired; an outline of the image will appear to signify the rotation angle.

4. Release the left mouse button and the image will rotate. Note that you can cancel the rotation process by pressing the Esc key. You can undo a rotation by pressing the Ctrl + Z keys.