Sometimes photos have other elements around the subject which distract from it. It might be people in the photo who aren’t relevant to the photo or it may be unwanted elements in an image you have taken or downloaded. You can get rid of these in Microsoft Word using the Crop tool.
To crop a photo in a Word document click on the photo so that you have it selected. Click the Picture Tools > Format tab and locate the Crop icon and click it. Black handles will appear at the corners and along the sides of your photo.
Hold your mouse pointer over one of the black handles and the mouse pointer will become a matching bar or corner shape. Click and drag inwards to crop excess content from the photo. You can crop from any corner or any side of the photo. Once you have adjusted the crop handles so that the area inside the crop handles is what you want your picture to look like click the Crop tool again to finish the crop.
In Microsoft Word 2010 and 2013 you can crop an image to a shape. When doing so it works best if you start with a photo the approximate dimensions of the shape. So, as most shapes are as tall as they are wide you would start with a square photo. To crop a photo to square, click the photo and from the Crop dropdown list, choose Aspect Ratio > 1:1. Move the image into position inside the crop marquee click the Crop tool to finish.
With the image still selected click the Crop dropdown list and choose Crop to Shape. Click on a shape such as a 32 pointed star and the photo will be cropped to that shape.
