There’s a remarkably easy and inexpensive way to create eye-catching graphics for your blog, and I’m going to show you how to do it. All you need to get started is Microsoft PowerPoint.
Wait, what? Powerpoint?
I know you’re thinking about those boring, sleep-inducing presentations from the office or college, but trust me, I use PowerPoint to create awesome graphics for my blog…
…And you know what? It works beautifully. I designed a graphic to promote my newsletter, and attracted more subscribers instantly. I also whipped up a graphic to promote my Hire Me page, and more people checked that out, too.
The question is, are you ready to produce some graphics that gets results for your blog? If so, watch this step-by-step video I created for DIYthemes, and you’ll be set!
Video: How to Create Images For Your Blog With Powerpoint
I chose PowerPoint because you can copy and paste photos, add shadows, create transparent shapes, and then group it all together and save it as a picture. It’s easy, and you don’t need advanced image editing skills. As you saw in the video, anyone can do it.
Do you know the best part? When I added these PowerPoint graphics to the left sidebar of my blog, I increased my subscribers and attracted more leads. Who knew that a simple graphic created in Powerpoint could have such an impact?
If you want to inspect the graphics I created for my blog, see them below. I would love to hear what you think.
So there you have it! PowerPoint is the new image creation tool for bloggers!
Are you going to create some PowerPoint graphics for your blog? If you do, share them in the comments.
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That’s really a innovative post never know that with powerpoint we can create images. thanks a lot.
P.S. Keisha your blog is better and i’m one of the regular reader of your blog.
Thanks a lot for offering such a great and unique content
Hi Vivek!
Thanks! It’s an honor to have you as a regular reader – I’m glad you’re finding useful material there. I hope this tool will help you with customizations and image creation. Enjoy!
Good article and video. I have used PowerPoint many times before for basic graphics, but thanks for showing how to take it to another level.
Hi Billy,
Glad to help! There’s really so many overlooked features in PowerPoint.
This is a great tip and technique, but I’m just shivering at the thought of the rash of blog images that we’re going to see now in Comic Sans with Papyrus headlines.
*shiver*
LOL! Dossy!
Oh my… what have I done?! *shivering along with you*
Woooo, I’m excited, My lack of design skills and to be honest sometimes even ideas when it comes to images,and the visual look of my website has always been a concern for me. I can’t wait to try this out this week. I knew there was a reason PowerPoint was still on my computer. I love it when ‘old skool’ tools, have ‘new skoo’l uses. Thanks
Hi Stacey,
Glad to revive PP for you! I’ve been using it ever since a web designer friend of mine showed me how to save a picture and then when I learned how to tweak shadows and transpency, it was over – I was hooked.
Thanks for sharing, I will definately jump into PP to give it a try.
I have been working on graphics alot lately, trying to get my Facebook FanPage up and looking good. So far I have been using SnagIt, which I really love for its’ simplicity.
Everytime I learn Photoshop, I forget the tricks after awhile and have to go back and learn them again!
Thanks Keisha
Hi Kit,
I’ve used a combination of snagit and PPT. It’s great for creating blog screenshots.
Dear Kiesha,
Excellent tip. I intend to make a banner for subscribing with that tip.
Hi Frederico,
Great! Let me know how it works out for you
Yes, what a great way to utilize Powerpoint! I will dust it off and use it more often!
Kudos!
Hi Dawn,
Thanks!
Yes, it’s time for PPT to earn some new respect
Keisha,
That’s frickin’ awesome!!! I was missing the “Right Click” and “Save as Picture” option.
I’m super stoked!
Hi Lance,
I’d love to see what you come up with.
I know… it’s so simple, but so wonderful
Well that’s a total duh and wonderful insight Kiesha. I’ve been using Word to manipulate some imagery (faster and simpler than some image apps) and Excel to manipulate and create text and tables… Hmm… maybe I should put something together on that. I’ve always just ‘done’ it and not given it another thought, but this look at PowerPoint definitely makes this a great look at image manipulation. Thanks!
Question: Does Open Office have the comparable abilities like PP and have you tried that in that app? (Just thinking of the folks who can’t afford PP)
Me, I’m charging off to PP and seeing what damage I can now do to my own site!
-Bruce
Hi Bruce,
I’ve tried Open Office and it doesn’t have the wide array of editing – for example I don’t think you have as many options for shadows, you can’t tweak the transparency. If you can, it was to complicated for me to figure out and I immediately returned to PowerPoint. Be able to quickly create a transparent screen is just too cool for me to part with.
Thanks for the great info. Since you are showing the box as a selection could you show me the html that uses the box?
Hi Tom,
Are you talking about how I linked the image? I just adding a href= code + img src=
It’s quite simple. It’s just a image with a link inserted. If that’s not what you meant, please let me know.
thank you, excellent video!
Thanks, Lance!
I was recently thinking of trying this and you helped give me some great steps to give it a try. Thanks for the share.
Hi Greg,
I’m glad you’ve found this to be useful. Good luck – let me know how it works for you.
Thanks for the great tip and excellent video. Never even knew you could do this with Powerpoint. This has opened up a whole new way of making my own images. Brilliant!
Hi Hans,
Yes, I love PowerPoint – I especially like being able to create transparent shapes – add that with a little shadow and gradient shading and you could come up with something really cool!
For folks using a Mac, Keynote, the presentation software included in the iWorks suite, is an excellent tool that allows you to do the sames things as PowerPoint and more.
Hi James,
That’s great to know. I’m not a Mac user, so I rarely think of that perspective, so I’m very glad you’ve included it here.
@James – have you used both PowerPoint and Keynote. Is there one you would recommend over the other?
Great technique. Thanks for sharing Kiesha.
Hi Roseli,
It’s a pleasure – always glad to help!
This is a great tip! Thanks so much for sharing it.
Hi Laura,
No problem – enjoy!
I really LOVE PP. It’s quick’n'easy, as pointed out, and does a lot with layering and moving things around. I’ve done a lotta home-made graphics with it!!
Thank you for the refresher and the “save as a group” tip!!!
Hi Travis,
Yes, saving as a group comes in handy in so many ways. There are also some clipart graphics that can be ungrouped, which is a cool trick that allows you to use pieces of clip art in new and unexpected ways. Play around with it and see what you come up with.
Thanks Kiesha! That’s very timely information for me. I needed to make some buttons for for a website / blog. I think this will do nicely.
Hi Jon,
Yes, PPT is definitely great for making cool buttons. Good luck with that!
This is simply wonderful Kiesha and the last thing I would think about using is PowerPoint to create and kind of graphics. Hopefully, my creative “neurons” are there to help, cause I am going to spend a lot of time working around things. Thumbs up and thanks for the video, makes it easier to follow.
Hi DiTesco,
Glad to see you here! There are also some great tutorials for creating graphics in PowerPoint. Here’s a link: http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/see-how-easily-you-can-create-graphics-in-powerpoint/
Thank you very much for the link Kiesha. You rock!
Awww… thanks!!
Nicely done
It’s amazing how much you can do in PowerPoint.
Actually there is a page in facebook especially for pictures made only in PowerPoint. Some of them are pro-like!
Hi Wes,
You really can create professional looking graphics in PPT if you have the talent and the patience. And it’s so easy to keep track of everything.
Hello Kiesha ,
Thanks for the tip! I also like to work in PowerPoint for fast graphics.
Do you know how to make the background transparent in the .png-image?
Goran “thetanningguru”
Hi!
If you copy and paste an image into PPT that doesn’t have a transparent background, you can’t create one, you’ll have to do some editing – either in Paint or Photoshop. I guess that would be the limitation. But you can create an image from scratch that has a transparent background with no problem.
This is awesome. I’ve never thought about using PowerPoint in this way but plan to do so in the future. Thank you for sharing!
I was wondering though, what are your thoughts/reactions to using Screencast-O-Matic. I would love to hear your opinions.
Thanks,
Brendan
Hi Brendan,
I actually had a good experience with screencast – of course the free version doesn’t allow you to do much interior editing other than recording over things. And once you publish it to Youtube, you can’t do more than light editing – but honestly, it accomplished what I needed and I’m really considering getting the pro edition for $9/year. As long as it does what I need, for now, I’m happy.
This is exactly what I do when I need a decent graphic. I used PowerPoint to make the header for my blog and the graphic above the sign up for my newsletter. I use Jing to take a picture of it because that saves it as a .png. I’ve also used PowerPoint to create a nice FBML intro page for my Facebook Page.
Super! I’ve never heard of Jing before, but PPT also allows you to save in .png format if you select it from the pull-down. I’ve been meaning to spice up my Fan page, but time is always an issue. I really could use a 36-hour day – that would actually leave time for sleep (maybe)
It’s an interesting alternative to Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and such and I’ve to admit I didn’t use it yet for making some quick graphics
PS: The images are missing (as they already did in the newsletter email) and I can’t access weblogbetter.com (it’s offline) – ‘Sup, dawg?!
Hi Frederik,
Everytime I check things out, everything looks fine. As soon as I turn my back, it starts acting up again. Should be okay, but let me know if it isn’t.
Seems like the site is playing hide and seek
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Keisha,
Thanks for this post. I’ve been using PS to create graphics all along; never thought of PP! Sometimes firing up PS for a quick graphic takes too long for me – I know, patience! – so I’ll definitely give this a try pretty soon.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Yeah, I’ve you PS and for some reason creating things takes me all night – who has that kind of time?
You call it inexpensive ? wow powerpoint is not inexpensive anyways good tutorial if you have one for open office it will be appreciated
Hi Nick,
I totally understand – I was forced to try Open Office, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same features. I’ll do a little more research and will see what I can come up with.
If you have a college student in your family, you could have them purchase the student edition – it’s like $79 for the whole Office.
Thanks Kiesha.
Great tutorial. Along with a lot of other people it seems, I have been neglecting PP for web graphics.
Hi Brad,
I didn’t realize how overlooked it was – I love PowerPoint, you can make it do so many things, even create e-courses if you have the right software. Although, now you can really get away with use a free screen capture tool and just run the slideshow while you record. I love it.
Hello Keisha,
Overlooked, that nails this topic down alright.
As others have already said, I also have used Adobe software to handle similar items while PowerPoint just sat buried in the list of Office programs.
Thanks for the kick in the butt. Very easy to use and implement.
Great Article! Thank You…
Hi Steve,
No kick intended. Of course, it’s not as extensive as PhotoShop, but for the average user, PowerPoint can really get the job done and quickly.
That is really great. I never thought about using powerpoint! Thanks!
Hi Jen,
Thanks! Just play around with it a little, you’ll discover a lot more cool things this software can do.
Wow, Keisha…. I never thought of using PowerPoint this way. It seems simple enough that even a graphics dunce like me can figure it out. Thanks for the video and information.
Wow,really nice Kiesha, I”m really being educated with quality posts here. Glad I’ve found you via Twitter. Not an expert with power point,but would love to experiment with it to help my blog out a little. Keep it coming Kiesha.
Hi Henry,
Thanks for following me!! I’ve found that you don’t have to be an expert to really benefit from the cool drawing tools. Just play around with it, you might just come up with something great!
Ain’t no stopping you now!! That video was awesome and it’s exactly what I needed to see. Thanks so much Kiesha, I’m so glad to see you video blogging now. Love your voice too. Cheers!
Hi Ileane!
Thanks, Ileane, that certainly means a lot coming from you. I’m definitely going to do my best to crank out more. There’s just not enough hours in the day. 
Now you know that makes me blush!
Wow……your timing was perfect.
I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to create a specific graphics element and failed in all my attempts.
But I do have powerpoint….shouldn’t be a problem now or in the future.
Thanks
Hi Tom,
(Just kidding) I hope this helps you solve your problem. Try keeping your graphics as simple as possible, you’ll be amazed at the results.
I bet you didn’t know i was psychic
Hey! thanks for this! I speak often at conferences and this is great knowledge to have about Power Point and now I can enhance my presentations!
Thanks!
Hi Kathy,
You might also want to check out some of the tutorials on the Rapid eLearning blog – they’ve got some really cool tips for graphics and they even give away some free downloadable things to.
Here’s the link:
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/see-how-easily-you-can-create-graphics-in-powerpoint/
Keisha –
Great post! Gives me hope to say the least. I had no real idea how to do a better job with making these types of ads. I resorted to what i did know – and with so-so results.
Thank you so much for sharing. Using ppt like that – who knew? What a gem. I look forward to playing with it.
I enjoy the thesis theme blog. Good stuff can always be found here. Thanks to all
Brenda
Hi Brenda,
I didn’t realize how many people were missing out on this aspect of PowerPoint until now – I’m glad I was able to share something useful here.
So great! Thanks much Keisha for this post. Although I have done graphic design school we never really experimented on PP and always on the fancy programs like photoshop, illustrator, etc.
This is such a great EASY tool. I look forward to improve my own logo for my yoga business and make it more a logo looking logo!!!!
Hi Marie-Aude,
If you’ve got a design background, I’m certain you can really get a lot of the features in PPT. When I used to create online courses, I witnessed whole scenes getting created, including buttons, backgrounds, and whatever else you can think of.
LOL – I like that: “a more logo looking logo”
Glad to help!
Very slick. I’ve been trying to find an easy way to create a simple sign graphic to show a printer what I’m wanting, and your solution is perfect. Appreciated your straightforward time-sensitive presentation, too!
Thanks, Dru!
I’m glad this is something you can immediately put to use.
I just had to come back and thank you again! This is such an easy way to put some fun and eye-catching graphics for my blog together, which can be a nice change from photographs. I’m loving it! Thank you.
Hello there, very nice post and idea, but the sound is very low in the video I can hardly hear the voice with full speaker volume. I must appreciate the idea and the images you have created look like good photoshop work.
Hi Ahmad,
I apologize for the poor sound quality. That’s good to know so that I can make adjustments in the future. It was my first attempt at video – still working out the kinks
Great video! really clear & helpful info that sorted something out for me that I’ve been struggling with for ages! Thank You!!
)
Hi Sandy,
Glad I could inspire a lightbulb moment.
It’s a pleasure to help you
I still get overwhelmed by Adobe Photoshop. I hear everyone talk about how easy it is to use, but it is completely counterintuitive to the way I think. I love PowerPoint, and I often forget about it as a blogging tool. Thanks for the tips and the reminder.
Hi Brad,
I’ve try Photoshop and I actually enjoyed using it, but the laptop that I had it on died and well, I just refused dish out anymore money – so I turned to PowerPoint, my friend from my e-learning course days
Great post. Well done!
This process completely overcomes my inability to use Photoshop or Gimp.
Combining Powerpoint and a screen grabbing tool like Snagit – or even plain old Ctrl+PrntScrn – you can use this idea to create cool, important and *neceessary* graphic elements. Buttons, logos… all sorts of great stuff that you might otherwise have to pay and wait for. I’m not saying that “paying and waiting” is bad, it’s just sometimes better to “do for free”.
Thanks again and keep up the great work.
Hi Alex,
Until then I’m sticking with PPT.
SnagIt is a great tool – I usually keep it simple and use the Ctrl+PrntScrn w/Paint in combination with PowerPoint all the time. I’m with you – paying for what you can do for yourself for free is not my first choice. Now, when I get rich and don’t have time for that anymore, maybe my view will change
What a great idea, Keisha. I love doing things with the tools I already have! Thanks.
Hi Graeme,
Yeah, most of us already have everything we need to complete these tasks and don’t even realize it. I’m glad I could help.
Keisha,
Great tutorial!
Many people use Photoshop and other graphics and image editors etc… I never had time to learn.
I use PowerPoint exclusively to create graphics for not only my blogs but also use to build logos and all sorts of other things for the web design part of our business. Take away PowerPoint and I would be helpless!
Hi Tom,
Thanks! I knew I wasn’t the only one out there!
I’ve never thought of using PowerPoint to create images. This is really useful. Thank you
Hi Some Guy!
I guess it’s not the first program you’d think of when creating graphics, but it definitely does the job and it’s so much simpler than photoshop.
Really good information and something newbies need to understand how to do.
Also a good reminder for myself too.
Thanks
Hi Robert,
Being able to create your own quality graphics can save a lot of money, that’s for sure. Glad to be a reminder for you.
Kiesha – Love this so much I blogged about it! Just now I figured out how to get the background transparent… http://activerain.com/blogsview/2111876/enhance-your-blog-make-your-own-graphics- Thanks for sharing, Julia
Hi Julia,
That’s awesome, I’m definitely going to check out the post! Thanks!
Very helpful video. I have a mac so can’t get paint.net. I don’t want to buy Photoshop – too much money for the little I would use it. Gimp seems intimidating. My son suggested using Powerpoint for graphics and showed me some things he had figured out. I’ve been messing around with it. Your tutorial helped to pull it together for me regarding how I can use it. Thanks.
Hi Aconeflower,
I’m glad this post was able to fill in some gaps for you.
Kiesha,
Finally – a better way to create web graphics with a tool that’s basically been banished to just creating slides. Enjoyed the video.
Thanks,
Hi David,
Glad you enjoyed the video. The tools were meant to help people create better graphics for their presentations, but its uses definitely extend beyond the programs intentions and I enjoy it.
Didn’t know PP could do all this. Thanks for some reason I just never thought about using it.
Hi Lyn,
Yes, it’s a great program – I rarely use it to create presentations, but I sure enjoy using it to create graphics and even backgrounds for blog templates.
Wow Kiesha, that was really useful.
I have some basic (very basic) graphic editing skills, but sometimes I just don’t want to open Photoshop or Fireworks. This will save me so much time – thank you for this!
PowerPoint is really great. I use it always to make graphics.
Hi Kiesha,
A lot of people don’t know you can do this with powerpoint. I for one am one of them. What can I say? Simple and powerful. Knowledge is power.
Thanks so much for sharing this,
Terry Conti
Thank´s it´s really usefull. Good bless you!
Many thanks, I was wondering how I could might create images for a foundation degree I’m working on. Now I know how – thanks for sharing!
I never knew so much could be done with PowerPoint. Thank you for my lesson today.
Wow!!! I must say this is one of the most invaluable tips, if you are blogging or marketing you definitely need images.
Of course you can buy and outsource but that can get costly… Although I have photoshop the learning curve is just to much when you are doing 1o0 hundred other things….
In any event great post and thanks for the tips