Media Browser - Clip Art Tab in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

There are two types of tabs in the Media Browser in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, the first type comprises those tabs that show media content within some designated folders on your computer, such as the Photos, Audio, and Movies tabs. The other three tabs (Clip Art, Symbols, and Shapes) show media content that's part of the Microsoft Office collection. In this tutorial, we will explore the Clip Art tab, which provides the quick and easy way in which you can browse Office 2011's Clip Art collection. The other option to access the Clip Art is through the Clip Gallery, which we will cover in a subsequent tutorial.

The Clip Art tab of the Media Browser displays the Clip Art collection installed as part of Microsoft Office 2011, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Clip Art tab within the Media Browser

You can even access the Clip Art tab of the Media Browser through the Insert | Clip Art | Clip Art Browser menu option.

Figure 2: Insert Clip Art Browser menu option

The options within the Clip Art tab of Media Browser are explained below, as marked in Figure 1, above:

A. Drop-down List

Click to bring up the list, as shown in Figure 3, below. Here you can filter the results by selecting a category, these categories cannot be customized inside PowerPoint, but you can get over that limitation using other options, as explained in our Customize Clip Art Categories within Media Browser in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial.

Figure 3: Categories drop-down list

B. Preview Pane

Displays previews of all the clip art in a selected category.

C. Vertical Scroll Bar

Placed towards the right of the Media Browser window, this may not be visible when there are a few clip art thumbnails, if there are more clip art thumbnails than what the Preview Pane can display, the vertical scroll bar allows you to scroll the window and view more thumbnails. Click one of the double-headed arrows at the bottom of the vertical scroll bar, or drag the handle box in the vertical scroll bar to move up or down several thumbnails at a time.

D. Zoom Slider

Drag the slider to resize the clip art thumbnails within the Preview Pane.

E. Number

Lists the number of clip art in your Preview Pane, this value changes depending upon the category you are browsing, and also dynamically changes when you enter a search term in the Search box.

Inserting Clip Art

To insert a Clip Art graphic on your slide, select it first within the Preview Pane. Then, drag and drop it onto your slide, as shown in Figure 4, below.

Figure 4: Clip Art graphic being dragged and inserted onto the slide area

Alternatively, you can right-click or (Ctrl+click) on your selected clip art graphic, and choose the Copy option from the resultant menu, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Copy the clip art graphic

Then, right-click or (Ctrl+click) on the slide and from the contextual menu chose the Paste option, or press Command + V, as shown in Figure 6, below.

Figure 6: Paste the clip art on your slide