Insert Pictures in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

It is true that both pictures and words are important, and they both play complementary roles. If you had to choose just one of them, then you could use pictures because the presenter can always use words to explain what the picture represents. Presentations, by their very nature, are meant to be visual in nature. Text and speaking are important too, but you can be more effectively heard and remembered if your content includes pictures.

Adding pictures to your PowerPoint 2016 for Mac slide is a great way to add some visual detail. Essentially, depending upon the layout of your slide, there are two ways to insert a picture on your slide in PowerPoint:

1. You use a layout that includes a Content or Picture placeholder.
2. You insert a picture within a slide irrespective of its layout.

Choose the option that works best for you. We cover both options in the following steps:

1. Launch PowerPoint and open a new presentation. This presentation contains a new slide. Change the layout of this slide to Title and Content by selecting the Home tab | Layout | Title and Content option. This results in the slide layout you see in Figure 1.
2. Notice that this layout has a Content placeholder that lets you add bulleted text or any of the 6 different content types in the slide. These 6 content types are indicated by the 6 buttons located right in the center of the Content placeholder (see Figure 1). Click on the Picture from File button in the Content placeholder, shown highlighted in red within Figure 1.
3. 
   Figure 1: Picture from File button within Content placeholder
4. Alternatively, if you want to add a picture on an existing slide that has no Content placeholder, you can select the Insert tab of the Ribbon, and click the Pictures button to open a drop-down menu shown in Figure 2. Within this menu, select the Picture from File option (refer to Figure 2 again).
5. 
   Figure 2: Picture from File option within the Insert tab
2. Either way, you will summon the Choose a Picture dialog box. Navigate to the folder where your pictures are located. You will see the icons or thumbnails of the pictures as shown in Figure 3. Alternatively you may just see a textual listing. Select the picture you need, and click on the Insert button highlighted in red within Figure 3.
3. 
   Figure 3: Choose a Picture dialog box
3. As soon as you click the Insert button, you will see the selected picture placed on your PowerPoint slide, as shown in Figure 4.
4. 
   Figure 4: Picture inserted on the slide
5. The picture you inserted can be edited by resizing, moving, rotating, etc. You can also add effects and more pizzazz to your pictures, as we show you in our picture tutorials.
4. For now, don't forget to save your presentation.

Note that the procedure to insert a picture explained above will not retain any relation between the picture in your folder and the picture on your slide. The picture on your slide is an independent copy that is contained within the presentation. If you want to link to the picture, check our Insert and/or Link Pictures in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac tutorial.