Since a couple of people have asked, I decided to do a quick rundown of how to create a collage using Microsoft PowerPoint. It’s not fancy; it’s not really artistic (but then neither am I–fancy or artistic).
I’m using PowerPoint 2007 at the moment. If you have an earlier version, the directions may differ slightly.
- Open PowerPoint. You can use the default slide that appears as your starting point.
- Delete the title and subtitle text boxes.
- Right click on the slide.
- Select Format Background.
- Select Picture or texture fill.
From here, you can select one of the texture fills that come with PowerPoint or select your own wallpaper or image file as the background. For one collage I made, I used an actual photo of swimming pool water.
To continue:
- If the background is too dark, adjust to transparency to lighten it.
- Select Insert –>Picture to add images* to your collage.
- Once it’s complete, save the collage as its own image. Select Save As … and in the Save as type: field, select an image file type, such as JPEG.
You’ll receive message asking if you want to save only the current slide or all the slides in the presentation. Select current slide.
Now you have a wondrous image file of your collage that you can post on your blog or use as your desktop wallpaper as inspiration.
*I use royalty-free stock photography for many of my images. One of my favorite places to search is istockphoto.com. Dollar downloads: doesn’t get much better than that.
Writing Wrongs 
It’s easy and it’s fun — and you taught ME to do it, so anyone should be able to learn it, lol.
I use http://www.sxc.hu (they are totally free) or their sister site http://www.stockxpert.com ($1 downloads). I’ll have to check out istockphoto.
Okay… you’re tempting me. I was totally ready for the cut and paste version. I couldn’t find any images I wanted, but between you and Marianne I’ll try those sites (actually, I DID try i-stock but many of the more interesting images were much more expensive). Thanks tremendously for the tutorial.
The whole collage thing still seems a little unfocused for my somewhat, uh, tense, personality, but I think I could do this. You made it look really easy. I’m definitely going to give it a try.
Thanks so much for sharing!