Use PowerPoint to store your images

I use lots of images in my ITLever Blog, the Practical IT Manager newsletter, the books and articles I write, web sites, training programs, , , almost everything I do.

You might say I’m a visual person, , , and you would be correct.

I’m visual for two reasons:

1. Helps me convey my point
2. Breaks up the text and makes it more interesting

Over the years I’ve bought thousands of royalty free images and have them on CD’s in a shelf beside my desk. The problem is that I won’t use all of these images, looking at them in the image books that come with the CD’s is hard to see, plus loading and unloading CD’s is quite frankly a hassle.

Let me say, , , a real hassle !!

I’m visual all right, , , but I’m also impatient. I needed a way to get to the images I use for work projects quickly. Loading thousands of images into a file folder on my PC didn’t seem plausible because I won’t use 90% of them. Also, when I’m on the road and want to do some work, I need my images, , , so I needed something that was not only practical, but also portable.

My solution was to use PowerPoint.

About two years ago I created an “Images.ppt” file. Initially I went through the file folders on my PC I knew there would be images I use often, , , and copied them to the PowerPoint slides. Then, I went through most of the image CD’s I had purchased and copied many of the images I liked to the PowerPoint slides.

One of the things I did initially and now quite happy about is that I put text in the top left part of each slide to categorize the images. For example, I have categories that include Arrows, Targets, Money, People, Technology, Worlds, etc. When I need to find something, I can search the file on a keyword and usually find the image quickly.

When I buy new images, I go through the file and copy the ones I think we might use later on to the PowerPoint slides, , , and always try to put them on the proper category slide.

My Arrows slide has grown to 4 slides and the entire file is over 400 slides of images.

I also included photos of myself, logos, images of my books, etc. that I might need when I create a product promotion or when I announce something new.

I rarely have to look outside of this images.ppt file to find an image I can use for a project I’m working on.

The whole point to this is that now when I need a good image for something I’m working on, , , I know right where to go. It’s quick and easy, , , helps my productivity quite a bit, , , and the images are always with me as long as I have my flash drive.

I did this for convenience, not because I like to do lots of extra work. This file saves me a tremendous amount of time and aggravation. You will find that all my tools are geared to help me do something a little more efficient.

Another nice thing about using PowerPoint is that it makes it easy for me to combine images to create a different look. Many of my images are png files and eliminate the background color surrounding the object. PowerPoint works well with png’s to create a new image, , , and it’s easy to add a new slide anywhere you want to have a blank space to do the work.

The example on the left used 3 images.

Here are a few samples of the image slides in my “Images.ppt” file:

My images.ppt file is open virtually all the time, , , makes it quick and easy for me to grab something or to save an image when appropriate.

If you work on things where you constantly need to use images, you will find this approach is a great way to collect and store your images. It sure makes a big difference in the work I do.