Along with text processing tools, Word contains a powerful integrated image editor and provides a wide range of design possibilities.

In the Clip Gallery, you will find a great number of professional graphics intended particularly for document design. Images vary from personal portraits to geographic maps, caricatures, and many others.

To find the right image, choose Insert|Picture|Clip Art..., and then the Picture, Sound or Motion tab. Clip Gallery allows search by characteristics, and has its own database of added, updated and modified graphics. To find the right image or for more information use the Search for field or click Help in the right tab .

Images and scanned photos can be inserted into Word from different files and applications. To insert a picture from another application, choose Insert|Picture|From file... Selecting a picture on the screen brings up the Picture Toolbar used to compress images, set line style, adjust brightness and contrast.

There are two types of images: dot pattern and metafile. Dot pattern images cannot be ungrouped, while metafile images can be ungrouped, converted to graphic objects and edited with the help of drawing toolbar. Windows metafiles have the WMF extension (Windows MetaFile).

To ungroup an image and convert it to a set of graphic objects, select the image, right click over it to bring up the local menu, and choose Group|Ungroup. Graphic objects created in this way can be modified as any other graphics. For example, you can add a picture of a person, perform ungrouping, change the clothes' color, and add the image to another one.

Besides that, Word identifies most of the popular graphics formats. Since all Microsoft Office2000 applications use the same graphics filters, the filter set by the installation of another Office application, for example, Power Point, will be accessible in Word. Graphics formats not supported by Word are the following: CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile), GIF (Compuserve GIF), CDR (CorelDRAW), PCX (PC Paintbrush), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), BMP (Windows Bitmap) and many other.