Do you ever find yourself staring at a PowerPoint slide and thinking, “There’s just not enough information on this slide!”? You feel as if there’s some magical trick you could use to make all the details of your presentation more visible and understandable. Fortunately, that’s something you can easily do to make picture transparent in PowerPoint. All it takes is a little bit of sleuthing and some basic computer know-how. In this article, we’ll show you three simple steps that will help you make any picture in your slides transparent so that it doesn’t obscure the underlying information below it.

Step 1: Select the Picture You’d Like to Make Transparent

The first thing you’ll want to do is select the picture you want to make transparent in your slides. Once you’ve selected the picture, it should appear in your slides with a gray background. To select the picture and make it transparent, you’ll simply click on the picture and press the “A” key on your keyboard. This will make the gray background disappear and make the selected picture the only thing on the slide.

Step 2: Go to the “Layout” tab

Depending on the type of picture you’ve selected, the “Layout” tab may not be visible. If you see a tab that says something like “View,” “Edit,” or “Transitions,” that’s where you’ll find the “Transparency” option. To access this option, simply click the “Layout” tab at the bottom of your PowerPoint window and you should now see the “Transparency” option in the “Layout” box.

Step 3: Select the Transparency Tool

When you see the “Transparency” option in the “Layout” panel, you’ll see that there are two options below it. The first of these is the “Transparency” tool, which is what we’ll be using to make the picture we’re wanting to make transparent. To select the Transparency tool, simply click it with your cursor and your picture should now be selected and set to make the picture “transparent.”

Step 4: Position Your Transparency Tool Where You Need It

With the Transparency tool selected and the picture you’d like to make transparent selected, you’ll simply want to position the Transparency tool where you need it in your slide. Once you’ve done this, the picture will be made transparent. To align the Transparency tool, select the first edge of your selected picture with the cursor and then drag it to the desired position. When you’re positioned correctly, it should look like the picture below.

Other Ways to Make a PowerPoint Picture Transparent

There are a few other ways to make a picture in your slides transparent so that it doesn’t obscure the underlying information below it. One of these is simply to make the picture a “lazy image” and place it below the text you want it to be transparent for. This method is useful if you’re only wanting the image to be transparent, not the text below it. 

If none of these work for you, or you simply want to make a picture transparent in PowerPoint for aesthetic purposes, you may also try using a third-party program to make the picture transparent. There are a few programs designed to do this, and they’re very easy to use.

Wrapping Up

If you find yourself staring at a PowerPoint slide and wishing that you could make all the details a bit more visible, don’t worry! With just a little sleuthing, you can make any picture in your slides transparent. All you have to do is select the picture, position the Transparency tool where you need it, and select the Transparency tool. You’ll be able to see everything again in no time!