Microsoft PowerPoint's image-insertion feature makes it simple and quick to add graphics to your presentations, but you don't want to skip over one important step --- giving credit where credit is due. Attribute your images through citations which give presentation viewers more details about what they're looking at and also serve as some due diligence on your part. Use the American Psychological Association, or APA, guidelines to ensure that your citations are formatted properly.
Start Microsoft PowerPoint. Click one of the two text box placeholders on the slide. Press the "Delete" key. Repeat to delete the other text box. Technically, these won't show up on your slide, but they just get in the way.
Click the "Insert" tab. Click the "Picture" button below the tab. Navigate to the picture to cite and double-click the image. Drag it into place on the slide.
Click the "Text Box" button on the ribbon. When the cursor turns into an upside down cross symbol, drag the cursor to form the text box for the citation. You can always adjust the text box size when you see the citation size.
Click inside the text box. Type the last name of the image creator with a comma, such as "Pollock," and type the artist's first initial with a period, such as "Pollock, J." Do not type the quotation marks.
Type an open parenthesis and type the date of the image creation. Type a closed parenthesis and then type a period, so the entire line so far looks like "Pollock, J. (1992)." Do not type the quotation marks.
Type the name of the image. Do not use capitals except for the first word. Highlight the image name and click the "I" icon on the "Home" tab to make the title italic. Type an open bracket and type the type of image, such as "[Painting]" or "[Photograph]."
Type where the image is displayed, then type a comma and the location of the facility, such as "Museum of Modern Art, New York City."
Type where you accessed the image from, which is a permissions statement or a credit back to the original website owner. Your complete citation looks like this: "Pollock, J. (1992). Splatter effects [Painting]. Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Permission to reprint by MOMA." Remember that the image title, in this case "Splatter effects," should be in italic font.
Click and drag a corner of the citation text box and resize it as necessary. To change the appearance of the text in the text box, highlight it, click the "Home" tab and use the options in the "Font" section of the ribbon.
- If you already have the image inside a PowerPoint presentation, skip all the setup steps and join in the instructions at the text box insertion point.
- Not all of this information may be available on every image you wish to cite. Include what you can in the same formatting.