John Ramsay Adding graphic images to Word-processed documents

Site content by John Ramsay This description applies to Netscape and Word on the PC. Other web-browsers, platforms and word-processor packages will have similar procedures.

Why bother to learn this skill ?

The judicious use of a graph, table of data, photograph or diagram containing accurate and relevant information can both enhance the argument you are making in an essay or assignment, and the presentation of your work. Graphs and tables, in particular can be extremely efficient means of conveying large amounts of data. Used correctly, the following technique will be of use in any assignment, project or dissertation work that you undertake as a student.

Why not simply cut and paste pieces of paper?

One of the main advantages of having images stored in digital form is that, unlike manual images, you can manipulate the size, number and location on the page of digital images with extraordinary ease. This technique is also of particular interest if the document you are working on is going to end up as a page on the World Wide Web (WWW). It is a simple matter to copy any image such as diagrams:

or photographs:

or indeed any other kind of image, render them down into digital form and store them directly within a word-processed document.

Obtaining Images from the WWW

  1. Open the page on the Web that contains the image you would like to copy, place the cursor over it and press the Right-hand mouse button. A menu will appear, one line of which reads something like 'Save this image as'. Select that line and you will be asked to choose a drive upon which to save the image and a file name to use. Save the image wherever you like/can.
  2. Now open the word processing document you would like to add the image to. In 'Word', for example, you then select the 'Insert' menu on the main toolbar, and select the line 'Picture'. This will then prompt you to identify the drive location and file name of the image you would like to insert as a picture. Select the file you have just saved.

Obtaining digital versions of 'physical' images

Site content by John Ramsay

If you have a table, graph, chart, photograph or image in a book that you would like to paste into a document this can also be achieved by using one of the University scanners to scan the document on to a disc and then inserting that image in the same manner described above in step 2. (IT Services staff can advise you on the location and operation of the University's scanners.)

Whatever kind of images you employ, it is important to ensure that they do more than merely decorate your work. The information they contain should help you to answer the question or solve the problem you have been set, if it does not, then you would be well advised to concentrate your efforts on other aspects of the work in hand. If you are borrowing images form the work of other academics it is also important that you reference them properly, using the standard referencing guidelines used when citing books or published articles.

Warning

Copyright: There is nothing wrong with doing this kind of copying and pasting for internal University student work such as assignments and essays that are never going to leave the University premises, but you might well be infringing copyright legislation if you were ever to do anything similar on documents for use outside of the Institution. So don't do it.

Plagiarism: copying the work of other students for use in formally assessed pieces of work within the University contravenes the University's plagiarism regulations and exposes you to the risk of incurring penalties. The following is an extract from those regulations:

Illustrative examples of plagiarism taken from the University rules include:

You would be wise to err on the side of caution and avoid copying original images taken from other students' work.

Updated 19th March, 1996