| Microsoft Office Picture Manager | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | August 19, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-08-19) |
| Final release | |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Raster graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | support |
Microsoft Office Picture Manager (formerlyMicrosoft Picture Library[4]) is araster graphics editor introduced inMicrosoft Office 2003 and included up toOffice 2010.[5] It is the replacement toMicrosoft Photo Editor introduced inOffice 97 and included up toOffice XP.[6]
Basic image editing features includecolor correct,crop,flip,resize, androtate. To facilitate image organization, Picture Manager includes a shortcut pane to which users can manually—or automatically through aLocate Pictures command—add shortcuts tofolders in ahierarchicalfile system layout, which eliminates the need to create new categories for images or to import them to a specific folder. Picture Manager allows users to share images inemail, to anintranet location, or to aSharePointlibrary.[7] It also allows images to be shared directly withExcel,Outlook,PowerPoint, andWord.
Microsoft terminated support for Picture Manager with the release ofOffice 2013 and recommendedPhotos and Word as replacements because of theirdigital imaging capabilities.[8]
Picture Manager (known at the time as Picture Library) was first released in 2002 alongsideOffice 2003 (then known as Office 11) Beta 1 and included crop,red-eye removal, resize, and rotate features.[4] In Office 2003 Beta 2, released in March 2003, it retained its preliminary Picture Library name and integrated with SharePoint by automatically opening when users added multiple images to a library; users could access these images from within other Office 2003 applications with the Shared Workspace task pane.[9]
Picture Manager is included in Office 2003 through Office 2010; it was no longer included with versions ofMicrosoft Office starting with Office 2013. However, it is available as an optional component in SharePoint Designer 2007 and can be installed as a standalone application;[5] SharePoint Designer 2007 was made available in 2009 asfreeware.[10] Picture Manager is also available as an optional component of SharePoint Designer 2010.[5] With the release of Microsoft Office 2010 SP2 in 2013, Microsoft updated Picture Manager to resolve an issue that caused it to crash whenInternet Explorercompatibility mode was active.[2]
Theuser interface of Picture Manager consists of menus, toolbars, a shortcut pane, and task panes; it supports editing and navigationkeyboard shortcuts.[11] Users can manually add folder shortcuts to the shortcut pane or automatically populate the pane with folders that include images through aLocate Pictures command, which eliminates the need for users to create new image categories or to import images from another location.[7] The shortcut pane by default does not list any folders.[12] Images displayed in Picture Manager can be viewed individually or infilmstrip orthumbnail arrangements, and users canzoom in or out of images.[12] Picture Manager does not displayGIF image animation[13] and, like the version of Photo Editor included with Office XP, does not support thePCX image format.[14]
Basic image editing features include color correct, crop, flip, resize, and rotate. Advanced features includebrightness,contrast,hue, andsaturation adjustment;batch processing;compression; and red-eye removal.[15] AnAutoCorrect command can automatically adjust brightness, contrast, and color. All editing capabilities are listed on anEdit Pictures task pane.[12] Images can be compressed with options for insertion intodocuments, email, orweb pages.[16] After editing, users can view or discard unsaved changes, overwrite the original image, rename andsave the new image, or export it to another location. Users can also share images in email, to an intranet location, or to a SharePoint library.[7] Picture Manager users runningWindows 2000 cannot print images from the application, as this feature requires awizard distributed withWindows XP.[17]
Picture Manager lacks severalimage editing features of its predecessor, Photo Editor, includingemboss,noise reduction,RGBgamma correction options,smudge, andunsharp mask features. The following effects of Photo Editor are not included in Picture Manager:Chalk and Charcoal,Edge,Graphic Pen,Negative,Notepaper,Posterize,Sharpen,Soften,Stained Glass,Stamp,Texturizer, andWatercolor.[6] Picture Manager also cannot create new images from adigital camera or from ascanner. Microsoft stated that this feature is native toWindows Explorer in Windows XP[6] and that users are not required to import images to manage them.[7]
Microsoft has published instructions on how to reinstall Photo Editor.[18] Historically, a similar reduction in features occurred when Photo Editor of Office 97 replaced Microsoft Imager ofOffice 95.[19]
