Have you seen the new ‘cartoon people’ feature in MS PowerPoint? This illustration tool is a fantastic way to liven up your slides and add some joviality. And it’s not just cartoon people you can add; there’s also cartoon banners, cartoon objects, cartoon scenery, and much more! Here I show you how to use this fun illustration tool, then include the video and slidedeck used. In addition, I demonstrate how to render the images once inserted (see video).
Inserting Cartoon People in PowerPoint…
Time flies whether you are having fun or not.
Mary Engelbreit
The PowerPoint ‘cartoon people’ is a fun feature to liven up any presentation. So here’s some ideas on what you can use it for:
- Personalise and humanise your presentations with characters
- Convey a message in a friendly way with cartoon banners and screens
- Create scenes in an office environment or outside
So, how do you insert cartoon people and scenery in your PowerPoint slides? There’s just three simple steps in PowerPoint for Mac, as also shown in the screenshots below:
- On the Ribbon, choose ‘Insert’ and then ‘Icons’
- In the Task Pane, use the drop-down menu to select ‘Cartoon People’
- Use the search bar or browse items by theme
Note: I’m using PowerPoint for Mac. When doing this in PowerPoint for Windows, your options are even easier; the icon set pops up in a new window rather than on the task pane. Therefore, you can more easily browse to the cartoon people and various options/categories! So here’s how to insert cartoon people and scenery in PowerPoint for Windows:
- On the Ribbon, choose ‘Insert’ and then ‘Icons’
- In the pop-up window, select ‘Cartoon People’
- Use the search bar or browse items by theme
Cartoon Video Explainer and Template
The image above uses some of the office cartoons, people characters, scenery items, and background scenes overlaid on the whiteboard. There’s a raft of illustration elements you can use for your PowerPoint slides. For example, desks, office spaces, speech bubbles, banner graphics, and outdoor scenery. You can even build your own characters using the faces, facial features, hair, and accessories!
Below is another example ‘image I made earlier’ from my presentation on inserting cartoon characters into your slides. In this example, I also added a gradient fill as the background slide design:
Once you’ve inserted your characters and scenery, you can add custom animations and render graphics, as you would other objects. To do this, you can use the ‘recolour’ option within the formatting pane. If you want to create your own comic book on A4 slides, then see my explainer on how to change your slide size and orientation.
You might like this feature, or you may not! Assuming you do and want to try it out, here’s the video explainer…
Finally, if you’d like to browse the PowerPoint file I demo in this ‘how to insert cartoon people in slides’ video, download here:
I hope you’ve enjoyed this presentation and find the how-to video and slidedeck helpful. Like what I do? Please like and share with others who might find it useful. If so inclined, then you can also support my work to help keep free content flowing. Want fantastic, time-saving templates just for you and your business? Then please get in touch to arrange a bespoke quote. Finally, please feel free to leave your feedback below and/or comment on what tutorials and templates you’d like created.
Kind Regards, Adrian
