The days of inserting cartoonish images into PowerPoint presentations or Word documents are over: Microsoft has announced that its Office.com Clip Art and image library is closed.
Instead, users will have to use Bing Image Search to liven up reports and other files saved to a smartphone, tablet, or PC. Bing has a copyright filter that taps into Creative Commons licenses so you can make sure you are free to use the images that pop up.
“A link to the source of the image is provided, which you should use to review the source of the image and the applicable license to determine whether your use will comply with the license,” Doug Thomas of the Office 365 Team wrote in a blog post.
For more images, the settings can be switched to show all Web results. “However, you are responsible for respecting others’ rights, including copyright,” Thomas added.
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Last summer, Redmond switched on Bing’s “Search by License” feature, which allows folks to identify those pictures they are allowed to borrow without fear of being sued. For instance, add some flourish to a birthday party invitation with designs of cakes by narrowing your search results to only those photos available for commercial use.
Previously, consumers had to rummage through image details to verify licensing information. Now Bing delivers only the type of images you want.
There are options to search for photos available for commercial use, or those that you can modify and still use commercially. If you become overwhelmed by the options, just click “Learn More” for details about each licensing filter.
The perk of searching for Bing-based images from any Office application isn’t exactly new: Microsoft added it last year to its latest version of Office 2013. Until this week, however, users still had access to Clip Art drawings.
Date: December 2, 2014