WHERE DID MICROSOFT CLIPART GO?

by:  Steve Crowhurst, CTC

The next time you create a promotional flyer using MS Word and then click on the Insert tab, followed by Online Pictures to access Microsoft’s clipart you will notice it is no longer there. Your choices are Bing and depending upon how your computer is configured, One Note or some other program where images might reside. Microsoft has closed its clipart department and now Bing is the supplier of images for Microsoft.

The Microsoft clipart images came somewhat pre-approved for your use - the Bing images are tagged and this means you MUST research whether or not you can freely use the image you have selected. I know personally of a travel agent who received an invoice for something like $7,000 for an image that had resided on her website for a couple of years after she copied it from Google images - so this is important. Unless the image states it is categorically FREE of any and all fees, it isn’t free to use.

Check the image below that shows a search for travel images. As you will see there is a yellow band advising you about the images being licensed. The arrow is pointing to a type of licensing called Creative Commons which refers to how content creators license their work for use (nor not) by others.  Depending on the content creators needs, some of the images will be free to use, others will require that you credit the creator, company or website and some are for purchase if you wish to use them.

To add a one liner crediting the content creator or photographer, website of company is very easy to do. The text can be small and reside close to the image for instance. Change the direction of the text to point vertical and place it by the right side of the image. If you are producing a brochure and adding the source of the image disrupts your page, then add a list of credits in the inside back cover. Same thing for any PowerPoint slides you produce, you can list the images and who created them on your last slide. If the Creative Commons usage requests that the credit be shown beside the image then you must comply with that request.

If like me, you have made tremendous use of Microsoft’s clipart / graphics and the Creative Commons licensing rules are tough to take – you can source your image needs elsewhere. I will focus more on the subscription services such as GraphicStock where for a small annual fee you can copy and download and use their images without any fear of being sued. In addition if you have any artistic talent, why not create your own imagery. If you need more information and how-to, this topic will be explored in-depth in the February issue of Selling Travel. In the meantime... be careful out there and click here to check out Creative Commons. If you are a content creator yourself then you should also check out how you can use Creative Commons licensing.

 

Steve Crowhurst, CTC, Travel & Tourism Speaker, Trainer, Author

Learn how to become a home based travel agent and open your own online travel agency. www.HomeBasedTravelAgents.ORG