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You can remove unnecessary pixels from an image directly in Microsoft Word using the built-in cropping tool. You can also crop a photo to fit a specific shape. Here's how to crop a picture in Microsoft Word.

How to Crop a Picture in Word

To crop a picture in Microsoft Word, open the Word document, add an image (Insert > Pictures), and then select the photo by clicking it.

Selected image in Word

Next, go to the "Picture Format" tab, which appears after you select the image. Then, in the "Size" group, click "Crop."

Crop option in Size group

In the drop-down menu that appears, select "Crop."

Crop in dropdown menu

Cropping handles will now appear around the frame of the image. To crop out certain areas, click and drag the handles to capture only the content that you want to keep.

GIF of cropping an image in Word

After setting the cropping frame, click the icon in the upper half of the "Crop" option in the "Size" group of the "Picture Format" tab.

Crop icon in Word's ribbon

The unwanted areas of your image are now removed.

Cropped image

How to Crop a Picture as a Shape in Word

To crop an image as a shape, open the Microsoft Word application, insert an image (Insert > Pictures), and then select the image by clicking it.

Selected image in Word

In the "Picture Format" tab, which appears after selecting the image, click the "Crop" button found in the "Size" group. In the drop-down menu that appears, select "Crop To Shape."

Crop to Shape option

A sub-menu displaying a large library of shapes will appear. Select the shape that you'd like to crop the image as by clicking it. We'll use the teardrop shape in this example.

Teardrop shape

Your image will now be cropped as the selected shape automatically.

Cropped image

This is just one of many photo editing tools available in Microsoft Word. You can also do things such as removing the background from an image, annotating an image, and more.

Related: How to Remove the Background from a Picture in Microsoft Word