When I click a picture, the Drawing Tools tab rather than the Picture Tools tab appears

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If you are looking for the Drawing toolbar, see What happened to the Drawing toolbar?

Symptoms

When you click a picture, the Drawing Tools tab, rather than the Picture Tools tab, appears above the Format tab.

 Note   If you do not see either the Picture Tools or Drawing Tools tabs, make sure that you selected a picture, shape, or other object (object: A table, chart, graphic, equation, or other form of information. Objects created in one application, for example spreadsheets, and linked or embedded in another application are OLE objects.).

Cause

The picture is not treated as a picture because it is most likely an image with a drawing type of format (such as a vector graphic (vector graphics: The representation of graphic objects such as lines, arcs, and squares by using geometrical formulas. By contrast, bitmapped graphics (also called raster graphics) are stored as a collection of pixels.)) or an embedded object (embedded object: Information (object) contained in a source file and inserted into a destination file. Once embedded, the object becomes part of the destination file. Changes you make to the embedded object are reflected in the destination file.).

Common file name extensions for vector graphics are .wmf (Windows Metafile Format (WMF): A vector graphics format for Windows-compatible computers used mostly as a clip art format in word-processing documents.), .emf, and .eps. Also, most clip art (clip art: A single piece of ready-made art, often appearing as a bitmap or a combination of drawn shapes.) (other than clip art in the Photographs media type) is in vector graphic format.

You may also experience this problem if you haven't correctly selected your picture, or if your document was created in Office 2003 and you're using Office 2007 in Compatibility Mode.

Resolution

Try one or more of the following:

• Replace your image with a picture that has one of these file name extensions: .png (PNG: A graphic file format that is supported by some Web browsers. Short for Portable Network Graphics, PNG supports variable transparency of images and control of image brightness on different computers. PNG files are compressed bitmaps..), .jpeg or .jpg (JPEG: A graphics file format (.jpg extension in Microsoft Windows) supported by many Web browsers that was developed for compressing and storing photographic images. It's best used for graphics with many colors, such as scanned photos.), .tiff (Tagged Image File Format (TIFF): A high-resolution, tag-based graphics format. TIFF is used for the universal interchange of digital graphics.), .bmp (bitmap: A picture made from a series of small dots, much like a piece of graph paper with certain squares filled in to form shapes and lines. When stored as files, bitmaps usually have the extension .bmp.), or .gif (GIF: A graphics file format (.gif extension in Windows) used to display indexed-color graphics on the World Wide Web. It supports up to 256 colors and uses lossless compression, meaning that no image data is lost when the file is compressed.).
• Make sure that you have selected your picture by clicking it.
• Double-click the picture to select it and open the Format tab.
• If you see [Compatibility Mode] next to the file name at the top of the Office 2007 window, save your document as an Office 2007 document instead of an Office 2003 document, and then try again.

 Notes 

• For information about Scribble, see Draw or delete a line, connector, or freeform shape.
• For information about adding a picture, see Insert a picture or clip art.
• For information about cropping or compressing a picture, see Reduce the file size of a picture.