Advertisement
  1. SEJ
  2.  ⋅ 
  3. Tools

How to Extract Images from Word, Google Docs, PDFs & More

Need help extracting images from a document? Use these quick and easy hacks for Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, and PowerPoint.

How to Extract Images From Documents (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, PDF & More)

If you crank up a ton of blogs per week, you need to be as efficient as possible with your time.

So, let’s say your writers send you a bunch of Word documents with images.

  • How do you extract these images and transfer them to your post?
  • Do you copy and paste the images from the document? (Time-consuming.)
  • Do you require documents to be sent in a .zip file with images? (Confusing, as the images in the .zip will not be in the same order as they are in the document.)

The good news is there are quick and easy hacks for extracting images from any kind of document (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Slides, PDF, and PowerPoint).

Let’s look at them one by one!

The Quick & Easy Way to Extract Images from Documents

There are a ton of benefits to learning how to quickly and easily extract images from documents.

Here are three of them:

  • You don’t have to waste time copying and pasting images one by one from a document onto WordPress (or whatever software you’re using).
  • You can grab and save photos from ebooks, reports, and presentations you like.
  • You save time figuring out which photo is which in a .zip file.

So, are you ready to learn how to do it?

1. How to Extract Images from Microsoft Word

Here’s an example of a Microsoft Word document with an image.

Word document with image

To extract the image (and all images in the document), you first need to save the document as Web Page, Filtered.

extracting images from docs step one

When you do, a new folder will appear in the place you saved the document as a webpage.

new folder

Inside this folder, you’ll find all the images from the document.

images saved in new folder

The beautiful part is all these images will appear in the same order they appear in the Word document.

They’re even numbered!

Remember, the original document won’t be included in the new folder.

Make sure to copy it in if you want to create a new .zip with the extracted images.

2. How to Extract Images from Google Docs

If you’re like most people, you extract images from Google Docs by copying each image onto a different app.

For instance, you paste the images on Photoshop or Paint and save them to your computer.

The problem with this is your photos get resized.

And it’s tedious, time-consuming work when you’ve got a ton of photos to extract.

So, what’s the easy way?

First, open your document on Google Docs. Click File, then Download.

Select Web Page (.html, zipped).

Google Docs save as

Once you do this, a .zip folder will be downloaded to your computer.

Go to your Downloads folder (or any folder you’ve set for downloads) and look for the .zip.

This is what you’ll get.

downloads folder

All the images in your Google Doc are saved neatly in the folder titled “images.”

3. How to Extract Images from Google Slides

What makes Google Slides difficult is there’s no direct way to save images to your computer.

However, there’s a simple hack to get around this problem.

Here’s how.

Select the image you want to download.

Then, right click and select Copy.

copy a slide from Google Slides

Click File > New > Document.

open new document Google Slides

In your new Google Doc, click Edit and Paste.

click edit then paste

The image will appear in your document.

pasted image in Word

Repeat this with all the images you want to extract from Google Slides.

Once you have all the images in a Google Doc, you can follow the steps for extracting images from Google Docs and saving them to your computer (see #2).

4. How to Extract Images from a PDF Document

Picture this.

You download a beautiful PDF document.

You go through it and see one or two images you’d love to have and use in your own blogs.

But there’s a problem: a PDF document is like laminated plastic.

You can enjoy its content, but it’s for your eyes only.

You can’t edit it, copy it, or extract its images.

Except you can, and it’s super easy if you know the trick.

So, here’s your PDF document and the image you want to extract.

PDF with images

Right click and choose Select Tool.

PDF select tool

Next, click on the image so it darkens. Like this.

selected image in PDF

Right click on the image. A copy image tab will appear.

PDF copy image tooltip

Open an image editing app of your choice.

One app that’s effective and simple to use is Microsoft Paint.

Click Paste on the upper left corner of your screen.

pasted image in Microsoft Paint

What’s great about using Microsoft Paint is you can save your image as JPG, PNG, BMP, or GIF.

save as file types in Microsoft Paint

5. How to Extract Images from PowerPoint

There are two important steps to extracting images from PowerPoint.

Set Your File Explorer to Show File Names

To do this, open File Explorer. On the top left of your screen, click View.

file explorer - view

Check the box that allows you to see File name extensions.

show file name extensionsRename Your Presentation

The next step is to change your Powerpoint file from .pptx to .zip.

To do this, right click your file and select Rename.

rename PowerPoint file

Change the file extension from .pptx to .zip.

rename PPT extension

Click Yes when a dialog box appears.

Your new .zip file will contain all the images in your PowerPoint presentation.

Extracting Images the Easy Way

Images are the life of blogs.

In fact, using images in your posts will get you 94% more views.

But it isn’t always easy to find the perfect image.

And even when you do find it, you might not know how to copy and save it to your computer so you can use it later.

The good news is these five simple hacks make extracting images super easy.

They’re all you need to stay prepared for whenever you want to grab that perfect image.

Plus, when your writers send you .zip files, your work is faster and more organized.

More Resources:


Image Credits

All screenshots taken by author, March 2020

Category Tools
ADVERTISEMENT
VIP CONTRIBUTOR Julia McCoy Founder, Author, Educator at The Content Hackerâ„¢

Julia McCoy is an 8x author and a leading strategist around creating exceptional content and presence that lasts online. As ...

How to Extract Images from Word, Google Docs, PDFs & More

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.