Microsoft has a great resource for users of their Office software called Microsoft Clip Organizer.  This is great tool to use with your promotional materials from proposals and presentations to web pages and brochures. Not only does this tool organize all of your clip art and stock photography, but it links you to hundreds of clip art and professional stock photography on the web at the Microsoft Office web site. As for the best part, all images are royalty free!

To start, go to Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office Tools > Microsoft Clip Organizer on your Windows XP.  If you are using other versions of Windows, you will find Microsoft Office Tools in your Programs folder. Once you open Microsoft Clip Organizer, click on Clips Online, this will take you to Microsoft Office Online. At the web site you will find many categories and links that may be overwhelming at first.  I suggest that you use at first the Search feature at the very top right hand side of the web page. Here you can opt to search through all the media types, clip art, photos, animations, sounds or any keyword found on the web site itself.  Then type your keyword in the search field, for example, "real estate" and click the green arrow to search.

Whether you selected clip art or photos or all media types, you will get a nice selection of images that you can add to your basket simply by clicking on the checkbox underneath each image. You can add up to 30 images to your basket before you can download them so add away and as soon as the web site tells you that your basket is full, simply click on Download x items. Remember that you can always search over and over again using different keywords such as business, mortgage, office, etc. If you prefer to search by categories simply click on Clip Art and Media on the left navigation bar and select any category underneath Browse Clip Art and Media.

If you have a T1, DSL or other form of high speed Internet connection, you may want to increase the number of images displayed per page.  This can be accomplished by clicking on Options at the top right of the web page. Here you can opt for larger thumbnails and previews as well as increase (or decrease) the number of thumbnails on each results page to 6, 12, 24 or 48. If you are having any trouble using this web site simply click on the Help link at the top right side of the web page.

Once you have downloaded all the images you want (in sets of 30), you can view your downloads in Microsoft Clip Organizer by clicking on the Downloaded Clips folder. Under this folder you will find sub-categories such as Business, Communications, etc. Open each folder to view the images.

You can also manually import your own clip art and stock photography by clicking on File > Add Clicks to Organizer.  Here you may select Automatic which automatically searches your entire hard drive and catalogs every media file you have, even those you thought you lost.  You can also select On My Own or From Scanner or Camera.

To use these images, you simply open either Word, Excel, FrontPage or PowerPoint and select Insert > Picture > Clip Art. Then click on Clip Organizer and browse for your desired image. Click on the image and select copy, close Clip Organizer and click paste on your document and your image is now ready for you to use on your proposals and presentations.  If you are using other software programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, etc., you can open Microsoft Clip Organizer from your Start > Programs folder, then copy your desired image from there. Go back to your other software program then Paste (Ctrl+V) and presto, your image is ready to use in post cards, brochures and other printed materials that will impress your present and future clients.