How to Remove Backgrounds from Images Directly in Microsoft Word

When creating a professional document, newsletter, or flyer in Microsoft Word, you often need to insert an image of a product, a logo, or a person. However, unless the image is a PNG with a pre-existing transparent background, it will arrive with an unsightly solid white or coloured block surrounding the subject, completely ruining the flow of your document’s text and background colour. While you could use complex photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop to create a cutout, Microsoft Word actually includes a surprisingly powerful, built-in background removal tool that allows you to make images transparent directly within your document.

Inserting the Image

Before you can edit an image, it must be embedded into your document.

1. Open your Microsoft Word document.
2. Click the Insert tab on the ribbon.
3. Click Pictures and select This Device (or Online Pictures if you are searching the web).
4. Locate the image file on your computer and click Insert.

Once the image is on the page, click it once so that the sizing handles (small circles) appear around its perimeter. This activates the hidden “Picture Format” tab on the ribbon.

Using the Background Removal Tool

Word uses an automated algorithm to guess what the subject of the photo is and what constitutes the background.

1. Ensure your image is selected.
2. Click the Picture Format tab at the very top of the window (this tab only appears when an image is selected).
3. On the far left side of the ribbon, click the Remove Background button.

Microsoft Word will immediately apply a bright magenta (purple) overlay to the image. Everything colored magenta will be deleted and made transparent. Everything in its natural colour will be kept.

Refining the Edges (Mark Areas to Keep or Remove)

The initial automatic guess is rarely perfect. It might accidentally colour a person’s white shirt magenta, meaning their torso will disappear, or it might leave a patch of sky in its natural colour, meaning that patch won’t be deleted.

1. Look at the new Background Removal tab that has appeared on the ribbon.
2. If Word deleted something you want to keep (like a shirt or a piece of hair), click Mark Areas to Keep. Your cursor will turn into a small drawing pencil. Click and drag a short line across the area you want to save. Word will recalculate and remove the magenta overlay from that section.
3. If Word kept a part of the background you want to delete, click Mark Areas to Remove. Use the pencil to draw a line across the unwanted background element. Word will recalculate and turn that area magenta.
4. Continue clicking and dragging lines until the magenta overlay perfectly covers only the background you want to erase.

Finalising the Transparency

Once you are satisfied with the magenta mask, you must apply the changes.

1. Click the Keep Changes button (the green checkmark) on the ribbon.

The magenta areas will instantly disappear, leaving your subject with a perfectly transparent background. You can now drag the image over coloured text boxes, shapes, or page backgrounds, and only the subject will be visible. If you notice a mistake later, simply click the image and click Remove Background again; Word remembers your previous edits, allowing you to refine the mask without starting over.