Corey Roth [MVP]

When SharePoint 2010 Service Pack 1 came out, I noticed the following line in the release notes regarding Office Web Apps.

“Lets you insert clip art in PowerPoint Web App. (By default clip art support is disabled. An administrator can decide to enable it.)”

However, it didn’t say how to enable it.  I looked all over the Internet multiple times and never found a solution.  I knew it had to be some property I could set with PowerShell but guessing the right one and how to set it was the question.  On a recent search, I came across this support article on Symantec web site where someone was having an issue and it was then I discovered the property name, EnableClipArt.  On a whim, I decided to give it a try.

Here is what your ribbon bar looks like before you enable clip art:

To enable it, we can build a simple PowerShell script.  You will need to determine the name to your PowerPoint Service Application’s proxy.  In my case, mine is PowerPoint Service Application Proxy.

Now for the script.  Remember to change the name of your proxy to match your environment.

$proxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | Where-Object { $_.DisplayName -eq "PowerPoint Service Application Proxy" }
$proxy.EnableClipart=1
$proxy.Update()

When it completes successfully, PowerShell will just return you a new prompt without an error.  Now, edit your PowerPoint document again in the browser and you should see the Clip Art ribbon button enabled.

Select a valid region in a slide to do an Insert and click the Clip Art button.  It will then let you search the online library of clip art for use in your slides.

Select the image you like and you will see it in your slide deck.

It’s simple to enable this support.  I wish I could have found this documented sooner.  I hope you enjoy this functionality.  I was curious to see if this functionality was present in SharePoint Online (Office 365), but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it is there yet.

That’s not a deal breaker though for Office 365.  Maybe we will see it in the future.