How to Edit Text in a Picture in Microsoft Word: Three Ways That Work

You cannot edit the words inside a picture in Microsoft Word, because Word treats an inserted JPG or PNG as one block of pixels. You can copy the text out with OCR, cover it with a shape and a text box, or fix the picture itself and swap it back in. Disclosure: we build EditTextImage, an AI image text editor that rewrites the words inside a finished JPG, PNG or screenshot in the original font and colour and rebuilds the background behind them. That is the third route below. The first two cost nothing, and for some jobs they are the better choice.

First, check that it really is a picture

Click the text. If Word shows the Picture Format tab and sizing handles around a rectangle, it is an image, and nothing in Word will let you type into it. If a text cursor appears, it is real text, possibly inside a text box, WordArt or SmartArt, and you can edit it normally. Screenshots, scans, phone photos and anything pasted from a PDF viewer as an image fall in the first group.

Way 1: copy the text out with OCR

Use this when you need the words in your document, not the picture. Optical character recognition reads the letters and gives you plain text you can paste into Word and edit like anything else.

• Windows 11: take a snip of the picture with Snipping Tool, open Text actions and choose Copy all text.
• Any Windows PC: Microsoft PowerToys includes Text Extractor; press Win+Shift+T and drag over the text.
• OneNote desktop: paste the picture into a page, right-click it and choose Copy Text from Picture. The web version of OneNote does not have this command.
• Mac: open the image in Preview or Photos and select the text directly with Live Text.
• Any browser:upload the image to Google Drive, right-click it and choose Open with > Google Docs. The recognised text appears under the image. Files must be 2 MB or smaller.

The limit: you get the words, not the look. Fonts, colours and layout are gone, and OCR misreads small, decorative or curved lettering, so proofread before you send the document.

Way 2: cover the old words with a shape and a text box

Use this when the picture has to stay in the document, the text sits on a plain, flat background, and nobody will take the picture out of the file. In the Word desktop app:

1. Select the picture, open Layout Options and choose any wrapping other than In Line with Text, so shapes can sit on top of it.
2. Insert > Shapes > Rectangle, and draw it over the old words.
3. Set Shape Fill to the background colour and Shape Outline to No Outline. If the colour is slightly off, enter its exact value under More Fill Colors; a colour picker such as the one in PowerToys or the Mac's Digital Color Meter reads it from the screen.
4. Insert a text box on top, type the new words, and set it to No Fill and No Outline. Match the font, size and colour to any untouched text in the picture.
5. Shift-click the picture, the rectangle and the text box, then Group them so they move together.

Know what this does and does not do. The original words are still in the picture underneath; anyone who moves the shape, copies the image or opens the file in another program will see them. Treat it as a layout fix for something like a flyer draft, never as a way to change or hide information. On a photograph, gradient or texture the rectangle will show, so go to Way 3.

Way 3: fix the picture itself, then swap it back in

Use this when the corrected image has to be right everywhere, not only on this page, or when the text sits on a photo. Get the image out first: in Word for Windows or Mac, right-click it and choose Save as Picture. Then edit the file:

• By hand, free: open it in Photopea or GIMP, clear the old words with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush, and type the new ones with the Text tool. The Photos app in Windows 10 and 11 can erase words with its generative Erase tool, but it cannot write new ones in a matching style.
• With AI: upload it to a JPG text editor, type the words that are there and the words you want, and download the result. Each change takes about 30 to 60 seconds, and the lettering is sampled from the image, so you do not need to know the font.

Back in Word, right-click the old picture and choose Change Picture > From a File. The new image takes the old one's size, position and wrapping, so the layout does not move.

In Word for the web, the same idea applies: get the original image file, fix it, and insert the corrected file. If you cannot get the image out of the document there, use Open in Desktop App and save it from the desktop version.

Which way when?

• You need the words, not the picture: OCR (Way 1).
• Flat background, the document stays in Word: a shape and a text box (Way 2).
• Photo or textured background, or the image is reused elsewhere: fix the image and swap it in (Way 3).
• You still have the original design file: edit that and export a new image; it beats all three.

Frequently asked questions

If the reason for editing is to hide something, such as an email address or an account number, a box on top is not enough; see what actually hides text in a screenshot. Only change text in images you have the right to edit, and never in certificates, receipts or ID documents; see our acceptable use policy.