On occassion I have copied a picture from a powerpoint presentation and pasted it to Word. I then get a black background around the picture. How can this be removed?

Hi Laura, Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoyed your course, in answer to your question, by background do you mean a border or a black shadow?
If you have a black border around your picture, right click on the picture in Word and choose Format Picture, in the Format Picture dialog box choose Layout tab, select the option for either Tight or Square, then select the Colours and Lines tab and from the Line Colour choose No Line. Click OK.
If however you have a Shadow, click on the graphic to select it, on the drawing toolbar locate the shadow button and from the popup choose No Shadow. I hope that sorts your problem, if it does, please click the Resolved link, best regards Pete