Guide

Get every picture out of a Word file in one command

Published 21 October 2026

A dark PowerShell window showing tar -xf report.docx word/media and a list of image files pulled out of the Word file

Short answerOpen a terminal in the folder and run tar -xf report.docx word/media. Every picture in the file appears in a new word\media folder. For PowerPoint use ppt/media, and for Excel use xl/media. It works for .docx, .pptx and .xlsx, not the old .doc.

Someone sends you a Word file full of photos, and you need the photos. Screenshots lose quality and take ages. You do not need them, because a modern Office file is really a zip folder, and the pictures are stored inside it as normal image files.

Step 1: Pull the pictures out

Open PowerShell or Terminal in the folder with the file and run:

PowerShell

tar -xf report.docx word/media

tar is built into Windows 10 and 11. It creates a word\media folder next to the file.

Step 2: See what you got

PowerShell

ls word\media -Name

Example output:

Example output

image1.jpeg
image2.png
image3.jpeg
image4.jpeg

These are the pictures as they were saved inside the file, which is usually much sharper than a screenshot. If someone cropped a picture in Word, you may even get the full, uncropped version.

PowerPoint and Excel work too

PowerPoint keeps pictures, and even videos, in ppt/media:

PowerShell

tar -xf slides.pptx ppt/media

For Excel files, use xl/media.

No terminal? Rename it

Make a copy of the file and change the end of its name from .docx to .zip. Open the zip in File Explorer and go to the word, then media folder.

On a Mac

Terminal

unzip report.docx "word/media/*"

What does not work

Only the newer formats are zip folders: .docx, .pptx and .xlsx. The old .doc, .ppt and .xls files are not. Open one of those in Word and save it as .docx first.