You may have heard that Microsoft is scrapping clipart, the handy collection of stock linedrawings that have embellished thousands of documents since the 1990s. You may even be confused or worried about what to do now when you need a bemused stick man to add to your documents or presentations

But fear not. You can still add that unprofessional touch to your banal output with uninspiring imagery. Just follow our step by step guide.

Microsoft recommend you use Bing. We didn't know what Bing was either. Until we Googled it. In any event, both Bing and Google have image searches. Once you find an image you like, you can drag it into your document or save it onto your computer for use later.

You can't assume that every image you find on the internet was created by someone who is happy for you to use the image for free. So what you should do is look carefully at the licence.

Images which are licensed for non-commercial use should be ok to use for things such as residents' association newsletters. For business uses you may need a licence which also allows commercial use.

Bear in mind too that some licences permit modification of the original image and some don't. Again, some images are licensed on condition that the creator be credited.

Both Bing and Google's image searches allow you to filter by broad category of licence, but neither then displays everything you need to know about the exact terms of the licences.

But who's got time for all this? You don't want to be wading through licenses all the livelong day.

All that paperwork might lead you to go a little off the rails.

Isn't there an easier way to find usable images?

There are is at least one source of images with license with any use, and without any conditions: Openclipart.org. You would probably do better to bookmark this than to use the search engines, if you want to get things done quickly.

Or, if your document really matters, you could hire a designer or illustrator to create something beautiful.

Success will surely follow in all your business endeavours.

And you can devote less time to futile searches for stereotypical imagery, leaving you with more time to focus on the things you're good at, like cooking sausages.