How do I prevent loss of pictures inserted into word documents?

Question

Writing a document, about 30 pages long I have inserted about 20 pictures. On retriving my document later I often find that the picture spaces have been replaced with an "X" across the area. Why is this happening and how do I prevent it?

Answer 1

It usually happens when the image is linked to a separate file, rather than being inserted in the document. If the image file is subsequently moved or becomes unavailable, the picture cannot be displayed (but you would normally receive an error message, I think). This could be a setting in your Options (it is not, as far as I know, the default).

If (as the respondent above suggests) you are linking to pictures on the Internet, that may be a problem. You should always save pictures from web pages to your computer first before inserting them from the saved file into a Word document. If this has happened, the quickest way to repair it is to locate the images you linked to, download/save them (right click on the picture and choose Save), then select each picture in turn in your document, delete it and immediately (without moving the cursor) Insert, Picture ... From File.

However, you say that you 'often find' the pictures replaced with an X. It is possible to turn off the display of graphics in a document and this flag can also be set if there is a shortage of memory. To test this, start the computer and, without doing anything else, open the document. If you see all the images, then it is likely to be a memory problem (solution: buy more RAM!). If you have Word 2003 (and possibly earlier versions), try Format, Picture, Compress and compress all pictures in the document (this means that they are resized to the size they display in rather than being, perhaps, very large files.)

Answer 2

This does not happen with pictures you have on your hard drive, does it?

Doesn't this happen when you download information and copy/paste the graphics into the document?

This has happened to me. It's because you are not allowing cookies. Some, not all, sites require that you must allow cookies.
I have my "Privacy" set to medium to prevent smut, and occasionally I simply delete all cookies. I then have the same experience as you, however, I do not want the hassle of getting rid of a virus just to have a few graphics.

Your choice.