Changing source file for linked photos

[Paul Bateman]

Our computer department moved our digital photos from one server to another.
I have numerous WORD 2002 files with photos linked to the old server. Is
there an easy way to change all the links in a WORD 2002 file so the photos
are visible again?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Easy? If the pictures are linked then toggle the field codes (ALT+F9) which
will produce something like:
{ INCLUDEPICTURE "D:\\My Documents\\My Pictures\\Filename.jpg" \*
MERGEFORMAT \d }
While toggled, you can use the replace function to change the path.
Toggle back then CTRL+A followed by F9 to update all the fields.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Paul Bateman]

Graham,

Thanks for the quick response. Your reply answered some of the question,
but presented new ones.

My documents contain other form fields that were wiped clean when I updated
all the fields - is there a way to be more selective in what gets updated?
Some reports have over 40 photos so I'd rather not have to update them
individually.

In addition, the pictures were not visible after the update even though the
source files were correctly changed - Picture Place holders is unchecked,
Drawings is clicked, and I'm in Print Layout view. If I update them
individually, it works fine.

One of our computer department specialists wrote a script to change the
source path in the files, but it wound up corrupting the Word document.
Scripts are over my head, but if you have any suggestions I can pass it on.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Hmmmm. This is going to be a problem hence the question mark after 'Easy' in
my original reply. I could give you code that would update the fields
(switching to print preview and back should be enough) but what are the
other fields that are 'wiped' and what do you mean by 'wiped' in this
context? Updating should do simply that - show the latest information.
Selectively turning those fields to text may be a problem.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Paul Bateman]

Graham,

I will have to admit that when I saw the "Easy?" in your reply I cringed.

The Text Form fields that were "wiped clean" were originally filled in from
3rd party software that ran on MS Access. The user fills in a questioneer
and a Word document is created using some of this information. After
following your procedure, the fields are there, but empty.

I failed to mention that the pictures are inserted into Text Boxes.

The "Select All" command does not appear to select the pictures, perhaps
that's why they are not updating. Is there a way to only select the
pictures, then update?

I was hoping for an "elegant" solution, but am afraid I may have to resort
to "brute force" unless you can think of a way around these obstacles.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Hmmmm. I hate text boxes, but they may come to your aid here as the update
is clearly not seeing them (being in the drawing layer of the document).
What you could try is to select the document (CTRL+A) then fix the field
result (CTRL+SHIFT+F9). This should not affect the text boxes. You can then
revert to plan A to change the code for the graphics, then grab the macro
code from my web site http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm to update
all the fields in the document.

No guarantees as I don't have your document to play with, but it sounds good
and worked in my test documents. The data fields in the document will no
longer be fields however.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Paul Bateman]

Graham,

Almost there, but not quite. Fixing the fields with CTRL+SHIFT+F9 did the
trick, followed by Plan A. Getting rid of the data fields was actually a
welcome side benefit. One "small" glitch, after running the UpdateAll macro
some of the pictures are much smaller than the text boxes that they
originally filled. Is there a way to force them to fill the text boxes or do
I have to manually adjust them? Here's a clue, not all of the photos are
from the same device - the problem ones are from a higher resolution camera.

I will agree with you about the text boxes, they have given me much grief,
but I didn't know how else to position and size photos on a page. I have a
number of text templates that I insert as files to a page, then insert jpegs
in them.

Our network specialist called yesterday with a software product (WordPipe)
that supposedly could change all the source paths in all my Word files in one
shot. One problem, you still have to open the document in Word to update the
fields....

 

[Graham Mayor]

I can't help with making the imported pictures 'grow'. Have a look at the
picture properties and see what scaling is involved. It may be possible to
set the scale for the pictures - but if they are of different resolutions I
can foresee more problems.

Personally I would use table cells to place the images, but then you
wouldn't have been able to update them separately in quite the same manner.

It sounds as though Wordpipe is not going to achieve anything we haven't
already managed the rough and ready way.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Paul Bateman]

Graham,

Sorry, I meant to get back to you sooner and thank you for your assistance.
With your shortcuts and macro I was able to correct the paths on all my Word
documents and make a few other fixes while the files were open. It was not
the "elegant" fix I had inititally hoped for, but it did work! WordPipe may
have its uses, but it wouldn't have helped me.