.gif images not displaying in documents

[Simon I]

Help, please.

I saved some web pages to my PC and copied and pasted the
text and images into a MS Word document. All looked OK
when I saved the Word document. When I opened the
document again the images did not display. For each one,
there was just a placeholder with a little red cross in
the top left corner.

I have done some experiments:
a) .gif images from other saved web pages are fine. They
are displayed when I re-open the document.

b) I created a new document, pasted in the text and
images from the web page, copied the problem images
immediately and "Paste Special" them back in as Pictures
or Bitmaps then closed the document. When I re-open the
Word document the problems images are not displayed, but
the Picture and Bitmap images are fine.

Can anyone tell me what is going on here?

TIA

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

What do you see if you press Alt+F9? If you see a link to the location of
the graphic on the Web, then you won't be able to see the graphic unless
you're online. To embed the graphic in your file, connect to the Internet.
When you can see the graphic in your file (you'll need to Alt+F9 again to
toggle the field codes), select the graphic and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to
unlink it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Simon I]

Suzanne, first of all, thank you for the advice.

When I used Ctrl-Shift-F9 on the image, the link was
removed and the image displayed. When I then saved the
document, closed MS Word and re-opend the document,
the "de-linked" image was not displayed - there was a
picture placeholder and a small icon with red square,
green circle and blue triangle.

I have investigated further, using Copy and Paste to copy
text and images from a saved .mht file into a MS Word
document. This looked OK, but after I saved and re-opened
the document the images were not displayed.

What I have found is:
The Paste from the saved .mht into MS Word does not paste
the image, it inserts an "IncludePicture" function into
the document.

This shows a temporary image and inserts a reference to
the location of the image within the file. When the
document is saved the temporary image is not saved, only
the reference. When it is re-opened, the reference cannot
be resolved, and an error icon is shown instead.

Doing Alt-F9 showed the Field Code; for the Paste it was:
{INCLUDEPICTURE
"mhtml:file:///C:\\Documents%20and%20Settings\\Simon\\My%
20Documents\\Technology.mht!
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bunce/opto.gif" \*
MERGEFORMATINET }

I guess that the Internet reference is causing the
problem, although the .mht file is on my PC.

Similar problems arose when I saved an Internet page as
a .htm file (and its associated _files folder)

To fix the problem:
I needed to Copy the image before closing the document,
and Paste Special it as a Bitmap or a Picture. After
saving, closing MS Word and re-opening the document the
original image was lost but the Bitmap or Picture were OK.

Hmmm!
regards
Simon
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The problem was presumably that the image was linked to a temporary folder
on your HD. If the IncludePicture link was to the Web URL of the image,
unlinking it would have embedded it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Simon]

Suzanne,

Sorry, that does not look to be the problem. The folder
containing the files is a not a temporary one.

a) I accessed the Web Page, Copied and Pasted text and an
image into MS Word (my version is MWord 2002, part of
Works Suite 2003), delinked the image, saved the
document, closed and re-opened the document and the image
was not displayed.

b) the same happend using a .mht file saved on my Pc and
a .htm file (and its folders saved on my PC

c) the same happened when I used MS Word Insert Picture
from File and selected the .gif file out of the folder
where the .htm file was saved.

d)the only thing that works is copying the image and
using Paste Special to insert the image as a BItmap or
picture.

Here is the URL for the problem page; you might like to
experiment with it yourself.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bunce/index.htm

regards
Simon

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, you *copied* the Web page. Instead, use File | Save As | Web page,
complete. All the images will be saved to a supporting folder.
Alternatively, you can save any graphic from a Web page by right-clicking on
it and choosing Save Picture As.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Simon]

No success, I am afraid.

I had used "File | Save As | Web page, complete" in
Explorer and "Insert Picture | From File" in MS Word but
this led to the same problem. After saving, closing MS
Word and re-opening the document, the images were not
present.

When I used "Save Picture As" directly from the web page
in Explorer, then "Insert Picture | From File" in MS Word
this also led to the same problem.

I then used MS Paint to edit the .gif file, and saved it
immediately with no changes. The "edited" image was
inserted using "Insert Picture | From File". This one was
OK, it displayed correctly after closing and opening MS
Word.

So, in summary:
- the .gif images from this website did not display
properly in MS Word documents,
- copying them and using "Paste Special" to paste them as
Bitmaps or Pictures worked around the problem,
- saving the Web Page to my PC, editing the problem .gif
files using MS Paint and saving them immediately also
worked around the problem,
- .gif images from other websites did not cause any
problems.

So, I must conclude that the .gif images from this
website are not compatible with Windows XP/MS Word 2002.

Thank you for your help on this issue.
Simon

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When you inserted them in all these different ways, did you see a picture
placeholder or a red X instead of the picture? When you pressed Ctrl+F9, did
you still see a field code?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[pre]

There might be an local error inyour installation. Neigther I nor any my
students hsve ever experienced those problems.

 

[Simon]

A mixture or results.
When I Copy and Pasted the image from the saved Web Page
(a .htm file) I got the picture placeholder

When I used Insert Picture | From File I got the red
cross (file not found?)

When I edited the .gif file using MS Paint and saved it
again, then used Insert Picture | From File all was OK.

This is a mystery, isn't it.

What happened when you tried the page?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think we're closing in. I didn't realize that you were pasting the image
from the saved Web page to another document. Since the picture on the Web
page is just a link, it's going to be pasted as a link, possibly with a
relative (and therefore incorrect) path, but unlinking it should still embed
it correctly. If you use Insert | Picture | From File to insert the picture
from the supporting folder, then you should be embedding the picture, so I'm
not sure why that doesn't work.

But if you're saving the Web page just to get the image(s), you'd do much
better to save them directly from the Web site using Save Picture As.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Simon]

Suzanne
Sorry to complicate things.

When I Copy and Paste the image from the Web page saved
on my PC, the field value of the image is:
{ INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Simon\\My
Documents\\Music Technology Handouts_files\\pian_env.gif"
\* MERGEFORMATINET }

This is a full local valid path name.

But, I have just noticed that after I save the document
into My Documents, the field value changes, to:
{INCLUDEPICTURE "Music%20Technology%
20Handouts_files/pian_env.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET }

It has become a relative path AND the / between the
folder name and file name is the wrong way round. No
wonder the file could not be found. This sounds like a MS
Word bug to me.

If I fix the field value back to its original value, the
image can be displayed again. Also when I looked at the
Edit menu in MS Word, something named Link Update was the
last action performed (after I had saved the document).
Undoing this Link Update also reverted the field value
back.

Delinking the image
Separately, when I delinked the image, saved the doc,
closed MS Word and re-opened the doc, the delinked image
was not displayed - All I got was the picture placeholder

A little bit closer
S

 

[pre]

Wonderingly I´ve followed this tread. Unless you have an very anscient IE
you in the help text may find something like this:

Following those advice you as anyone else will have no troubles with the
images. As a matter of form: Your app. works perfectly the way it was
intended to do.
I hope this will help, and give you peace.
--
pre
----------------------------------------------------
Saving pictures or text from a Web page
As you view pages on the Web, you'll find information that you'd like to
save for future reference or share with other people. You can save the
entire Web page or any part of it: text, graphics, or links. You can print
Web pages for people who don't have access to the Web or a computer.

To save a page or picture without opening it.
Try this Right-click the link for the item you want to save, and then click
Save
Target As

To save an image from a Web page
1.. In Internet Explorer, point to the image you want to save.
The image toolbar appears over the corner of the image.
2.. Click Save

a.. The image toolbar does not display for all images. The image must be
at least 200 x 200 pixels to use the image toolbar. To save a smaller image,
right-click anywhere on the image, and then click save.
b.. Images are saved in the My Pictures folder unless you specify a
different location. Using the image toolbar in Internet Explorer
The image toolbar makes it easy for you to save, print, or send in e-mail
images that you find on the Web. The image toolbar appears when you point to
an image on a Web page.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, you need to go to Tools | Options | General: Web Options... | Files
and clear the check box for "Update links on save." This will probably do
absolutely no good because it's not on save but on open that these links are
being updated. Removing the \* MERGEFORMATINET switch will help (and
disabling the update option may prevent it from being inserted), but Word
may very well stick it back in.

I have been fighting with this problem for some time, in two manifestations:

1. Perfectly valid relative links in Web pages become absolute when the file
is opened, so that when I upload the page to my Web site, the graphics links
point to my HD instead of the supporting Web folder. The only workaround
I've found for this is to maintain the pages as Word docs and only save as a
Web page immediately before uploading (without opening again). What's really
annoying is that I can correct the paths in the raw HTML, and it still
changes; I can lock the field, and it still changes. I'm *really* looking
forward to installing FrontPage and learning to use it instead!

2. Absolute paths to linked graphics inserted in templates become relative,
which means that they still work fine in the template but are invalid for
documents based on the template. I've found that the workaround for this is
to insert the graphic before saving the template, which forces Word to
insert an absolute link.

What I don't understand is why unlinking a graphic that is displaying
correctly (which should have the result of embedding the graphic) is not
working for you.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Lee]

You may have some hackers on your system. If you have security software, find a way to report the particular
"unsolicited" hacker and select the report option from your firewall menu. It is always good to trace the hacker and
jot down the IP address just to be sure. there may be more than just one hacker.
Or
select tools, options, click another command from the tabs at the top..not sure what.. but make sure you
put a check after the update option if the check box is clear. I am a little fuzzy on the exact command, but for
sure tools, options, then a tabs command at the top of the window. try to copy graphic again. also make sure
your webpage has the approriate graphic files copied to it as well. (.gif,.jpg,or the like)