Inserted OLE objects only show as icons

[DocA]

Hi,

I am using Word 2003 on W2KSP4.

Whenever I insert an OLE object of file type PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP or PDF, it
displays as an icon rather than showing the object itself, even though the
"Display as icon" check box is clear. This doesn't happen when I insert a
Word or Excel object. Any idea what's going on? I tried changing the file
associations, but that didn't work either. I've tried the following
combinations:

PDF: Acrobat
PNG, GIF and JPG: IE, Photoshop, PaintShop Pro
BMP: PaintShop Pro, Paint

I have all these programs installed. When I double-click the inserted icon
it opens the expected program in each case, but I can only ever get it to
display the icon not the graphic (or PDF page) itself.

I tried "create new" using Paint. This lets me create my own picture, but
does not let me open the existing BMP even though it is associated with
Paint (double-clicking the file in Explorer opens Paint).

The same problem occurs when I insert objects into FrameMaker, so the
problem is not related to Word itself, but something in my system.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Adrian

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi DocA,

Whenever I insert an OLE object of file type PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP or PDF, it
displays as an icon rather than showing the object itself, even though the
"Display as icon" check box is clear. This doesn't happen when I insert a
Word or Excel object.

Generally, you shouldn't insert graphics files as OLE objects. They aren't
OLE objects, they're graphics files. They can only work as an OLE object if
there's an application registered on the system as an OLE Server for the
file types. And embedding them as OLE objects will increase file size and
could, if you're very unlucky, also destabilize the document's internal
structures.

Use the Insert/Picture/From File command to insert graphics into a Word
document.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[DocA]

Thanks for the advice Cindy.

Adrian

Hi DocA,

Generally, you shouldn't insert graphics files as OLE objects. They aren't
OLE objects, they're graphics files. They can only work as an OLE object if
there's an application registered on the system as an OLE Server for the
file types. And embedding them as OLE objects will increase file size and
could, if you're very unlucky, also destabilize the document's internal
structures.

Use the Insert/Picture/From File command to insert graphics into a Word
document.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)


This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail