difficulty sharing images cross platform using Word for Office X

[Sharon]

I have prepared a one page document on a Mac using Word for Office X. I
have inserted one image ( the association logo); however, when I send
it to a Windows user she sees everything except the logo.

What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

Sharon

 

[matt neuburg]

I have prepared a one page document on a Mac using Word for Office X. I
have inserted one image ( the association logo); however, when I send
it to a Windows user she sees everything except the logo.

Give her the document and the image file (as a jpg, tiff, or some other
universal format). In the document you use Insert > Picture > From File
to insert the picture - *not* Paste. Check "Link to File"! Uncheck
"Save with Document". Now when you insert what is inserted is a
reference to the actual image file. m.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Sharon:

What Matt says is a good way to go, but I thought he did not describe it
very clearly.

He recommends: a) You send the document and the image as two independent
files. And b) The OTHER USER should use Insert>Picture... To insert the
picture into the document.

By doing that, Windows Word will convert the picture you send to a format it
likes. Also: If the other user has set "Picture Placeholders" or some
other view setting in Word that prevents her SEEING pictures even if they
are present, using Insert>Picture will automatically correct the settings
for her.

You "could" use the technique of linking an external picture just the way
Matt describes, but if you did that, you would then have to patiently
explain to the other user how to place the image and the document files in a
specific folder on her hard drive; then correct the path name to the image
in the document INCLUDEPICTURE field from Mac format to PC format, otherwise
the image still wouldn't load on the other user's PC.

Chances are, the other user is trying to open your document by
double-clicking from her email. That will work only if the image is
embedded in your document in a PC format. Many images from the Mac are
embedded in one of the QuickTime formats, which PC users cannot view unless
they have QuickTime installed. Corporate users on PCs rarely have the
ability to install software, so they would be forever unable to see your
picture if it is in a QuickTime format.

By sending the original picture file with the document, the user at the
other end can sort it out for herself.

Cheers

Give her the document and the image file (as a jpg, tiff, or some other
universal format). In the document you use Insert > Picture > From File
to insert the picture - *not* Paste. Check "Link to File"! Uncheck
"Save with Document". Now when you insert what is inserted is a
reference to the actual image file. m.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[matt neuburg]

What Matt says is a good way to go, but I thought he did not describe it
very clearly.

I think I did.

He recommends: a) You send the document and the image as two independent
files. And b) The OTHER USER should use Insert>Picture... To insert the
picture into the document.

No, I don't recommend that. Please, John, don't put words in my mouth.
Feel free to propose this on your own, but don't say I said it.

m.

 

[matt neuburg]

OK. I was trying to be kind to you.

"Sharon, What Matt proposed will NOT work. If you do what he suggests, it
will make your problem WORSE."

There: That better?

Sure. It goes without saying that I think you're wrong (if you're saying
that I'm wrong), but that's no problem. I'd rather we have conflicting
opinions than that you should say what my opinion is!

My original statement was based on the assumption that the OP was
probably pasting the image into the document. That, I know, can be a
squiffy operation. So I suggested that the OP insert instead a
*reference* to the file, and that the file itself should be in a
cross-platform format. So, when sending to the Windows user, the image
file makes it fine, and the Word document makes it fine because it
doesn't contain a picture. And since the reference is in effect a
relative URL, the document can find the image on the Windows machine,
and can display it. This has always worked for me (it is, for example,
how we do Take Control books, which are written on Mac but published on
Windows). I don't know why you think it wouldn't. m.

 

[mmmmark]

Do we have a mediator in the house? ;-)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm not touching it....

 

[Clive Huggan]

Good things usually come from robust exchanges between non-bland experts,
mmmmmmmark... ;-)

Clive Huggan
============

 

[Beth Rosengard]

"Robust exchanges"! What a great phrase ;-).

Beth

 

[mmmmark]

Of course. As someone who enjoys spirited banter, I often speak with my
tongue firmly planted in my cheek. ;-)

-Mark

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

"spirited banter"....as good as "robust exchanges"....

 

[Elliott Roper]

Of course. As someone who enjoys spirited banter, I often speak with my
tongue firmly planted in my cheek. ;-)

heh! I thought you were mmmmumbling!

This group is not too bad. You can actually get more than four posts in
a thread without mmmmentioning Hitler^h^h Mmmmussolini.

mmmmight sign off before someone gets mmmmiffed.

 

[Hylton Boothroyd]

Do we have a mediator in the house? ;-)

We don't need one. That clash was pure gold for the rest of us.

In this corner of the internet, with John and Matt here and JE in the
Excel group, we have something close to perfection.

 

[CyberTaz]

It has been a most interesting thread to follow, but I fear poor Sharon has
been shrouded by the flying fur and is reluctant to rejoin the fracas.%)

Regards |:>)

 

[mmmmark]

Mmmmmighty mmmmmoronic there mmmmmmr Roper!

heh! I thought you were mmmmumbling!

This group is not too bad. You can actually get more than four posts in
a thread without mmmmentioning Hitler^h^h Mmmmussolini.

mmmmight sign off before someone gets mmmmiffed.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Hylton:

That's what I thought, too

In my opinion, there's nothing "wrong" with Matt's solution, other than the
fact that it's too complex for the kind of user who usually suffers these
problems.

It's not the solution I would adopt, but there's nothing wrong with it per
se

*I* would embed a picture of type PNG in the Word document and pack that off
to the Windows user without telling them it cam from a Mac. That last point
is particularly crucial: DON'T TELL THEM IT CAME FROM A MAC!!

That way, the document will "just work" and the Windows user will be none
the wiser. Which does not represent a change from their normal state of
awareness

I should hasten to add that, as Paul often points out in here, I am mainly a
Windows user... This has not a little to do with the fact that the nice
Deputy Commissioner of Taxation buys me nice fat fierce Wintel workstations
for "Free".

Now, if anyone knows where I can get four 300 GB 15,000 RPM SCSI 320 hard
drives for less that 1,500 bucks a piece, please get back to me: I'm outta
space on the RAID 5 array, and MY problem is there's "cheap" drives and SCSI
drives, guess which one *I* have??

Cheers

We don't need one. That clash was pure gold for the rest of us.

In this corner of the internet, with John and Matt here and JE in the
Excel group, we have something close to perfection.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I should hasten to add that, as Paul often points out in here, I am mainly a
Windows user... This has not a little to do with the fact that the nice
Deputy Commissioner of Taxation buys me nice fat fierce Wintel workstations
for "Free".

Actually, I thought you were spot on here, John, aside from maybe being too
dismissive in the early stages without explaining why. That was bound to
irritate Matt, as could have been predicted, leading to all the "fur flying"
which probably did scare off Sharon, who would not have been in a position
to know what to think.

In particular:

2) Your solution assumes the user on Windows will save the document and the
image file to the correct folder. My experience of Windows users who run
into these kinds of trouble is that they won't save it to "any" folder, the
recipient will double-click the document in her email program. If she does
that, the linked image will not be extracted, and thus will not appear.

I also find that that is what close to 100% of Windows users I know do (and
probably 75% of Mac users too) and leads to all sorts of problems.
Fortunately, defaults on recent Mac OS's mean that most files now have
extensions by default, so the problem is probably lessening. But the sort of
_Mac user_ who runs into these problems with Windows correspondents is often
one of those still using OS 9 where there are no file extensions. But
probably not Sharon.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.