Edit Picture item grayed out

[WordUser]

What happened to the ability to edit a picture in Word
2002?????? I live by the ability to add callouts, draw
lines, etc., in a picture and have it all been one object
that moves with the image.

Thanks.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi WordUser,

What happened to the ability to edit a picture in Word
2002?????? I live by the ability to add callouts, draw
lines, etc., in a picture and have it all been one object
that moves with the image.

It's still there... But unless you're starting a new
picture, or working with an existing "Word picture" it can
be difficult to get to. Have you pulled the command out of
Tools/Customize/Commands?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[pre]

Hi Cindy

Sorry, I may disagree. Both in Word 2002 & Word 2003 the command exist in
Edit menu, but: Whenever Word or Photo Editor (the only choices) are set the
command remain dimmed. Before 2002 the command worked perfectly.

 

[Greg Maxey]

pre,

I won't get into the fray of what was or what wasn't. You can certainly
continue to live by ...with Word2003.

Insert>Picture>New Drawing then insert your picture e.g.,
Insert>Picture>Picture from file
Add your effects. By defualt the canvass is in line with text. Format the
canvass layout to something other than in line with text and you can freely
move your modified picture as long as you select and move the canvass.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Pre,

Sorry, I may disagree.

And I still don't agree with you Have you TRIED going
to Tools/Customize/Commands, and pulling the "Word picture"
button from the Drawing category? And when you click it,
what happens?

I go into Word's Picture Editor, where I can add drawing
objects, pictures, call-outs and graphics files. And when I
exit that, they're all one single "picture".

Word's Picture Editor has NEVER been able to "edit" all
kinds of graphics, only it's native format, .wmf. In a
couple of versions of Word, the Photo Editor was also
available for some graphics formats, but it was never part
of Word, itself.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[Guest]

<begin reply quote>
It's still there... But unless you're starting a new
picture, or working with an existing "Word picture" it
can be difficult to get to. Have you pulled the command
out of Tools/Customize/Commands?
<end reply quote>

I am trying to annotate screenshots, so the picture is
created as a result of pasting from the clipboard. This
used to be very straight-forward; i.e., right-click on
the pasted picture and select Edit Picture. Now, however,
Edit Picture is grayed out.

I assume your last sentence, "Have you pulled the command
out of Tools/Customize/Commands?" is referring to adding
it to the toolbar? I've gone in the Command dialog and
do not see an Edit Picture command. But, if it's on the
right-click pop-up menu grayed out, wouldn't it also be
disabled on a toolbar?

I'm just perplexed why it's disabled at all.

Is there any reference material that specifically speaks
to how the graphics and drawing features have changed
from Word 97 to Word XP?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Guest]

Cindy:

I am so sorry. I replied too quickly before reading
through all the posts in the thread. I was looking
for "Edit Picture" as the command. I see in one of your
posts that it's "Word Picture."

And, amazing as it sounds, this is the solution. Not for
me to ask why in the heck MS did that, just to be
thankful that the functionality is still there; albeit
buried.

Thank you!

 

[pre]

Hi Cindy

Please don't be offended; please understand that I, as well as some
thousands users are missing Photo Editor, especially as a picture editor in
Word. Still it´s are listed in my Word 2003 as an alternative picture
editor. Still it is my favorite for quick use for a reasonable no. of
formats.
Office 2000 gave us PhE & Photodraw. 2003´s solution is a disaster, forcing
us to use 3rd party arrangements for picture editing in Word. PhotoDraw was
closed, so the MS way to graphics is is not feasible.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Pre,

Please don't be offended; please understand that I, as well as some
thousands users are missing Photo Editor, especially as a picture editor in
Word. Still it´s are listed in my Word 2003 as an alternative picture
editor. Still it is my favorite for quick use for a reasonable no. of
formats.

Not a problem; I'm not offended More a stickler for semantics, I guess,
since clarity is so important when we can't look at what's on the screen when
discussing problems. Put in the context of the original question, *which*
applications are available for editing pictures wasn't really the problem,
just the ability to loosely "group" various drawing objects.

If you'd chimed in on a discussion about how to work with graphics files, in
general, inside Word, I wouldn't have disagreed

Cindy Meister

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

I am so sorry. I replied too quickly before reading

through all the posts in the thread. I was looking
for "Edit Picture" as the command. I see in one of your
posts that it's "Word Picture."

No, it's I who owe you an apology. I was tired and didn't
want to go double-check the actual name of the command when
I wrote my first answer. (Plus, I've always found it
"educational" to have to work my way through these lists,
on occasion - always new things to be found!)

I'm glad you found it, and that it's working for you as you
expected Microsoft is in a "can't please all the
people, all of the time" sitaution with Word. Over the 15
years or so since WinWord has been with us it's accumulated
so many features, it's impossible to make them all
available on the menus. As it is, new users complain about
feeling "lost in the jungle". So the Word team has the
unthankful task about deciding which ones to remove from
the default toolbar installation. We can at least be
grateful that the basic design of Word has allowed it to
retain many of the older, useful, but less "popular"
features

For example: Have you ever seen / used ToolsCalculate (from
the "All commands" category)? (Type an equation in your
document, select it, then run this command and look at the
status bar)

Cindy Meister

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For more about ToolsCalculate, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/ToolsCalculate.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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