Equation.3 objects replaced by wire frames in Word '97

[ELC]

All,

I'm using Office '97 to translate a German document which was apparently
created using Word 2000 (or perhaps newer). I made a copy of the original
German document to use as my working English translation, in which I overtype
the German text with the corresponding English. The document contains
numerous "Equation.3" objects (delta symbol, greater than or equal to, etc.)
which appear as they should when the document is initially loaded into Word
'97, but which eventually turn into large, empty wire frames during the
translation process.

I can double-click inside one of the wire frames, and the associated image
then reappears, however it is now much larger in size, and Word tells me I do
not have enough memory to edit or display the object, even though I can see
it (!). The equation edit toolbar also appears.

I do not have any other math packages installed other than what comes with
Office '97.

Why do the images initially appear correctly, but then disappear? And more
to the point, how can I easily restore them?

I have had this same problem before with embedded screen shots in Word
documents, and my only solution at the time was to copy them out of the
original German document and back into the English translation document --
after which they were fine!

Any suggestions/explanations greatly appreciated!

Ed Crosby
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Bob Mathews]

...The document contains numerous "Equation.3" objects (delta symbol,
greater than or equal to, etc.) which appear as they should when the
document is initially loaded into Word '97, but which eventually turn into
large, empty wire frames...

Why do the images initially appear correctly, but then disappear? And
more to the point, how can I easily restore them?

Well the obvious, "perfect", solution is to upgrade your version of Office.
Recognizing the fact that upgrading may not be an option, let's look at
other solutions. First of all, the problem occurs because Office is smarter
than you. I'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet. ;-) Actually,
that's totally a tongue-in-cheek comment, but there is some truth in it.
Office *thinks* it's smarter than you, so when you overload the system with
lots of objects, it tries to prevent a Word crash by conserving memory. One
of the ways it does that is by turning off the display of the objects. You
can get them to display again by clicking on Tools > Options, and unchecking
"Picture Placeholders". (I'm not sure where this option is in Word 97, but
in later versions it's on the "View" tab in the section titled "Show".) We
have an article on this on our web site, and you can read the article here:

http://www.dessci.com/en/support/tsn/TSN74.htm

I can double-click inside one of the wire frames, and the associated
image then reappears, however it is now much larger in size, and
Word tells me I do not have enough memory to edit or display the
object, even though I can see it (!). The equation edit toolbar also
appears.

By "much larger in size", I guess you mean the physical size of it in the
document? What does the "Size" tab tell you when you right-click on one of
the wire frames (e.g., picture placeholders) and select "Format Object"?
Does it report it as being 100% of the original size, or some other value? I
suspect the original creator of the German document didn't know how to set
the size of equation objects, so he made them whatever size Equation Editor
was set to, then re-sized them in Word by dragging the corner. (That's a bad
idea, BTW.)

--
Bob Mathews bobm at dessci.com
Director of Training
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
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