How do I get Word to print linked pictures?

[Ron Smith]

I'm using Word 2007. Some of my documents have a large number of pictures.
To keep the files to manageable size and to only have one place to manage the
pictures, they are all inserted via linking and are not saved with the
document.

When I want to print the document, I have to manually visit each picture and
wait for Word to display it. If I don't, it prints as the outline box with
red x. The same is true is I just want to export it to PDF with the Save to
PDF feature.

I'm quite comfortable with programming for Office and would be happy with a
workaround that I can do in code. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything I
can check in a macro or add-in to let me know when Word has actually
displayed the picture.

I've tried all the settings in Word options but they don't seem to have any
effect on this.

I'd love to hear any suggestions.
Thanks,

 

[CyberTaz]

Since you didn't specifically mention it (and it's in a rather unintuitive
location IMHO), the first thing I'd suggest you check is in Word
Options/Display/Printing Options - make sure there is a check in the box to
"Update linked data before printing". That alone may be what you need.

Have you tried going to Office Button/Prepare/Edit Links to Files, selecting
all links (select the first then Shift-Click the last) & manually updating
before printing?

If not any of this it could be an issue of where the files are actually
stored - locally or on a network drive. If remotely it could be hindering
the printing process. Depending on the picture files themselves it could
also be related to system resources.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Ron Smith]

Thank you very much for the suggestions. I already had the "Update linked
data before printing" set because that's what did the trick in Word 2003.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have that effect in Word 2007. I suspect that's a
bug. I also tried your other suggestion. Unfortunately that doesn't help
either. I suspected it wouldn't because programmatically doing an Update of
the link doesn't do it, but it was worth a try.

The pictures are in a folder immediately underneath the folder containing
the document.

The only thing I've found that works so far is to use the browse by graphic
buttons and visit each graphic staying there long enough for Word to actually
display it. If I just click through them and don't wait for the display,
they still don't print. I suspect a bug in Word and reported it as such a
few months ago, but if it is a bug, it's not fixed in SP1.

It's a real pain to have to go through several hundred pictures manually
when I want to print (or ususally to export to PDF). So, I'm hoping to
discover a technique that I can use to do it more automatically. As I use a
template with a document add-in, I'd be happy to do it in code, but I haven't
been able to find anything that will let me know when the display has been
updated with the graphic.

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm afraid the only other suggestion I can offer is to store the images &
the doc in the same folder - that _may_ improve things a bit. I rarely use
Word for anything that needs to contain more than a few images.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Ron Smith]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate you taking the time to try and help.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

One thing that *might* help (it does help with some printing issues in Word)
is to print the pages in reverse order. That causes Word to run through the
pages in order to repaginate before printing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA