Link to File is not working. EMBEDs are displayed as icons.

[Mike]

I'm trying to create links to image files (.EMF .JPG .WMF) in Word 2007,
Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007. Instead of getting a LINK, I get an EMBED
Package.

Open a blank Word 2007 doc / Insert tab / on Text panel click Object button
/ Create from File tab / Browse... to the file / turn on "Link to file" /
click OK.

Depending on the image file type, I either get an icon and filename, or just
the filename. Pressing Alt-F9 shows that it got inserted as an "EMBED
Package", not a "LINK".

If I perform the same steps to link to a Word or Excel file, the complete
doc or spreadsheet is displayed, and Alt-F9 shows that it is a LINK.

Additionally, when I perform similar steps on an image file, but leave "Link
to file" turned off, I still get icons and filenames.

I'm running Windows XP, Service Pack 3, 091208-2036. Microsoft Office Small
Business 2007, Word 2007 (12.0.6504.5000) SPs MSO (12.0.6425.1000).
Different systems at my company running Vista or XP (Service Pack 3) get
different results...sometimes it works as expected...sometimes it doesn't.

My 2 problems are:

1. I need to have full images displayed in the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint
file.

2. When I turn on "Link to File", I should get a LINK, not EMBED Package.

How can I change my settings to overcome both of these problems? What ARE
the settings that control these?

Any help will be appreciated!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'm trying to create links to image files (.EMF .JPG .WMF) in Word 2007,
Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007. Instead of getting a LINK, I get an EMBED
Package.

Don't insert objects, then.

Choose Insert, Picture
Choose the picture you want to insert
Click the down-arrow next to the Insert button on the Insert Picture dialog box
Choose Link to File or Insert and Link.

Insert and Link embeds the picture in the file but updates the picture if the
external picture file is updated.

Link to File creates handy links that will break if you sneeze in the direction
of the file. Very fragile, not recommended.

 

[Mike]

Thanks, Steve.

I'm trying to figure out why the steps I've described sometimes work and
sometimes do not work, to display a picture which Word 2007 recognizes as a
LINK. This is important for us, because the company I work for automatically
creates LINKs in Word and PowerPoint, and they need to be inserted as
Objects, yet displayed as pictures, not displayed as icons or filenames.
We're not going to change the way we do this, by inserting a Picture instead
of an Object. What we need to know is: Why does it work on some installs of
Word 2007 and not others?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks, Steve.

I'm trying to figure out why the steps I've described sometimes work and
sometimes do not work, to display a picture which Word 2007 recognizes as a
LINK. This is important for us, because the company I work for automatically
creates LINKs in Word and PowerPoint, and they need to be inserted as
Objects,

Why must they be inserted as objects? Just curious, really.

yet displayed as pictures, not displayed as icons or filenames.
We're not going to change the way we do this, by inserting a Picture instead
of an Object. What we need to know is: Why does it work on some installs of
Word 2007 and not others?

Try doubleclicking the different image types on both the systems where this works as
expected and those where it doesn't? Do different apps launch as a result? When
you insert a file as an object, what you get will depend on the app that's
registered to "own" the file's type (ie, its extension).

 

[Mike]

OK. Here are the specifics. The software that my company produces is coded
(in Visual C++ with Visual Studio 2008) to export a graphic to a Metafile
Companion file (.WMF file type). Metafile Companion is installed on my local
computer, and double clicking on any .WMFs on my system launch Metafile
Companion. The same happens on co-workers' computers. Our software produces
the .WMFs correctly...they look fine if you open them in Metafile Companion.

One of the options in our software is to "Create Link". This is supposed to
insert an Object LINK into a Word doc or PowerPoint file, then launch Word or
PowerPoint and display the .WMF as a full image. It does that on some
systems, and Alt-F9 shows that it is a LINK. On other systems, including
mine, this process inserts a large icon that's labeled with the filename, and
Alt-F9 in Word shows that it is an EMBED Package, not a LINK. Our software
is not at fault. I know this because...

If I manually launch Word on my system, and open a blank Word 2007 doc /
Insert tab / on Text panel click Object button / Create from File tab /
Browse... to the file / turn on "Link to file" / click OK, I get a small icon
and Alt-F9 shows that it is an EMBED Package. If I do the same on a
co-worker's system where our software launched Word and displayed the full
image, the manual insert into Word using "Link to file" creates a LINK and
displays the full image. Therefore, I conclude that Word and PowerPoint
settings, or Windows settings, are causing different behavior on different
systems.

NOTE: Metafile Companion cannot be at fault either. The same manual insert
of a .jpg using "Link to file" produces the same results...works on some
systems, doesn't work on others.

I'm not going to ask our programmers to change their code when it's pretty
obvious that it's not their code that's at fault. Manual procedures in Word
using any .jpg that has no connection with our applications demonstrates the
behavior.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'd look very closely at the file associations and DDE settings if any for the
WMF file extension on both systems where things work right and where they don't.
If there are differences, that might be the key.

I'm not suggesting that you ask anyone to change their code ... I was simply
curious as to why embedding an object was necessary. Sometimes it is. I like
to know these things. ;-)

If it were clearly an application-specific bug, special-casing the code to work
around the bug might be necessary, but since the same apps behave differently on
different systems, it certainly doesn't seem like that'd be the case here.