My inability to insert pictures in a Word document

[tom.halford]

I'm having problems inserting pictures of any kind into a Word 2008
document and any help would be appreciated.

Every file I have tried to insert (JPG,GIF,PNG) has resulted in the
ominous and abstruse message:

"This application cannot open this file. This file is an unsupported
graphic format or may be damaged. Try opening the graphic in another
application."

I highly doubt that EVERY image file on my machine is damaged (indeed,
they open in Quicktime and Preview) so I assume the issue is with
Word. I'd rather not copy and paste PDF images directly from Preview
because the file size is going to get really big, really fast for my
document.

Is there something I'm missing (I'm not a regular Word user - LaTeX is
my program of choice - so I'm not used to fighting with my software
for so long in order to do something that seems pretty mundane...)

Thanks,

Tom

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Tom:

I've never seen this issue in Word 2008.

There is a limitation in Microsoft Office: they require RGB colour at 24
bits or less. How did you make those images, and whee did you get them?

32-bit and 48-bit colour is not going to fly.

If it's not that, exactly how are you inserting them? Which computer,
processor type, and OS version are you using?

Cheers

I'm having problems inserting pictures of any kind into a Word 2008
document and any help would be appreciated.

Every file I have tried to insert (JPG,GIF,PNG) has resulted in the
ominous and abstruse message:

"This application cannot open this file. This file is an unsupported
graphic format or may be damaged. Try opening the graphic in another
application."

I highly doubt that EVERY image file on my machine is damaged (indeed,
they open in Quicktime and Preview) so I assume the issue is with
Word. I'd rather not copy and paste PDF images directly from Preview
because the file size is going to get really big, really fast for my
document.

Is there something I'm missing (I'm not a regular Word user - LaTeX is
my program of choice - so I'm not used to fighting with my software
for so long in order to do something that seems pretty mundane...)

Thanks,

Tom

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[tom.halford]

John:

I run 10.5.1 on an Intel iMac. I'm trying to insert images using the
"Insert->Picture->From File..." menu item. If I cut and paste
directly from a program like Preview, the images are inserted but the
size is unacceptable (since Preview copies them to the clipboard as
PDFs).

All that said, the problem appears to have resolved itself today
mysteriously. I can now insert pictures this way. I didn't restart
my machine (since OSX is generally stable) but I did restart Word and
that may have helped. I hope it doesn't pop up again, but if it does,
I'll be sure to return to the newsgroup as your replies are helpful
and timely.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[tom.halford]

John:

I run 10.5.1 on an Intel iMac. I'm trying to insert images using the
"Insert->Picture->From File..." menu item. If I cut and paste
directly from a program like Preview, the images are inserted but the
size is unacceptable (since Preview copies them to the clipboard as
PDFs).

All that said, the problem appears to have resolved itself today
mysteriously. I can now insert pictures this way. I didn't restart
my machine (since OSX is generally stable) but I did restart Word and
that may have helped. I hope it doesn't pop up again, but if it does,
I'll be sure to return to the newsgroup as your replies are helpful
and timely.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[John McGhie]

Thanks Tom:

Re-starting OS X once in a while can cure a number of "strangenesses"

During a power-ON startup, Unix performs a series of house-keeping routines
that can have a remarkable ability to de-confuse applications.

Particularly, it re-builds the font caches that are a fertile source of
weirdness

Cheers

John:

I run 10.5.1 on an Intel iMac. I'm trying to insert images using the
"Insert->Picture->From File..." menu item. If I cut and paste
directly from a program like Preview, the images are inserted but the
size is unacceptable (since Preview copies them to the clipboard as
PDFs).

All that said, the problem appears to have resolved itself today
mysteriously. I can now insert pictures this way. I didn't restart
my machine (since OSX is generally stable) but I did restart Word and
that may have helped. I hope it doesn't pop up again, but if it does,
I'll be sure to return to the newsgroup as your replies are helpful
and timely.

Thanks,

Tom

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[rcalhoun]

I've encountered the same problem with Word 2008; mundane graphics
files are claimed to be an "unsupported graphics format or may be
damaged" when inserted using Insert -> Picture -> From File. It is
clearly a bug in the Insert -> Picture -> From File command, as
dragging and dropping the same .pngs, .jpegs and (at last!!!!) .pdfs
from the Finder into Word 2008 works just fine.

All that said, the problem appears to have resolved itself today
mysteriously.  I can now insert pictures this way.  I didn't restart
my machine (since OSX is generally stable) but I did restart Word and
that may have helped.

Interesting. Quitting and restarting didn't help me, but based on
Tom's comment, I quit Word, deleted ~/Library/Preferences/
com.microsoft.Word.plist and then restarted. That fixed it! Now Insert
-> Picture -> From File works again.

-Rob

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Rob:

Thanks heaps! It really helps to know that there's something in Word.plist
that breaks this.

That will be a huge help to everyone

Cheers

I've encountered the same problem with Word 2008; mundane graphics
files are claimed to be an "unsupported graphics format or may be
damaged" when inserted using Insert -> Picture -> From File. It is
clearly a bug in the Insert -> Picture -> From File command, as
dragging and dropping the same .pngs, .jpegs and (at last!!!!) .pdfs
from the Finder into Word 2008 works just fine.


Interesting. Quitting and restarting didn't help me, but based on
Tom's comment, I quit Word, deleted ~/Library/Preferences/
com.microsoft.Word.plist and then restarted. That fixed it! Now Insert
-> Picture -> From File works again.

-Rob

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Interesting. Quitting and restarting didn't help me, but based on
Tom's comment, I quit Word, deleted ~/Library/Preferences/
com.microsoft.Word.plist and then restarted. That fixed it! Now Insert
-> Picture -> From File works again.

Thanks very much for this--I've added your fix to the small archive
building here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Word2008Issues.html

Daiya

 

[Jason Andersen [MSFT]]

It seems odd to me that this would fix the problem. Next time anyone runs
into this (where a simple restart of Word doesn't fix the issue), it would
be helpful if they could save their plist (instead of deleting it, just move
it somewhere else so a new one is created) and send it in to us. The only
thing I can think of that would be stored in this plist that would affect
being able to insert pictures is the last used picture location. Did you do
any folder operations in between inserting pictures (such as inserting a
picture from a mounted file share, and then disconnecting from the share; or
moving images or folder names around; or renaming folders)?

Sometimes Finder gets a bit wonky and doesn't update properly, thus causing
Navigation Services to act a bit weird. John is correct that a restart of
the OS periodically can often times solve weird file issues when they crop
up (in general, not just for Office).

Thanks!

- Jason

I've encountered the same problem with Word 2008; mundane graphics
files are claimed to be an "unsupported graphics format or may be
damaged" when inserted using Insert -> Picture -> From File. It is
clearly a bug in the Insert -> Picture -> From File command, as
dragging and dropping the same .pngs, .jpegs and (at last!!!!) .pdfs
from the Finder into Word 2008 works just fine.

All that said, the problem appears to have resolved itself today
mysteriously. I can now insert pictures this way. I didn't restart
my machine (since OSX is generally stable) but I did restart Word and
that may have helped.

Interesting. Quitting and restarting didn't help me, but based on
Tom's comment, I quit Word, deleted ~/Library/Preferences/
com.microsoft.Word.plist and then restarted. That fixed it! Now Insert
-> Picture -> From File works again.

-Rob

 

[transom - One Big Idea]

Here are some more hints -

Removing the .plist does indeed "fix" the problem until you try to
insert a unsupported picture (e.g. 32-bit) and then you can't insert
any other picture going forward (until you toss the plist again.)

- Tom Ransom