Objects moving around document "uncontrollably"!!

C

Chris P

Word 2003 SP2
WinPro XP 5.1 SP2

I have a 30 page document full of .JPG files that is about 1.5 MB.
Initially, I imported all these picture files as, well, pictures--i.e when
you click on the .JPG, it would have small black square boxes around its
perimeter.

Well, I had some issue with placing these pictures where I wanted them and
getting them to stay put and getting the captions to stay with them and
getting text to flow nicely, etc.

A colleague suggested I change all the pictures to objects ("white" circles
around the perimieter upon clicking) to help better control the flow of text
around them. This also helped me keep my captions tied (grouped) nicely.
This was a lot of work but things seemed to work quite nicely.

Some of these objects (.JPG files) are quite large and can take up half the
space on a page (1" margins all around).

Anways, after doing the 30 or so pictures, I have come to find that in the
process of editing, adding text, adding more .JPG files, etc. that some of
these objects are disappearing and others are suddenly moving 1 or 2 pages up
or down. Grabbing them and putting them back sometimes works, sometimes it
jumps right back. Sometimes they just disappear altogether. I'm also seeing
large areas on a page of no text or anything...just white space.

Needless to say, I'm doing a lot of "Ctrl-Z". Just when I think I've got
some placements finalized and they aren't jumping around, I then scroll down
further and suddenly see other placements all messed up. Very frustrating!

I've got the paragraph mark on so I can see all the little symbols.
Sometimes that helps but for the life of me, I cannot make heads or tails of
these objects jumping around.

Under "format object-->advanced layout", picture position tab, I've tried to
udnerstand how to use the 4 buttons there: lock anchor, move object with
text, allow overlapping, and layout in table cell. Sometimes them seem to
work and other times, they don't. Often, what I select, upon clicking okay,
and then going back, I'll see some of them unselected--usually as the object
bounes around to where I don't want it.

Heck, even having the text selected to wrap top and bottom doesn't always
seem to to work. I'll have object bounce somewhere and it'll block all the
text...not allow the text to flow around. They even block other objects.

Okay, enough ranting...hopefully what I've posted makes some sense and
someone out there can help me.

Maybe you can point me to a decent tutorial on objects vs. pictures and when
one is better to use than another.

Thanks!
 
I

Idaho Word Man

You seem to have found the format object options. I don't know whether this
will be the answer you need or not, but have you tried "Inline with text" as
the wrapping style? That usually makes my graphics behave.

Another thing you might want to consider (maybe next time) is to edit your
JPEG's in a graphics program before you insert them into the document. I
usually resize my graphics so they are no more than 6-1/2 inches wide, and I
usually set the resolution at around 100 dpi. That looks fine on screen or
in print, and it takes a whole lot less disk space than when the pictures
first came out of that kazillion-megapixel camera.
 

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