Word 2003 not displaying graphics

[Mary Lee Morgan]

I have Windows 2000 v 5.0 (service pack 4) with Office Pro 2003 and use Word most of the time. All was well when I left for home one Friday evening and upon opening Word the following Monday morning, Word was not displaying any of the graphics in my documents. It is working in the sense that I can insert something then go to print preview and see it, but of course I cannot access it from there (resize or add/adjust drawing objects). I even uninstalled and reinstalled the Office 2003 program, but that did not fix it. I eventually resorted to working in Word 97, which I still have, where everything displayed as it should. I checked view, I checked tools/options and everything that should be on is on. Any ideas?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

Hi, Mary Lee. In Word, click on Tools | Options | View | uncheck the "Picture Placeholders" box.

 

[Mary Lee Morgan]

OK - don't know why I did not see that. Can you tell me how it happened that Word turned this on all by itself?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Sometimes if you have a lot of graphics in a document and the graphics
adapter begins to break under the strain, Word will do it a favor by turning
on "Picture placeholders."

OK - don't know why I did not see that. Can you tell me how it happened

that Word turned this on all by itself?use Word most of the time. All was well when I left for home one Friday
evening and upon opening Word the following Monday morning, Word was not
displaying any of the graphics in my documents. It is working in the sense
that I can insert something then go to print preview and see it, but of
course I cannot access it from there (resize or add/adjust drawing objects).
I even uninstalled and reinstalled the Office 2003 program, but that did not
fix it. I eventually resorted to working in Word 97, which I still have,
where everything displayed as it should. I checked view, I checked
tools/options and everything that should be on is on. Any ideas?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

What Suzanne said. I gave up trying to figure "why" Word does a lot of things. Kinda like the Doris Day song says... what it be, it be.

 

[Mary Lee Morgan]

Thanks, both of you - this brings up a question that I hesitate to put to MVPs, but some of you may have an opinion: is Word the right tool for documents that grow to nearly 300 pages with 75 figures, numerous tables, more repeated renumbering commands than there are figures, numerous sections, and will go through many stages of track changes? I like Word a lot, and also like to make it stretch it to its limits (though I am not nearly as good as you guys!). I know that at least some of the instability it seems to have is user error/igorance, as we have just demonstrated. Anyone have some thoughts along those lines?

Thanks again!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word has reportedly been used for documents upwards of 10,000 pages (though
perhaps not with graphics, tables, etc.). If you use styles rigorously and
set up your outline numbering according to "the rules" (see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html), a 300-page
document should not be a problem. I created a 350-page document with >100
photographs (linked), literally hundreds of (small) tables, and 4,865 index
entries in Word 97 on a severely outpaced computer. I'll grant you, I would
prefer not to do that again under those conditions, but I had relatively
little trouble with it.

Thanks, both of you - this brings up a question that I hesitate to put to

MVPs, but some of you may have an opinion: is Word the right tool for
documents that grow to nearly 300 pages with 75 figures, numerous tables,
more repeated renumbering commands than there are figures, numerous
sections, and will go through many stages of track changes? I like Word a
lot, and also like to make it stretch it to its limits (though I am not
nearly as good as you guys!). I know that at least some of the instability
it seems to have is user error/igorance, as we have just demonstrated.
Anyone have some thoughts along those lines?

Thanks again!

and use Word most of the time. All was well when I left for home one Friday
evening and upon opening Word the following Monday morning, Word was not
displaying any of the graphics in my documents. It is working in the sense
that I can insert something then go to print preview and see it, but of
course I cannot access it from there (resize or add/adjust drawing objects).
I even uninstalled and reinstalled the Office 2003 program, but that did not
fix it. I eventually resorted to working in Word 97, which I still have,
where everything displayed as it should. I checked view, I checked
tools/options and everything that should be on is on. Any ideas?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

I create documents like you describe all the time. I think the longest one I've ever done was about 1500 pages (had to bind that report in three volumes!). I don't recall any problems. But in case you run into some, always make lots of backups, and don't write over the old backups with new backups. I found the backups were also good for those times when I needed to put back something that was accidentally or deliberately deleted during the revision process.

 

[Mary Lee Morgan]

I think I just need to talk to you guys more often. I've been thinking I should store backups on disc, because it is our server space that is severely outpaced at this time. Thanks for the information - it helps a lot!