Word doc with gifs

[Guest]

Hi All;

I don't know if this an appropriate newsgroup to post to but...

I have a word doc that I insert and resize gif files regularily. I rarely
update the text. My question is this, can word save a doc that has "external
links" to gifs on my hard drive so that when I update the gif file the word
doc would update automatically - sort of like a web page? I would prefer that
the picture resizes to the dimensions that I set, but am more concerned with
the doc "re-freshing" the images.

thanks in advance

 

[Jay Freedman]

First, use the Insert > Picture > From File dialog instead of copy/paste to
put the pictures into the document. When you select a picture in the dialog,
click the down arrow on the right of the Insert button, and choose either
"Link to File" or "Insert and Link".

Both of these choices create a link (an IncludePicture field) that points to
the file on the drive, and changing the content of the file will also change
the picture in the Word document (you may have to select the picture in the
document and press F9 to update the field).

The difference between the two is that "Insert and Link" also includes the
picture itself in the document, so if the graphic file isn't available the
document will continue to show the picture. The "Link to File" choice omits
the picture data (by placing a \d switch in the field code); this makes the
document file smaller, but if the external graphics file isn't available all
you'll see in the document is the "red X" error icon.

To force the picture to a specific size, insert it in a table cell in which
you've clicked Table > AutoFit > Fixed Column Width. You can turn off the
table borders in Format > Borders & Shading.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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