Pictures or other objects do not appear in a Word document

When you have a Microsoft Word document that contains a picture or other object, the picture may not appear. This problem may occur for a picture, graphic image, AutoShape, or other object.

The picture or object is formatted with a wrapping style other than "In line with text," and you are viewing your Word document in normal or outline view.

Use one of the following methods, as appropriate for your situation.

Method 1: Change the view

To allow a picture or object formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text to appear in your Word document, change the view to one that displays the drawing layer. To do this, click either Print Layout or Web Layout on the View menu.

Method 2: Change the picture or object to "In line with text"

To allow the picture or object to be displayed in any view, format the picture or object as an In line with text object by changing its wrapping style. To do this, do one of the following.

Note In Microsoft Office Word 2003 and in Microsoft Word 2002, you can change the wrapping style of a picture to In line with text and have the picture appear in any view. However, objects and AutoShapes do not appear in normal view even after the wrapping style is changed to In line with text. This behavior is by design.

• To change the wrapping style of the picture or object, follow these steps:
  1. Click to select the picture or object.
  2. On the Format menu, click Picture (or Object or AutoShape).
  3. On the Position tab, click to select In line with text, and then click OK.
• If you cannot select In line with text, follow these steps:
  1. Click to select the picture or object.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Cut.
  3. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
  4. In the Paste Special dialog box, click to select Picture, and then click OK.

The picture or object is formatted with a wrapping style other than "In line with text," you are viewing your document in print layout or Web layout view, and the Drawings option is turned off.

To allow a picture or object formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text to appear in print layout or Web layout view, turn the Drawings option on. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the View tab, click to select the Drawings check box, and then click OK.

The picture or object is formatted with a wrapping style other than "In line with text," and the Drawing Objects option is turned off. This problem occurs when you print your document or view it in print preview.

To allow a picture or object formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text to appear in print preview or to be printed, turn on the Drawing objects option. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Print tab, click to select the Drawing objects check box, and then click OK.

The picture or object is formatted as "In line with text," and the Draft Output option is turned on. This problem occurs when you print your document or view it in print preview.

To allow a picture or object formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text to appear in print preview or to be printed, turn off the Draft output option. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Print tab, click to clear the Draft output check box, and then click OK.

The picture or object is formatted as "In line with text," and the Picture Placeholders option is turned on.

To allow an In line with text picture or object to appear in all views, turn off the Picture Placeholders option. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the View tab, click to clear the Picture placeholders check box, and then click OK.

Note The Picture Placeholders option does not affect pictures or objects that are formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text. The Picture Placeholders option does affect pictures and objects that are formatted as In line with text in all views.

The line spacing of the paragraph is set to a specific height.

If a graphic is in line with the text and the paragraph is set for a specific height, the graphic may not appear or may appear truncated. To resolve this issue, change the line spacing of the paragraph to single spacing. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click to select the graphic, click Paragraph on the Format menu, and then click Indents and Spacing.
2. Under Spacing, change the Before value and the After value to 0 pts, and then change the line spacing to single.

There may be a problem with the video driver or Windows display settings.

If this does not correct the problem, or if you encounter this problem frequently, you may have a problem with your video driver or your Windows display settings. To reduce the frequency of this problem, use the following methods:

• Use your current display driver, but at a lower resolution and color depth. If your driver is set for High Color or True Color, change it to 256-color.
• Modify the hardware acceleration setting by following these steps:
  1. On the Start menu, point to Settings , and then click Control Panel.
  2. Double-click the Display icon.
  3. Click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
  4. Click the Troubleshoot tab.
  5. Move the slider to the left to reduce the hardware acceleration, and then click OK.
  6. When you are asked if you want to restart your computer, click Yes.
     

If these methods help resolve this problem, contact your computer manufacturer for updated video drivers. If you already upgraded your video card, contact the video card’s manufacturer.

For more information about hardware and software vendor contact information, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Microsoft Word documents consist of separate text and drawing layers. When a picture or object is formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text, the picture or object is inserted in the drawing layer. Word does not display the drawing layer when you view the document in normal or outline view.

Print layout, Web layout, and print preview are the only views in which Word can display the drawing layers of a Word document. Because pictures and objects that are formatted with a wrapping style other than In line with text reside in the drawing layer, they are only visible in the print layout, Web layout, and print preview views.