Hi, I recently found an annoying glitch that seems to hide my drawings on Microsoft Word 2007 after I save a document and close it. I have worked out how it happens (which I will step you through), but I want to know why it happens and how to correct it. First I would like to stress that as far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with your viewer settings. I have spent the last day checking the settings (which were correct), plus the images don't display on anyone else's computer (where other images will), nor do they display in a PDF format. So yes, the fridge is plugged in at the wall and turn on, so to speak.
Here is how to recreate the problem (makes for a neat magic trick!).
- Open a new word document. Now lay down a canvas (Insert -> Shapes -> New drawing Canvas) and draw a pretty picture.
- Because you picture will go down into the MS-word Bermuda Triangle, keep it simple, so just draw a box.
- Now fill it will colour so we can see it (optional).
- Save your document and close it. Now reopen it, your drawing will still be there, but not for long.
- Now because we want people to know what it is, add a caption by right clicking on the Canvas and selecting insert caption. Call it "The hidden box", or whatever takes your fancy.
- Save and close the document. I hope you weren't attached to that picture, because when you open it, it will be gone, and the canvas outline will have changed to a blue lined box when clicked on, almost like a type of image.
So I think we have established that it is the caption that causes it. So I would like to know if anyone knows why, but more importantly, how to reverse it. I have copied the whole document (after the image has disappeared), saved it in a new file and noticed that the new document is smaller than the old one (by alot too). Which must mean that the image is still there somewhere in the document. But how can I access it again? If anyone has any idea, I would love to hear them.
It is a really annoying problem as I have spent my time drawing an image to describe my topic, only to save and submit it and have it lost in cyberspace by following academic protocol and placing a caption in. I even lost marks on a paper, because the submitted copy (which was submitted as a PDF) had an empty box instead of my image. And I am not the only person who has had this problem as a Google search revealed similar complaints, but not a single solution. So if you like a challenge, here it is.