Drawing on canvas disappears from adding a caption

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!).

  1. Open a new word document. Now lay down a canvas (Insert -> Shapes -> New drawing Canvas) and draw a pretty picture.
  2. Because you picture will go down into the MS-word Bermuda Triangle, keep it simple, so just draw a box.
  3. Now fill it will colour so we can see it (optional).
  4. Save your document and close it. Now reopen it, your drawing will still be there, but not for long.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

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Following your six steps to the letter, I cannot replicate the issue.

If you want to send your document to me, I will take a look at it.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - MVP Office Apps & Services (Word)
dougrobbinsmvp@gmail.com
It's time to replace ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ with ‘Excellence, Opportunity & Civility’ - V Ramaswamy

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Hi Doug, first of all thank you for taking your time out to have a look at this issue and replying. It is interesting that you are not able to replicate the problem, perhaps reopening the possibility of an over looked setting on my behalf. I double checked my method and I'm still getting the same results of the disappearing picture.

If you could spare the time to have a look at the document, that would be greatly appreciated as I do find the drawing element tools on word to be very handy. So much so that I have used them in may reports and have encouraged colleagues to utilise it when they have seen the benefits. Therefore I would like to be able to ensure the reliability of the images I draw in my reports.

 

Through researching the issue, I have found a few cases that match my own, however none of them appear to have a solution.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/why-do-images-inside-drawing-canvas-disappear/26b9cdac-b5ac-47b4-9e6a-e95901e775bc?msgId=e4b2fee3-7bb8-477a-b67b-2f128f2ea893&tm=1335173288747

and

http://help.wugnet.com/office/Word-2007-drawings-disappear-ftopict1177639.html

 

Thank you again.

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I don't know whether it's relevant or not, but if I have the drawing canvas formatted as In Line With Text, inserting a caption (which I would expect to be in an ordinary text paragraph but instead is in a text box), changes the text wrapping on the canvas to In Front of Text (which is the default wrapping when the canvas is inserted).

The reason I even tried this was to see whether, with the inline canvas selected, the caption might be actually replacing the canvas, but that definitely doesn't happen. In any case, I can't reproduce the error, either.

Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
Fairhope, Alabama USA
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At this point it seems clear to users that the Canvas is a POS. I hope that Microsoft comes to terms with this fact soon and either gets rid of it or makes it work.
My specific problem is that when I create a picture and add callouts (which forces me to use the canvas), the picture does not appear in my PDF.
Perhaps the ultimate solution is just to switch to Framemaker for all my documents.

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I have experienced the exact same problem on Word 2007. I don't know how to get back an image that was lost in this way but here's how I prevent it from happening:
After inserting the caption it appears as a text box with a blue dashed outline indicating the edges of the box. Grab the bottom left corner of the box and drag it to the right and up to shrink the box somewhat. Then send the box to the back by right-clicking on it and selecting Order->Send to back.
In my case, I could now save the document, close, open again and the drawing with the caption was still visible. Hope this helps!

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Sorry to bump this thread but recently i'm having exactly the same problem, HOWEVER:

1. If you add a caption for a canvas, then save and exit when the cursor is still blinking inside the caption box, the drawing WILL disappear when you re-open
2. If you add a caption for a canvas, then click on a canvas to focus, and then save and exit, the drawing WILL NOT disappear when you re-open

With two canvases:
1. Draw canvas 1 and 2, add a caption to canvas 1, click con canvas 1 and save, nothing is lost
2. Draw canvas 1 and 2, add a caption to both of them, then click on one canvas and save, the drawing inside not-clicked-when-save canvas WILL disappear when re-open

This is just ridiculous, I've lost so many drawings.

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Lucion

What version of Word are you using? I'm using Word 2010 and not seeing the same problem when I follow your instructions.

What file format are you saving your documents in?

Andrew Lockton
Melbourne Australia

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Lucion

What version of Word are you using? I'm using Word 2010 and not seeing the same problem when I follow your instructions.

What file format are you saving your documents in?


I'm using Word 2007, and the file was saved in .docx format
I figure out that after adding a caption, i must reclick the canvas correspond to it at least one time, or the drawing will disappear

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In some versions, an empty drawing canvas will disappear if you click outside of it, but this doesn't seem to be the case in your document. I'll look more closely into this later, when I get the chance to test in Word 2007.
Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
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MS 365, Win 11 Pro
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I haven't been able to reproduce this in Word 2007. Can you reproduce the problem with any document that you create in Word 2007, or just with some documents? Are you seeing the problem only with *.docx files? Please elaborate.
Stefan Blom
MS 365 Word MVP since 2005
Volunteer Moderator
MS 365, Win 11 Pro
~~~
Note that I do not work for Microsoft
https://mvp.microsoft.com/
~~~
Please specify Word version & OS in your question

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Last updated October 18, 2022 Views 3,015 Applies to: