Re: screen shots missing from doc

[Chris Knight <knight -at- ADA -dot- COM>]

Kristie Craig wrote:
>
> Post if you can help...
> The hard copy user manuals my department writes and maintains are in
> Word (v7).  The manuals contain screen shots of the company software.
> The screen shots are called in from a .bmp file that sits out on the
> documentation group's network.
>
> After doing edits in the Word file, I print preview the entire document.
> When I went to "print preview", I got a Word warning message to this
> effect:  Word has insufficient memory...you will not be able to undo
> this action...Do you wish to continue?   The warning box has Yes/No push
> buttons, I selected No.  I went back & forth between the document &
> print preview several times, each time getting the same warning.
>
> Here's the problem:  When I updated the fields before sending the doc to
> the printer - all of my screen shots were replaced with the error
> message: Error! Invalid Filename.  I know these file names are valid, so
> that is not the problem.  All of the fields that could be updated (page
> numbers, cross-references, screen shots) in my document were replaced
> with the same error .
>
> The Warning and Error I received may be unrelated, but they were the
> only things to occur during this maintenance pass that were out of the
> ordinary (besides the disappearance of my screen shots).  As I said
> earlier, I am on a network.  All of my co-workers go into the same files
> and have never had this occur.  If anyone has a clue as to what would
> make this happen, please post it!
>

Word prefers references to external files to be absolute (i.e.
disk:\\path\\path\\filename.ext). If you use just the filename.ext
(because the file is in the same directory as the document file),
sometimes it will work and sometimes it won't. The determining factor
seems to be how much memory Word has available (NOT how much memory
your computer has). So: (1) replace relative file specifications with
absolute file specs (yes I know this can make the document unportable),
and/or (2) reboot your computer (Yup), restart Windows, then Word, and
I bet you see all your graphics again. Till the next time the problem
happens (and you can guarantee that it will, unless you go to absolute
file names).

Good luck.

--
Chris Knight
Consultant, Technical Communication Architect
Vancouver BC, Canada
(currently at Applied Digital Access,
e-mail: knight -at- bcg -dot- ada -dot- com)
Opinions expressed are my own, not ADA's

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