WD98: Graphic Appears as Red "X" on Screen and When Printed (189858)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q189858

SYMPTOMS

In Word 98 Macintosh Edition, when you open a document that contains graphics, some of the graphics are displayed as partial or whole red "X" images.

CAUSE

This problem occurs most often with inserted bitmap (.bmp) files or pasted graphics. Tagged Image Format File (TIFF) graphics with Alpha channel information in them and graphics scanned in at over 300 dots per inch (dpi) may cause this problem. Note, however, that this behavior may also occur with other graphics formats such as PICT.

Word uses either a red "X" or a general picture (a circle, square, and triangle) to represent any graphic or picture it cannot display. Word cannot display corrupted or damaged graphics and Word may lose picture data in low memory or low resource situations.

RESOLUTION

Currently, the only resolution is to manually restore the graphic in a document after it has changed to a red "X" image. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Delete the red "X" from the document.
  2. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and click From File.
  3. Select the original graphics file and click Insert.
  4. On the File menu, click Save As and save the document with a new name.

USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO DETERMINE THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEM AND RESTORE THE GRAPHIC

Method 1: Increase the Preferred Memory Allocated to Word

  1. Locate and select the Word program icon, by clicking it once.
  2. On the File menu, select Get info, and on Macintosh Operating Systems later than 8.5, select Memory on the submenu.
  3. In the Preferred memory box, increase the memory from double the current setting to 24000K, depending upon the amount of random access memory (RAM) available on the computer.
  4. Close the Get Info dialog box.

Method 2: Download and Install the Metafile Filter.

To obtain the Microsoft Office 98 Metafile Filter, go to the following Microsoft Office Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?ReleaseID=14008

For additional information about the Metafile Filter, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

190823 OFF98: Graphics in Files Imported from Windows Are Wrong Color or Are Mapped Incorrectly

Method 3: Turn Off the Fast Save Option

  1. On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the Save tab.
  2. Click to clear (remove the check mark from) the Allow fast saves check box.
  3. Click OK.
  4. On the File menu, click Save As and save the document with a new name.

Method 4: Verify Sufficient Free Space Is on Your Primary Hard Disk

  1. Double-click your hard disk icon on the desktop.
  2. On the Apple menu, click About This Computer (or About This Macintosh).
  3. The amount of free disk space (Largest Unused Block) should be approximately 20 megabytes (MB) or more.

    There is no specific minimum amount of free disk space required to run Office programs. However, most computers do require a certain amount of free space (usually around 20 MB) to open, close, and save files, and to print documents.

    If your hard disk has less than 20 MB of free disk space, you should consider removing unused data files or temporary files or programs. After you have freed 20 MB or more space on your primary hard disk, restart your Macintosh, and re-open the file.

Method 5: Refresh the Field Results

If the graphic is linked, you can refresh the field results. For example, when you view field codes, if you see a field that resembles either of the following 
{IMPORT "Images:MyImage.jpeg"}

-or- 

{INCLUDEPICTURE "Images:MyImage.jpeg" \* MERGEFORMAT \d}
make sure that Picture.pcx file does exist in the Clipart folder. Then, select the field and press F9 to update the field.

Updating the field causes the graphics filter to read the picture again. When this occurs, the picture display should be refreshed and the red "X" will be replaced with the expected picture.

Method 6: Open the Picture in Picture Editor, Paste It Back in the File

  1. Double-click the picture to open it in the picture editor.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
  3. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
  4. On the File menu, click Close & Return to document.
  5. In Word, click Paste on the Edit menu.

Method 7: Rescan the Graphic

  • See your scanner software manual for instructions on how to adjust the scanner to a resolution of less than 300 dpi.

    -or-
  • Convert your graphic to an EPS or PICT graphic by using a graphics conversion program.
For additional information about graphics resizing, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

187995 OFF98: TIFF Images Become Much Bigger When Inserted

IF YOU HAVE REPLACED THE GRAPHIC BUT CONTINUE TO SEE A RED "X"

In some cases, a red "X" is displayed in your document on purpose. An image can be displayed as a red "X" if any of the following conditions is true:

  • The image is a GIF, JPEG, or PICT image that contains complex formatting options such as animations, sounds, or progressive displays.
  • The image has been corrupted or some other aspect of the document has been corrupted.
  • You have insufficient free space on your hard disk.
To determine whether the nature of the graphic in your document is causing the display problem, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: If the Image is a GIF or JPEG Image

Many JPEG or GIF images downloaded from the Internet contain complex formatting options such as animations, sounds, or progressive displays. Word does not use these options. To modify the graphic so that it includes only those elements that Word uses, use a graphics editing program to save the graphic in a simpler format:

NOTE: You need a graphic editor to use either of these options.

  • For a GIF graphic, lower the complexity to CIS GIF 87 or 87A rather than GIF 89A.
  • For a JPEG graphic, save it in the "simple" or "baseline" format without any progressive redraw features.
For more information about these graphics formats, see the documentation that comes with your graphics editing program and see the "More Information" section of this article.

Method 2: Verify That Your Graphic File Is Not Damaged or Corrupted

If you see a partial re-draw of the picture before it becomes a red "X" or if the size of your graphic is not what you expect, the graphic may be corrupted.

To see the size of your graphic, follow these steps:

  1. Click the picture to select it.
  2. On the Format menu, click Picture.
  3. In the Format Picture dialog box, click the Size tab.
  4. Verify the size of the picture by using the numbers under Original Size.
If the size reported is not what you expect the intact picture to be, the graphic file may be corrupted. If the size reported is 1 inch by 1 inch, you have a different problem and you will need to try some other workarounds to resolve the problem.

To restore the picture, follow these steps:

  1. Open the picture in a graphics-editing program such as PhotoShop.
  2. Save the file in a different file format.
  3. Attempt to insert the saved file back into your document.
In some cases, a red "X" in your document indicates that some other aspect of the document has been corrupted. If you receive an "unable to open file" error message or if you receive an out of memory error when you open the file, some other aspect of your document may be damaged.

For information about troubleshooting a damaged document, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176050 WD98: Troubleshooting Corrupted Documents in Word 98 for Macintosh

Method 3: Verify Sufficient Free Space on Your Primary Hard Disk

  1. Double-click your hard disk icon on the desktop.
  2. On the Apple menu, click About This Computer (or About This Macintosh).
  3. The amount of free disk space (Largest Unused Block) should be approximately 20 megabytes (MB) or more.
There is no specific minimum amount of free disk space required to run Office programs. However, most computers do require a certain amount of free space (usually around 20 MB) to open, close, and save files, and to print documents.

If your hard disk has less than 20 MB of free disk space, you should consider removing unused data files or temporary files or programs. After you have freed 20 MB or more space on your primary hard disk, restart your computer and reopen the file.

Other Suggestions

  • In Word, work in normal view instead of page layout view whenever possible. In page layout view, Word takes longer to redraw the screen.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Information About GIF and JPEG File Formats

Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is the most common file format for graphics used on the World Wide Web. The next most common format is Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.

GIF uses the two-dimensional raster data type, is encoded in binary, and uses a type of compression called LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch). There are two versions of the format, 87a and 89a. Version 89a lets you save an animated GIF, which is essentially a short sequence of images within a single GIF file. You can also save interlaced images in GIF89a format.

Essentially JPEG has two basic types: progressive and simple. A simple or "baseline" JPEG file is one top-to-bottom scan of the image. Progressive JPEG divides the file into a series of scans so that the image quality increases as each scan is loaded.

This has obvious advantages for images downloaded over low bandwidth connections. (Basically, progressive JPEG is just a rearrangement of the same data into a more complicated order.)

For more information about GIF and JPEG formats, please see the following World Wide Web sites:

http://www.jpeg.org

http://www.ijg.org

http://user.aol.com/royalef/gifanim.htm

For information about this problem in Word for Windows, please click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

162349 WD97: Picture Displayed as Red "X" in Document

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/4/2002
Keywords:kbbug KB189858
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.