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How do I display images in draft view (or at least, some sort of a boundary box) in draft view using Word 2007?

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  • The problem with going to .doc instead of .docx (or better, .docm) is that lots of other features break. For example, .doc does not support Bibliography fields. More reasons to go to LaTeX :-( Mar 13, 2012 at 15:18

5 Answers 5

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This problem applies to both Word 2007 and Word 2010. There doesn't appear to be a proper fix, but there's a workaround that may work for you: Save the document as .doc instead of .docx. In-line images in a .doc file will display in draft mode. In-line images in a .docx file will not.

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  • Excellent. I don't really care about the format, but I do like to see where everything goes. At least have some measure. Thank you!
    – Rook
    Aug 7, 2010 at 15:03
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Display image in draft view in a .docx MS Word: here's how to

Yes, it is possible to view an image in draft mode in a .docx file! I just found it can be done by inserting a picture as an object. In fact, the .doc versions of Word also enter images as objects; I'll elaborate on that at the end of this how-to instruction.

I used my solution successfully with MS Word versions 'Office Home & Student 2019', 'Office Prof Plus 2016' and 'Office Prof Plus 2010'; these versions still suffers from the same display problem as Word 2007.

Pl. note:

  • You need a Word with object functionality. E.g. the starter version of 2010 lacks this.
  • You may get an "Error Reading File"; it appeared that the image was too big for the image program that Word wanted to open the image with. In that case, downsize your image. Or try the below mentioned alternative way to import your image.

I do the following to get an image in draft view in docx:

  1. Click tab 'Insert' in the menu bar.
  2. Go to section 'Text', select icon 'Object'. (If you don't see the icon texts, move your mouse over te icons to get a popup text, or make your Window wider until icon text is visible, or simply go to the 'Tell me what you want to do'-box and type "Insert object").
  3. A small Window opens. Choose tab 'Create from File' and browse to the image you want to insert. Don't check any of the two boxes 'Link to file' or 'Display as icon'. Click OK. - Alternatively, choose tab 'Create New' and select an image-related object type.
  4. Now the image is inserted in your Word file. It is possibly also opened in the program your computer has associated it with it, e.g. with Paint.
  5. If necessary, close the imaging program (it may also close automatically).

If you can't resize the so inserted image with the grey square handles in draft view, you'll need to do this in print layout view. No worries, the new size will remain effective in draft view. (This happened in Word 2019, not in 2016 nor 2010..)

In .doc files, pictures were/are objects too. You can see this as follows. If you create a .doc file using a version of Word that defaults .docx (2019 in my case), right-clicking an inserted picture shows a.o. an option 'Save as Picture' and a greyed-out option 'Edit Picture'. This shows that the inserted image is not a picture, because if it were a picture already, you wouldn't be offered to save it as a picture. And you would be able to edit the image.

This made me curious what Word 2000 would show, since Word 2000 can only make .doc files. Well, right-clicking on an inserted picture in Word 2000 offers options like 'Picture object>Convert to...Picture' and 'Format object'. So, a picture in Word used to be an object ever since. Not surprisingly, in Word 2000 no option 'Edit picture' is offered, not even greyed out.

The object you can now create is not a picture, it contains a picture. Visually it's the same, but it's a relevant (and tricky..) difference. You'll find you can create various kinds of objects in your Word file: containing a spreadsheet, a pdf document, a slide and more. A picture-containing object is just another one. An object in Word is a container holding something that was created with a program different from Word.

Like you, I searched for years to find a solution for this image display problem. One question still puzzles me: why did I see so many MS mvp's writing "it's not possible"?

Let us know if you're successfull, and what Word version you used.

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It seems that OLE images are intentionally being ditched (InlineShapes.AddPicture in favor of InlineShapes.AddOLEObject). With Windows 11 there is no PaintBrush or PhotoEd OLE server, so if one really need to view inline images in draft view, the only available OLE server is Word itself.

Trying and embedding any image objects will result in a "OLE Package", which will show as an icon, despite "Show as icon" unchecked.

A workaround is using a separated blank document with images in it (They don't even need to be inline). Use a rectangle with no borders and no fill to delimitate the boundaries, and set page size to something smaller than that rectangle. Select these contents and paste as an embedded Word document object (which in turn can be inline) in the original document.

This inline object will be visible in draft view.

Edit: this is in addition to Muriel's response. Images as OLE objects didn't work as expected, as most "OLE servers" were removed in Windows 11/Office 365. The reasoning is valid though, IT IS possible to view inline images in docx draft view.

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I don't believe this is possible. Draft mode does not show images in Word 2007. An invisible placeholder the size of the image is shown. If you click it, Word highlights it so you can see the size of the image. However, it doesn't do any more than that. It won't even display the right-click menu that's specific to an image.

I think the last version that showed images in draft mode was Word 97. Older word documents sometimes show images in draft mode when opened in Word 2007, but I don't know of any way to insert a new image and have it displayed.

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  • Well, I'll let it stay open for a while longer before accepting. Hoping, I guess.
    – Rook
    Jun 14, 2010 at 3:15
  • 10 years for a bug..
    – bobobobo
    Sep 8, 2010 at 19:03
  • Ridiculous. At least they should show a placeholder of the image in Draft view so I don't accidentally delete it thinking it was whitespace.
    – wisbucky
    Jan 21, 2014 at 21:14
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Go to Office Button | Word Options | Advanced: Show document content and make sure that “Show drawings and text boxes on screen” is checked and that “Show picture placeholders” is not checked.

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  • That didn't work.
    – dangph
    Dec 15, 2014 at 2:10

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