For many years now Microsoft has made it hard for new users to control inserted images in their documents.
Unfortunately, Word 2010 is no exception and, by default, images are inserted into a new Word document as inline images. This means that they cannot be moved or easily positioned on the page without you needing to first change the image’s wrap settings.
This leaves hapless new users with absolutely no clue that this feature is available or needed much less where to find and set it.
To change the way that images are inserted into Microsoft Word documents to make it a one-step process that never needs to be tweaked, in Word 2010 choose File > Options and select the Advanced tab. Locate the Cut, Copy and Paste options and set the Insert/Paste Pictures As setting to Square, Tight, Behind Text, In Front Of Text, Through or Top And Bottom – in fact anything other than the default Inline With Text.
Once you’ve done this, when you insert an image into a document it will be inserted with the setting that you determined. This makes it easy to move the image around the screen and position it exactly where you want it to be.
If you have images in your document and if you need to change their wrapping so that you can work with them, click the image, click Picture Tools > Format and from the Wrap Text dropdown list, select Square or another setting (other than Inline with Text).
Microsoft, this default setting earns you a score of -10 it’s not the typically required setting and it doesn’t make good sense as a default.
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Thank you so much for this tip! I’ve struggling with this for days!
Great tip! Thanks for this information. Microsoft seems to go out of their way to create unintuitive interfaces!
Thank god, I’ve been trying to figure out how to insert a pdf into the appendix of a word doc for hours and as it’s multipage, i have to copy it page by page and insert by pasting the image for each page….grrr….unless anyone knows a better way to do this…i have to do it all the time!
Lessia
Whey not try Zamzar.com to convert the pdf to the Word .doc format so you can insert it all at once?
Helen
The problem I’m having is that Word 2010 insists on inserting the image at 85% of the original size, and I don’t know how to change the settings so that the images will insert at 100%. I have resampled the images to fit into a specific space, and want to avoid having to resize in Word. Any suggestions?? Thanks!
I wonder if you are trying to make an image bigger than the available space on the page? If so, I believe Word will scale it down so it fits between the margins. You will either need to scale it up manually or craeat a page with smaller or no margins. Or you could create a macro that sizes the image not 100% so you can click the image then run the macro.
I need to insert about 50 pictures into my Word 2010 document. I am afraid this will significantly increase the file size. I need to email the document to other co-workers. Will this be a problem?
Andrea, yes the pictures will adversely affect the file size. I have posted a new post just for you on how to compress the images so that your file size won’t blow out uncontrollably. Here is the link: http://projectwoman.com/2011/11/save-space-compress-your-images-in-word.html
cheers
Helen
You deserve a medal. I’ve been struggling with this problem for years. Thank you for posting!
I’m converting a document I made elsewhere, and can’t work out how to put graphics in the left margin of an indented paragraph: here’s a link to a picture. Any tips would be welcome!
http://db.tt/P9cJWkoZ
You need to set the image with the Square or Tight wrap and then provided the paragraph is indented the image should sit in place. I’ve tried it and it works just fine. Just make sure the image isn’t too close to your number – it needs some breathing space around it. Helen
I find your articles interesting and informative, so thank you! Any advice on master documents in word 2010? I’ve created one and am struggling to see some of the images. Some display just fine and others don’t display at all. I have no idea why. The picture placeholders have no obvious differences. I thought it might be a memory issue, but the files aren’t enormous and I’ve ompressed the images anyway in all my files. Any tipos would be most welcome.