Importing Word images that were added via Insert + Link

[Curlyshell]

Hi, brand-newbie here! On my first test-import of a Word document, all my linked images were imported separately into each topic.

My images were inserted into Word using the "Insert and Link" option, which gave me automatic updates if an icon changed but also let others see the images when editing the Word doc, all without compromising security by posting images on the shared drive. Best of all worlds, I thought, until this import.

Any idea how I can get my images to import under their original names? Or am I destined to re-link every one?

[ChoccieMuffin]

Hi Curlyshell, and welcome to the forums.

You will find that your imported images are placed in a sub-folder which by default is \Content\Resources\Images\[[[doc name]]] and the images are named [[[First heading_n.png]]], where "n" is a number. I find this REALLY annoying, particularly if the same image is used several times, because each instance of the image is imported, breaking the links.

I haven't found any easy way to deal with this, but if you do link to your original images make sure you move the folder containing the images into the Flare project folder. This prevents you getting warnings that you're linking to something outside the project, and also means that if you zip up your project or back it up, the images are included. I prefer to have images just in \Content\Images rather than buried inside the \Resources folder.

[Curlyshell]

Ah, well, I'm resigned to reinserting all my icons. At least I won't waste any more time looking for a solution. Thanks!

[Sharuss]

I also discovered that if the images are linked and embedded, that they are treated as if they were only embedded and the links are ignored. However, you don't have to manually relink all the images to correct the issue. There is an easier way.

1. In Word, click File and then, under Related Documents, click Edit Links to Files.
2. In the Links dialog, scroll down to the start of the images. They will be after the other references and, in the Type column, it will say "Picture"
3. Select the first image and, under "Options for selected link", deselect the Save picture in document checkbox.
4. Select the next image and deselect the Save picture in document checkbox.
5. Repeat for all the images.
6. Click OK.

That will unembed the images and only keep the links so importing into Flare works for the naming of the images.

Also, linked images only import correctly if the images are linked locally. Initially, we had our documents and the images in Sharepoint. When they were imported, even though the images were linked, the import behaved as though the images were embedded. I copied the Word file and the image folder to my local drive and changed the link to the local folder and then the import worked correctly for the linked images.
An easier way to relink the images to the local folder was to use the Links dialog again. This time, click on an image, click the Change Source button and select the new location. It would be great if you could just tell Word where the new location was and have it update all the images, but you have to do them one by one. Still easier to do it all on one dialog rather than scrolling through the document and re-inserting all the images.

I hope this helps someone.
Cheers,
Sharon