How to embed linked images in Word 2007

Using Author-it to produce Word documents is easy, or other copy-paste tricks from Internet Explorer to Word. The tricky bit is distributing them.

Without running any post publishing macros, the Word document that is generated will be using linked images. So every time you need to distribute the document you’ll also need to remember to include the images as well.

I frequently forget this, hence why I’m posting this, so, if all else fails, I can at least search my own blog to find the solution. If you look at a document with linked images, you’ll see that the file size for the document is quite small, and there will be a number of images in the same folder (although this works fine if your images are linked from another folder).

UPDATE: You can also do this automatically after publishing using an afterPublish Word macro, the Author-it Knowledge Centre has the details, thanks to Derek Tomes for pointing it out. Read on for the manual method.

You can quickly and easily convert linked images to embedded images in Word 2007. Here’s how:

With your Word document open, click the Office button*, top-left of the window.
Select Prepare > Edit Links to Files.
Select and highlight the images you want to convert from the list.
Select the option to Save picture in document.
Click the Break Link button.
Click Yes to confirm.

The links are removed, and the images are now embedded in your Word document. A quick check of the filesize of the Word document should show a marked increase and you can now distribute the Word document, and the Word document only, safe in the knowledge that the images are embedded.