Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Turning on Picture Placeholders.

Turning On Picture Placeholders

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 6, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you are working with a document that has quite a few graphics, and you don't have the latest and greatest fast computer, you have probably noticed that Word slows down quite a bit when displaying the graphics. This can be particularly distracting, especially if your graphics are quite detailed.

You can speed up the display of your document by using picture placeholders. This results in Word displaying boxes where your graphics would normally appear. This means that Word does not have to redisplay the complete graphic, and therefore your display will be much faster. To turn on picture placeholders, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. You will see the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the View tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box.

  4. Use the Picture Placeholders check box to control whether picture placeholders are used by Word. Click on the check box to turn the capability on and off; if the box is selected it means picture placeholders are enabled.
  5. Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (395) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Turning on Picture Placeholders.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Adding Smart Quotes through Macro Text

When text is added to your document by a macro, and that text includes quotes or apostrophes, Word won't change the ...

Discover More

Tracing Dependent Cells

Cells that use the information in a particular cell are called dependent cells. Excel provides auditing tools that allow ...

Discover More

Concatenating Values from a Variable Number of Cells

Excel makes it easy to concatenate (or combine) different values into a single cell. If you need to combine a different ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Displaying Thumbnails and Full-Size Images

Sometimes images can be just too big to display in a document. Instead you may want to display a smaller, thumbnail-size ...

Discover More

Counting All Graphics

Need to know how many graphics a document contains? Getting at the true number may take a little more work than it first ...

Discover More

Automatically Formatting Graphics and AutoShapes

Want to change the graphics formatting defaults in Word? You can customize some of these defaults, saving yourself some time.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 6 - 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.