Default Picture Settings

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 30, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Many people paste pictures in their documents. Some people paste many, many pictures. It would be very beneficial for those people if the settings used by Word to paste a picture were persistent—in other words, Word remembered the size used to paste a picture or the position, and then used it for subsequent pictures.

Word does not have such a capability, however. When you paste a picture, size is not persistent because the ratio between picture height and width can vary wildly from one picture to another. Positioning is not persistent because many page layouts call for pictures to be in different positions on the page. The only thing that is persistent is the setting of the "Float Over" check box on the Insert Picture dialog box.

If you have a need to format quite a few pictures using the same settings, the easiest approach is to create a quick-and-dirty macro to apply the formatting settings you want. You could then paste the picture, select it, and then run the macro. You can create such a macro by following these general steps:

Paste the picture in your document.
Select the picture you just pasted.
Start the macro recorder.
Make the size and position changes to the picture, as desired.
Stop the macro recorder.

Your macro is now ready to use. Whenever a new picture is pasted in your document, select it and run the macro to apply the "default" settings.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (671) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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What is six minus 6?

2022-08-30 12:53:02

Shauna

Unfortunately, when I start the macro recording, the picture un-selects and cannot be selected while the macro is being recorded. :( What hasn't MS given us this capability with so many people asking for it!

2022-08-24 08:15:31

Tarquin M

Unfortunately this doesn't work in Office 365. What happens is:

1. Paste the picture in your document.
2. Select the picture you just pasted.
3. Start the macro recorder.
4. Macro recorder dialog pops up - can't do anything else until you get rid of it
5. Click OK or hit Enter to get rid of macro dialog
6. Focus no longer on the picture.

2021-01-01 12:37:26

D LOTT SUSAN

Regarding the ability (or lack thereof) of Word to allow a preferred image default size, WordPerfect does this easily. You just set the graphic style to whatever width (or height) you prefer as a default and it calculates the correct ratio for the other dimension. Too bad Word has to have such a difficult work around.

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