Inserting from the Clip Art Gallery Doesn't Work

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 21, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Have you ever tried to place clip art into your document from the Clip Art Gallery, only to have it not be visible? If you have this problem, try this solution:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the View tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The View tab of the Options dialog box.

Make sure the Picture Placeholders check box is cleared.
Make sure the Drawings check box is selected.
Click on OK.

Now you should be able to place your clip art, as desired. These settings are normally cleared and selected (respectively) by default, but another user might have changed them on your system. Also, Word can change these settings automatically if it detects that screen redrawing is slow because of hardware considerations or because of the number of graphics in the document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8514) 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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Searching for Optional Hyphens

If you have a document that contains optional hyphens (special characters that mark where a word can be split between ...

Discover More

Converting Numeric Values to Times

If you have a bunch of times entered into cells without the colon between the hours and minutes, chances are good that ...

Discover More

Finding the Dates for Minimums and Maximums

If you use Excel to maintain a collection of data, you may need to find information in one column based on information in ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Understanding Object Anchors

Do you have documents that contain objects? Understanding how Word handles objects and the way they are anchored can make ...

Discover More

Default Picture Settings

Place enough pictures, and sooner or later you start wondering if there is a way to set up some default settings for ...

Discover More

Understanding Graphic Linking

Word provides a couple of different ways that graphics can be linked to your document. How you control the method used ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 8 - 1?

2017-02-13 11:12:27

Kristen

You can also click on the Edit toolbar, then on "Paste Special". Make sure "picture" is highlighted and not "HTML format".

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.