The graphics in my document have turned into red X's!

Occasionally when you open a document that contains graphics, some of the graphics may be displayed with a red X covering part or all of the space required for the graphic. Word uses either a red X or a general picture (a circle, square, and triangle) to represent any graphic or picture it cannot display. There are, however, two different kinds of red X.

Small red X

If you frequently link to picture files instead of embedding them, you may be familiar with the “small red X,” which appears in a white square at the top left corner of the space where the graphic should be (as shown in the figure below). If you move or rename the picture file so that the path in the INCLUDEPICTURE field is no longer correct (with the result that Word can’t find the picture file), it will be displayed this way.

Figure 1. Red X in Word 97–2003 document

Word 2007 and Word 2010 make the problem clearer by displaying the message shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Helpful error message in Word 2007

The solution to this problem is to correct the path. Here’s how:

Word 2003 and earlier

Press Alt+F9 to display the field code; you may be able to tell by inspection what is wrong with it.

Note: The text wrapping on the graphic must be In Line with Text for Alt+F9 to display the field code. If any other wrapping is applied, you’ll need to temporarily make the graphic inline in order to see the file path.

The problem in Figure 1 above, for example, is that, when I moved all my files from one computer to another, although I kept the same folder structure, Windows XP used “Suzanne” as my profile name, whereas it had been “Suzanne S. Barnhill” on my old system under Windows 2000. So this graphic, whose path was { INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Suzanne S. Barnhill\\My Documents\\Word Documents\\Rotary\\Graphics\\Clip art\\rotary.wmf" \d }, was incorrect; it needed to be corrected to { INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Suzanne\\My Documents\\Word Documents\\Rotary\\Graphics\\Clip art\\rotary.wmf" \d }.

Often it is simpler to reinsert the graphic from its original location, but sometimes this results in undesired formatting changes (the inserted graphic is the wrong size or in the wrong place). A workaround is to insert the picture (linked) in a blank document, display the field code to determine the correct path, and then edit the path in the existing field code to match. (You may even be able to copy the relevant portion of one field code and paste it into the other.)

Word 2007 and 2010

Word 2007 and 2010 require a different solution because Alt+F9 does not display the field code. You may well wonder how you are supposed to “verify that the link points to the correct file and location” if you can’t see the link. There are two ways to get the file path, but access to these methods varies slightly between Word 2007 and Word 2010:

Word 2007

•  Select the graphic and display the contextual Picture Tools | Format tab. In the Size group, click the dialog launcher (small arrow in the bottom right corner) to open the Format Picture dialog and select the Alt Text tab. Unless you have actually added more descriptive alternative text, this box will display the file path, which should give you a clue as to what the picture is and where to start looking for it. Since you can’t access the field code, however, you won’t be able to edit it directly (although you can change the path in the Alt Text box, this does not change the link, just the alternative text that will be displayed). To repair the link you need the following method.

• Use Office Button | Prepare | Edit Links to Files to see the link. You can then use Change Source… to point to the moved or renamed graphic.

Word 2010

•  Select the graphic and display the contextual Picture Tools | Format tab. In the Picture Styles group, click the dialog launcher (small arrow in the bottom right corner) to open the Format Picture dialog and select the Alt Text tab. Unless you have actually added more descriptive alternative text, this box will display the file path, which should give you a clue as to what the picture is and where to start looking for it. Since you can’t access the field code, however, you won’t be able to edit it directly (although you can change the path in the Alt Text box, this does not change the link, just the alternative text that will be displayed). To repair the link you need the following method.

• Use File | Info | Edit Links to Files to see the link (you will not see this option unless the file contains links). You can then use Change Source… to point to the moved or renamed graphic.

The advantage to either method in Word 2007 and above is that the graphic need not be inline; both methods work for wrapped graphics as well.

Another option, once you have ascertained the correct file path, is to replace the picture. Right-click on the existing graphic and choose Change Picture. Navigate to the correct location of the file and select it, but don’t double-click to insert it: you will need to reselect Link to File, as Word will not automatically replace a linked picture with another linked picture. The beauty of this method is that the existing size, position, and other formatting will be maintained.

Note: The above applies only to documents in (*.docx) format (that is, created in Word 2007 or above in the native format); documents created in Word 97–2003 and opened in Compatibility Mode behave just the same as described above for Word 2003 and earlier.

Interestingly, a document created in Word 2007 or above and saved in Word 97–2003 format will display the file path in the picture space, as shown in Figure 3. This is true for all wrapping styles. Note, however, that, as above, what is displayed is the alternative text, so if you have modified this, you will not see the true file path, but you can use Alt+F9 to see the field code (for inline pictures only).

Figure 3. Red X display in Word 97–2003–format document created in Word 2007

Big red X

The original version of this article was written to address a quite different problem resulting from a bug in the original Word 97 release, which was corrected by SR-1. The Microsoft Knowledge Base article “WD97: Picture Displayed as Red 'X' in Document” described this problem and how to deal with it. Most of the advice offered in that article is unlikely to be applicable to recent versions of Word installed on relatively modern systems, and in any case it is no longer available.

The “red X” dealt with in that instance was frequently described by users as a “big red X.” Although very rare in recent versions of Word, this problem is evidently a longstanding frustration (and mystery) in earlier versions of PowerPoint as well as quite common in PowerPoint 2007 until a hotfix was issued. Figure 4 shows the Big Red X that used to be displayed in PowerPoint (the small red X is now used instead).

Figure 4. Big Red X

Another “red X” issue is seen in documents created or modified in MacWord X when opened in Word 2002 or earlier Windows versions. The cause of this problem has been traced to third-party add-ins, as explained in a letter from Microsoft’s MacBU (Macintosh Business Unit).

Note: I am indebted to PowerPoint MVP Enric Mañas for the screen shot of the Big Red X.

This article copyright © 2009, 2011, 2014, 2023 by Suzanne S. Barnhill.