How to get Images Back out of Microsoft Word
Filed Under: Graphic Design, Tutorial
One thing I run into somewhat frequently is content being provided to me in a Microsoft Word file with embedded images. I used to struggle with getting the highest quality version of those images back out of Word and into Photoshop. If you cut and paste into Photoshop, you often get it at the resolution it’s been scaled down to, and often, the colors are wrong or even the aspect ratio is messed up. The solution is simple and having stumbled upon it, it is going to save me plenty of time. Maybe it can save you some time too.
The Solution
File->Save as->HTML
(I know, *shudder* at the thought of Word’s HTML. But we don’t need that!)
Word generates an images folder and creates a gif and a jpeg of each image at the maximum resolution. I was able to pull full 300 dpi photos from word files with this technique with none of the image screw-ups that you get when you try copying and pasting.
It’s just that easy. Do you know of a better way to get those embedded images out of Microsoft Word? Let me know in the comments!
Comments
07-06-2008
Whoa! This is actually pretty significant and interesting to me. As a Mac user, I often have trouble with files I made up using one member of the MS-Office suite displaying images when opened by someone using the Windows version of MS-Office. This is frustrating because the image files are obviously still there (because I can extract them from the file on the Windows machine and then add them to the file again, a time-consuming process) - but they aren’t being interpreted properly. I suspect that this has something to do with the difference between Apple’s OSX image-display software, “Quartz”, and whatever it is that Windows uses to interpret images.
This really kills me with PowerPoint slides, and you’d think that MS would have set some sort of platform-independent display model… but I guess not.
07-13-2008
Hi,
I’m a little confused. I’m working in Office 2007, and I don’t see a “save as HTML” option. Also, where do I look to find the jpeg or gif file formats once I save?
thanks!
07-13-2008
Hmm, I don’t have Office 2007. It no longer has a save as HTML option? In the version of Word I have, it makes an images directory in the same location where you save the .html file, and that’s where the files are.
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