I have searched high and low for years now trying to fix what would seem a straight forward problem. I am truly humbled and have nowhere else to turn.



My goal is to be able to insert a picture into word and have that picture's dimensions take the form of a dimension of my choosing.

I am trying to create a template that has a space for a picture. But I don't want the picture to be inserted per it's original dimensions, because then the arrangment of the other text/pictures on the page gets moved around. Also, because I have a lot of pictures to insert, I don't want to insert and then specify desired dimensions for each picture.

I have tried using Picture Content Control, text boxes, and just plain old insert but with no luck. Please oh please, any ideas?

Just to clarify, I am trying to have the picture assume a non-regular shape. I just want the picture to be, say, 7.5x5.5 when it is inserted, regardless of the original dimensions of the picture. No one has replied, so maybe this problem is not as easy to resolve as I imagined. I find this hard to believe, though. I can't be the first person to have needed this. Any ideas will be welcomed. Thank you.

In other words...how do I designate a space on a word document and have an inserted photo occupy that entire space without leaving any are unfilled or without spilling over the boundaries of that area?

Hi,
Having the same problem and can't seem to find an answer. Have you had any luck? I don't see any suggestions posted.

Thanks,

It's actually quite simple - and there are many posts describing this, including some in this forum.

What you can do is to insert a single-celled table into the document with a fixed row height and column width. Any picture you insert into such a table will be constrained to those dimensions. This is particularly useful where you have many pictures to insert that have to be constrained to the same maximum dimensions. Simply make a multi-celled table with the # of fixed-dimension cells required, or make multiple copies of the same single-celled table, beforehand.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I can fix the width of a table cell to 4cm but I can find no way to fix the width.

Select the cell and use the table tools to set the 'preferred width' for either the table as a whole (for a single-column table), the column (for a column in which all widths should be the same) or the cell (where an individual cell is to be controlled).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I have done that but when I insert a picture it changes the width.

Go into Table Tools>Layout>Properties>Table>Options and uncheck 'Automatically resize to fit contents''.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I have two word 2010 one on my laptop and your advice works perfectly fixes the width to the graphic and alters the height.

THe other copy is on a Cloud server we use and access via RDP.

Despite settings above in place it resizes the width!!

THis is the main version I have to use on the Cloud, and it is very annoying that it does this as I have to manually resize 30 times a day the documents I create in number.

What else may be overiding this function?
Is there an issue perhaps on administrator rights restricting the settings?
I note there are no previously saved documents for instance, presumably because it is a cloud server using RDP.

I too have searched high and low and this is the first time I have a copy of 2010 that holds the width of the table, but NOT on the cloud version.

Any ideas why?

Would be appreciative as a real pain!

Your description suggests the 'Automatically resize to fit contents' setting hasn't been (un)applied consistently or that you're using some process you haven't mentioned to insert the images. Assuming the documents being created from a template and the images are being inserted manually:
(a) the table must already exist in the template, or have those settings applied when the table gets created (there are no Word defaults you can change for the 'Automatically resize to fit contents' or row height options); and
(b) the image must be inserted into the table.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

It is suggested to insert a one-cell-table with the desired dimensions and untick the table option ‘Automatically resize to fit contents’, in this way, the inserted picture should respect the chosen dimensions of the table, for some reason, this does not work for me.. Can somebody help me?

Have you also given the cell a specified width and a fixed row height?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

It works! Thanks for your quick reply

I am sorry to come back on this subject again, but I actually have the same problem as Philfy a couple of years ago. It works well with the height, but when I set a fixed position for the width, the picture just takes the whole width of the page.. I checked and unchecked the option 'automatically resize to fit contents' without any results..