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Constantly having to fix broken links.

Anonymous
2025-04-11T14:33:09+00:00

I have a very large file with more than 1,000 pictures linked internally. I am constantly having to fight word to not break my links. When the document was smaller, I would just sift through the file and manually fix all the links but this has become an enormous task now.

The problem seems to be biggest when I change computers, even though the directory structure stays the same.

My images are all stored in C:\TMR\Album\YYYY\*.* where YYYY is the year.

So for example,

Here is the link after I insert the picture ( {} brackets are omitted) :

INCLUDEPICTURE "1992/z1992-001.JPG" \* MERGEFORMAT \d

Once I close word and come back in, the link has changed from a relative path to a fixed path:

INCLUDEPICTURE \d "C:\TMR\Album\1992\z1992-001.JPG" \* MERGEFORMATINET

When I change computers, the link has changed to:

INCLUDEPICTURE "C:\Users\lkytm\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\1992\z1992-001.JPG" \* MERGEFORMAT \d

It wouldn't even be so bad if I could just use a search and replace to fix the path but manually editing the path doesn't seem to work. I seem to have to delete the picture and re-insert it and resize it.

This causes literally a month's worth of work to fix every time it breaks my links. It is quite maddening.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-04-12T08:39:17+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-04-12T06:20:07+00:00

    You can also Google the phrase: "A relative path inside INCLUDEPICTURE field changes to absolute path sometimes somehow" and see the answer given by macropod. You need to do something like the following:

    {INCLUDEPICTURE "{FILENAME \p}\\..\\Image.png"}

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-04-11T19:07:43+00:00

    Hello,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community Support!

    I hope you're doing well. I understand the frustration you are experiencing with broken links in your Word document. To prevent Word from changing the paths of your linked images, you can try the following steps:

    1. Before inserting images, make sure to copy all the images to a specific folder on your computer, such as C:\TMR\Album\YYYY\*.* where YYYY is the year.
    2. When inserting images, use the "Insert" tab, then click on "Pictures" and select the images from the folder you have saved them in.
    3. After inserting the images, save your Word document.
    4. To update the links, you can try using the "Edit Links" feature in Word. Go to the "File" tab, click on "Info," then select "Edit Links to Files." From there, you can update the file paths if needed.

    By following these steps, you may be able to maintain the integrity of the links in your Word document when changing computers. For further assistance, please feel free to reach out, or explore Microsoft’s official self-help resources:Microsoft SupportContact Us - Microsoft SupportThank you for your cooperation and patience. If you need further assistance, feel free to reach out—I’m here to help!Best regards,carole_11 | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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