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November 23, 2008
 
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Graphics
Should
I "Link" or "Insert" My Images?
by Tim Campbell, editor —
W
 hen inserting graphic images like clip-art or photographs, you can choose
to link them or simply import them. What's the difference?
Inserting
images
When you simply insert an image into your Word document,
the program imports all of the image's information that it needs to print
it. When you do this, your document's file size will grow. If you import
a 500kb
image into a 15kb document, the document will grow to approximately 515kb.
If you add several images, it won't take long for your document to get
quite big. Large documents take longer to e-mail, use more space on your
hard drive and won't fit on floppy disks.
Linking
and inserting images
When you link and insert an image (click
here to learn how), most of the image's information will not be imported.
You'll see the image in your document but, when you print it, the printer
will look to the image file for the information it needs. The Word document
and the image are invisibly linked. The positive side is that your  Word
document won't grow very much no matter how many images you link and insert.
The negative side is that, if you break the link between the document
and the image by moving either one, you'll have to reestablish the link
or reimport the image for the document to print correctly.
Which
is best for me?
If you have enough storage space and can easily move big
files, I reccomend just inserting the image. It's much less hassle and
you can share the documents with others without worrying about breaking
links to images. If you have limited hard
drive space and will print the document from your own system, then
linking might be right for you. You can leave the images on a disk like
a CD-ROM
and then just make sure you have the disk inserted when you want to print
the document (keeping the link intact).
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