Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Turning On Picture Placeholders.

Turning on Picture Placeholders

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 18, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

If you are working with a document that has many graphics, and you don't have the latest and greatest fastest computer, you have probably noticed that Word slows down quite a bit when displaying the graphics. This can be distracting as you lose your train of thought waiting for the screen drawing to catch up to the scrolling.

You can speed up the display of your document by using picture placeholders. This results in Word displaying boxes where your graphics would normally appear. To turn on picture placeholders, follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
Scroll down to the Show Document Content section. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Advanced options of the Word Options dialog box.

Click to turn on the Show Picture Placeholders check box.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8619) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Turning On Picture Placeholders.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Converting to Octal

If you need to do some work in the base-8 numbering system (octal), you'll love two worksheet functions provided by Excel ...

Discover More

Sorting by the Last Digits in Variable Length Data

Excel is great at sorting information in a worksheet. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing as to how to set up the sort ...

Discover More

Ampersands in Headers and Footers

Add an ampersand to the text in a header or footer and you may be surprised that the ampersand disappears on your ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Resetting Ribbons to Their Default

Customize Word 2010 enough, and you may at some point want to set the ribbon tabs back to their original condition. ...

Discover More

Sizing What is Displayed in the Styles Gallery

The Styles Gallery can be a great tool for applying your often-used styles. It can be frustrating, though, if you cannot ...

Discover More

Leaving Bullet Point Items Lowercase

When typing a bulleted list, Word seems to automatically make the first letter of each item in the list uppercase. The ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is six minus 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.