Why i've lost my pictures in my file .doc ?

[MICHEL]

In a file with writer open office 2.3 , i've copied pictures and the size of this file is 40 Mega bytes.
Yesterday, i saw my pictures.
Today, i don't see them.

If i write a new file from its original (40 Mega bytes) , the size of the new file is 100 kilo bytes.

Could you help me please ?

[AndrewZ]

Were the pictures in frames? Without having your document, I just have to guess. At one point (maybe still), OpenOffice.org had a bug that lost pictures when in frames with special settings with saving to Word. It's a somewhat rare circumstance.

Beyond guessing what happened, this is a good reminder
1. Always make good backups
2. OpenOffice.org's native format is OpenDocument Format. Most programs (OOo included) do best when saving in their native format. If you want to save in other formats, it's a good idea to save in both (at least, until you are sure it works right).

[Bill]

In a file with writer open office 2.3 , i've copied pictures and the size of this file is 40 Mega bytes.
Yesterday, i saw my pictures.
Today, i don't see them.

Are the pictures (Graphics) still listed in the Navigator? If so, right-click one and select Graphics > Edit. On the Crop tab, check the "original size". If the width shown in the "original size" is greater than 22.75" and the picture is anchored "As character", then it will shrink to 0-width when saved in .doc format. This bug still exists.

WW8: Pictures collapse to 0-width when exporting into DOC format

[apjjr]

40 megs sounds a bit large to me. Have you been putting the raw picture files into your document? This is a bad practice. Your document is unnecessarily over weight. You should create a down sized version of your pictures for inserting into a document. You should size your picture optimally for printing in your document. If you want 150 dots per inch(dpi), or lines per inch as publishers call it, in the document and 4 inch wide pictures just to the math. That dictates a picture 600 pixels wide. Your camera probably saves at 2500 or so, pixels wide. A lot of un-needed data. And, crop your pictures before you down-size them.

The others make a good point about the file format you use during development of your document. Use the native format only, until you are through. Never delete the native format version. Always use it as the source for any future changes. Always consider other formats as alternative output from your native document.

I am currently working with 2 authors on formatting their books with OpenOffice and have done lots of corporate documentation and catalogues with it, as well. These are two of the rules I follow.

[AndrewZ]

I got the document. It is Word 6 for Windows format. In OOo 2.3.1, I see no graphics anywhere (including in the navigator). In fact, it looks like plain text (without frames, etc.). Neither Word 2003 and Windows XP Wordpad open the document. If I resave from OOo 2.3.1 to .doc (97/2000/XP) or .odt, the file size shrinks dramatically. I highly recommend if you save in Microsoft Word .doc format that you use the latest format which is Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP. You can choose if you click File -> Save As.

I wonder how the document could have become corrupt. While it is possible OpenOffice.org did it, it could be for other reasons. Did you save to a USB disk, for example? Let me know.

You could attempt recovery by using another reader such as Abiword, http://www.zamzar.com, etc.