MS Word FAQ: How to Fix Images Not Displaying After Copy/Paste

This week on Klariti we look at how to get your image to appear, especially after you have copy/pasted into Word but the image itself does not display. What you might see is the outline of the image but not the actual image itself. This can happen for a number of reasons.

Background: The Problem

This video on our Klariti YouTube channel shows where in the UI you need to turn on the settings, i.e., if this relates to the when placeholder settings are turned off. This can happen by accident.

For instance: You’ve copied an image and pasted it into your Microsoft Word document. However, instead of the vibrant picture you expected, you see an empty white box with a border. You can select the box, resize it, and even see its outline, but the actual image content is missing.

This guide will explain why this happens and provide a definitive set of steps to diagnose and fix the problem, ensuring your images display correctly every time.

Root Cause: Why Is This Happening?

The most frequent cause of this issue is an intentional performance-enhancing feature in Microsoft Word called Show picture placeholders.

When this option is enabled, Word does not render the actual images in your document. Instead, it displays a simple, empty box (a “placeholder”) to mark where the image is located. The primary purpose of this feature is to improve Word’s performance—specifically, to speed up scrolling and editing in very long or image-heavy documents (like technical manuals or SOPs). By not having to constantly load and render dozens or hundreds of high-resolution images, Word can operate much more smoothly.

While this is the most common reason, other potential causes include:

• Incorrect Document View: Working in “Draft” or “Outline” view will hide images by design.
• Linked Image Issues: The image was inserted as a link to a file on your computer, and that source file has since been moved, renamed, or deleted.
• Graphics Rendering Glitches: Rarely, Word’s interaction with your computer’s graphics hardware can cause display issues.

Context: When Does This Occur?

This issue is most likely to surface in the following scenarios:

• Working with Corporate Templates: Many companies configure their official Word templates (for SOPs, RFPs, reports) with “Show picture placeholders” enabled by default to ensure good performance for all users, regardless of their computer’s power.
• Editing Large, Image-Heavy Documents: If you’re working on a document with hundreds of pages and images, you or a colleague may have enabled this setting to reduce lag and forgot to turn it off.
• Collaborating with Others: A co-worker who prefers this setting may have worked on the document, and the setting remained active when you opened it. Since this is an application-level setting, it can affect all documents you open afterward.

Steps: How to Fix Missing Images

Follow these solutions in order, starting with the most likely fix.

Solution 1: Disable “Show Picture Placeholders” (The Most Common Fix)

This setting is located in Word’s advanced options. The steps are nearly identical for all modern versions of Word (Word 2013, 2016, 2019, and Microsoft 365).

1. Click on the File tab in the top-left corner of Word.
2. Select Options from the bottom of the left-hand menu. This will open the Word Options window.
3. In the Word Options window, click on the Advanced category on the left.
4. Scroll down until you find the section titled Show document content.
5. Look for the checkbox labeled Show picture placeholders. If your images are not displaying, this box will be checked.
6. Uncheck the Show picture placeholders box.
7. Click OK to save your changes and close the window.

Your images should immediately appear in the document. If they don’t, proceed to the next solution.

Solution 2: Change Your Document View

Word has several views designed for different tasks. “Draft” and “Outline” views are optimized for text editing and deliberately hide images and other layout elements.

1. Click on the View tab in the main ribbon.
2. Look at the Views group on the far left.
3. Ensure you are in Print Layout. This view shows you exactly how the document will look when printed, including all images and formatting. “Web Layout” will also display images. If “Draft” or “Outline” is selected, your images will be hidden.

Solution 3: Update Fields for Linked Images

If an image was inserted as a link and the source is still valid, a manual update can sometimes force it to reappear.

1. Select the entire document by pressing Ctrl + A.
2. Press the F9 key. This is the “Update Fields” command. It will force Word to re-read the source for all linked content, including images.

If the image appears, the problem was a broken refresh. If you get an error, it means the original image file is missing (see Gotchas section below).

Gotchas / Exceptions

• A Global Setting: The “Show picture placeholders” option is an application-level setting, not a document-level one. This means when you change it, it affects all documents you open in Word, not just the current one. This is a common point of confusion.
• Broken Links: If pressing F9 doesn’t work or shows an error, the original image file that was linked to is likely gone. You cannot recover it from within Word. You must find the original image file and re-insert it using Insert > Pictures. To avoid this, it’s safer to embed images unless you have a specific workflow for managing linked assets (see Recommendations).
• Text Wrapping Issues: In rare cases, an image with text wrapping set to “Behind Text” can be hidden by a background color or a non-transparent text box placed over it. Right-click the placeholder, go to Wrap Text, and change it to In Line with Text or Square to see if it reappears.
• Hardware Graphics Acceleration: If none of the above works, a graphics driver conflict might be the culprit.
  1. Go to File > Options > Advanced.
  2. Scroll to the Display section.
  3. Check the box for Disable hardware graphics acceleration.
  4. Click OK and restart Word. This is a last-resort troubleshooting step.

Recommendations

1. Use Paste Special for Control: Instead of a simple Ctrl + V, use Ctrl + Alt + V to open the Paste Special dialog. Pasting as a Picture (Enhanced Metafile) or Picture (PNG) is often more reliable than a simple Bitmap, as it retains quality and is handled well by Word.
2. Embed Images by Default: For most documents (SOPs, RFPs, proposals), embedding images is the safest method. This is Word’s default behavior when you copy/paste or use Insert > Pictures. The image data becomes part of the .docx file, making the document self-contained and portable. The trade-off is a larger file size.
3. Understand When to Link Images: Only use the Insert and Link or Link to File options if you are a technical writer or product manager managing a large documentation suite where a single source image (e.g., a UI screenshot) needs to appear in multiple documents. This requires strict file management, as moving or renaming the source image will break the link in all documents.
4. Work in Print Layout View: To avoid confusion, always use the Print Layout view (View > Print Layout) for general editing. This ensures that what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG).

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