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MS Word stopped importing graphics files

dr_gallup

Moderator
This isn't a Pro/E problem but I thought I might get a quick solution from all the smart & helpful people here. Sometime over the last couple of days our sys admin has let through an ms windoze or ms orifice update that has completely blocked our ability to import various graphics files into ms word.

We typically make shop floor work instructions and standard operating procedures in MS word 2003. We export either hpgl or cgm files from various authoring programs including Pro/E and AutoMAD. This has worked without a hitch for at least the last decade. Nothing has changed in the authoring programs but suddenly we can't import either of these file formats into word 2003. I've heard that Word 2007 blocked all graphics formats not owned by Mr. Bill. Looks like they have found a way to screw those of us who have not updated. Anybody know a work around?
 
Look into other picture editors. One of the main ones MS
Picture/Fax Viewer or Photo editor. I forget which it was
had the capabilities that MS Word used for opening
pictures in word and in other files like Pro/E Drawings
and other embeded types so that an Icon is shown instead
of picture. I fixed this issue at work but haven't since
done so.

Look into Open Office. If MS wants to loose more
customers than it already has then it will keep behaving
in this manner. I'll get you more ideas on a workaround
when I check my home PC but I am currently not at home.

Michael
 
dr_gallup...I have used that very same method ofexporting graphicsfrom ProEand importing theminto MS Word 2003 to create instruction sheets for our products. While our Word cgm import function still works, it seems to distort the graphics so I have begun using Adobe Illustrator as an interim software and it creates beautiful graphics. I import the cgm files into AI and then do a "copy" from AI and "paste" into Word, so that I bypass the file import. It works great!
 
Thanks for the comments. I can't change to a different office suite, much as I might like to. All our computers are remotely administered remotely by a faceless group 2000 miles away. They are so out of touch they think it's a good idea to name a print queue by it's IP address. Right. 128.60.45.123 is sooo meaningful to a user. I really don't want to force people to go through another intermediate piece of software like Adobe Illustrator. It adds cost and time & complication.

I have found that it's possible to change a postscript printer queue to output an encapsulated postscript file (*.eps). that Word will import successfully. Line weights and colors all seem to come through. It's a bit of a pain because it pops up an empty dialog box for the destination file name. You have to type the whole path & file name into the box. There is no browse capability or default file name. Another one of those inconsistent behaviors in the wonderful "suite of consistent applications" minddripper loves so much.
 
Excellent !!! This is your chance to ask for Isodraw
smiley36.gif
. We do not follow the method as described by you. Instead we import the jpg files. The final output is in PDF.Save proe screen shots as jpg from File --> Save As... Import the jpg files into Word. I use office 2007, without any hassle.


If you do not like MsOrifice, try Open office. Quite good and free with almost all the features of Ms office, including Master document, TOC, index etc....Whats more... you do not need Acrobat to create PDF files.
Edited by: SRINIVASANIYER1
 
In drawing mode (WF2) there is no save as jpeg. I have always found screen shots way too low resolution, also not vector based so they don't scale well. You have to load a different system color file too.

I have no control over what office suite we use. If it were up to me I would probably go with open office.
 
Microsoft issued a Knowledgebase article on this issue, KB 2479871: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2479871/


Basically, the answer is thatOffice 2003 is out of main-line support, and the Office 2003 security patch in November (KB2289187)disabled oldout-of-support (i.e. Office 2003)graphic import filters that are known to have security vulnerabilities (like the CGM one)instead of fixing them at this point (or I should say, paying for them to be fixed- they were written by anothercompany), and there is a registry change (local and group-policy) that will override thisbehavior and allow the known-vulnerably filters to be used,but use at your own risk, since they will still be vulnerable (in most cases, not a big deal.)


It is not true that Office 2007 does not import CGM and other formats. It can import the following, in no particular order, and since it is still under full support all of its features remain intact:


CGM, EMF, WMF, JPG,PNG, BMP, EMZ, WMZ, PCZ, TIF, EPS, PICT, WPG, GIF.
 
GantyG said:
Microsoft issued a Knowledgebase article on this issue, KB 2479871: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2479871/


Basically, the answer is thatOffice 2003 is out of main-line support, and the Office 2003 security patch in November (KB2289187)disabled oldout-of-support (i.e. Office 2003)graphic import filters that are known to have security vulnerabilities (like the CGM one)instead of fixing them at this point (or I should say, paying for them to be fixed- they were written by anothercompany), and there is a registry change (local and group-policy) that will override thisbehavior and allow the known-vulnerably filters to be used,but use at your own risk, since they will still be vulnerable (in most cases, not a big deal.)


It is not true that Office 2007 does not import CGM and other formats. It can import the following, in no particular order, and since it is still under full support all of its features remain intact:


CGM, EMF, WMF, JPG,PNG, BMP, EMZ, WMZ, PCZ, TIF, EPS, PICT, WPG, GIF.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
smiley32.gif
smiley32.gif
smiley32.gif
 
You are welcome! We had the same problem, so I wanted to share the answer. For us, we are using the registry change to bypass the block.
 
GantyG said:
Microsoft issued a Knowledgebase article on this issue, KB 2479871: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2479871/


Basically, the answer is thatOffice 2003 is out of main-line support, and the Office 2003 security patch in November (KB2289187)disabled oldout-of-support (i.e. Office 2003)graphic import filters that are known to have security vulnerabilities (like the CGM one)instead of fixing them at this point (or I should say, paying for them to be fixed- they were written by anothercompany), and there is a registry change (local and group-policy) that will override thisbehavior and allow the known-vulnerably filters to be used,but use at your own risk, since they will still be vulnerable (in most cases, not a big deal.)


It is not true that Office 2007 does not import CGM and other formats. It can import the following, in no particular order, and since it is still under full support all of its features remain intact:


CGM, EMF, WMF, JPG,PNG, BMP, EMZ, WMZ, PCZ, TIF, EPS, PICT, WPG, GIF.

I've just been "upgraded" to MS Orifice 2007 and I just tried to import a CGM file into a Word 2007 doc. I tried about 10 different ones, all created in Pro/E and all of which worked in previous versions of Word. I get "An error occurred while importing this file" on every single one of them. I'm using Insert/Picture, dragging and dropping just shows an icon. How can MS repeatedly break such basic functionality? Any ideas how to get it to work again?

Don't even get me started about the ribbon interface!
 
The reason that MS can break this functionality is that few people import CGM's into Word these days. CGMis an earlyvector format that was supposed to be phased out with more sophisticated formats like WMF, then EMF, etc. (all debatable.) Anyway, some people export from CAD to Word with the tried-and-true CGM format andthis functonality can be restored, and is explained in MS bulletin KB 2479871- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2479871/. As mentioned before, MS did not write the CGM and some of the other filters and did not want to pay royalties for new versions on formats that are rarely used and that needed to be rewritten because they had security flaws, so these formats are nowdefaulted to disabled for importing in fully-patched versions of Office 2003, 2007, and 2010, but can be restored via a registry change or in group policy (for company-wide changes.)


But, if this is already done on your computer, and it still does not import, then maybe the newer filter routine in 2007 can't deal with the content of your files. To test that, try importing this file CGM here, after you unzip it:


2011-08-09_124514_test_cgm_file.zip


It is a basic CGM file thatI confirmed to import correctlyinto Word 2007. See if your Word 2007 can import it. If not, it's probably the registry setting. If it does open, then it's probably the newer filter in 2007 can't handle the content. If so, the article mentioned alsoabove mentions the FLT file that can be copied from a 2003 installation to a 2007 installation, and thatshould makeit work.
 
Thanks for the ideas.

My computer already has the registry entries and Word shows CGM as an available file format. I went into the add/remove features for Office and the filters are already set to "run". I downloaded the test CGM file, I get the exact same error as all my other CGM files.

I searched my C drive for the CGMIMP32.FLT file but no joy. Maybe because I'm running 64 bit?
 
I tried searching again just for CGMIMP and this time windoze 7 "ultimate" (what an oxymoron) found 8 files including a CGMIMP32.HLP. Ah ha I thought, some windoze help on how to get this fubar system to work. Double clicking on that brought up this incredibly marvelous response:

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that
isn't included in this version of Windows.

How much more can mr. bill screw up his own software? Stop the world, I want to get off.
 
I did it! I did it!

I uninstalled Article ID: 2496969 - Last Review: February 23, 2011 - Revision: 1.0<h1 style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" ="title">Description of the 2007 Office system hotfix package (mso-x-none.msp, conv-xx-xx.msp): February 22, 2011
</h1>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2509488

CGM files can be imported again!
 
Huh, we have the KB2509488 installed on our computers, but Word 2007 can still import CGM, I assume because of the forementioned registry entries, but we will never know without more testing than we want to do here...


Dr_gallup, it sounds like your computer is a company computer- if your company is using Microsoft auto-updates, you will need to ask the IT people to deny that patch so that it does not reinstall on your system.


Other items:


Telecomguy, it's nothing to do with the OS, it's all Office patches and changes (but you jest).Also, there is no 64-bit version of these files, nor does there need to be. The OS does not care if the applications are 32-bit or 64-bit (downward-compatible to 32-bit.) There is no 64-bit version of Office 2007 or 2003, and the 2010 64-bit version is only recommended for special purposes becauseone can't mix 32-bit add-ins (which most are) with 64-bit applications, which would be a problem for many people.


Ifsomeone has Office 2003 withCGMimportproblems, try uninstalling Office 2003 update KB 2289163.


HLP (old-format Help files) were indeed deprecated a long time ago as well, replaced by other methods (HTML, which does the same thing, makng HLP redundant) and support for it was dropped, though old HLP files may still be, and is,hanging around or included in packages.
 

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