Dynamic link to Visio object?

I am posting this here because Excel users seem to do more linking.
I'm having trouble getting this answered in the Word NGs.

I am looking for a way to embed individual Visio graphic objects in a
Word document in such a way that only a link is actually stored in
Word -- not the entire graphic object.

I am writing a large tutorial that includes hundreds of graphics -- as
many as 7-8/page. Some pages are 90% graphic images with just a few
lines of text. I am creating the graphics in Visio. I started out just
using cut and paste to paste the actual graphic objects into the Word
document. This causes the Word document to get very large (8MB and
growing). It takes forever to load and save.

It also is a pain to fix all of thse images if they need to be
changed.

I started looking around for another way. I wanted a way to just ink
the images, rather than storing the actual image. This should be much
smaller and I could update the images in Visio and have them
automatically updated in Word.

I rememebered Paste Special from some Excel work I did awhile ago. So
I tried it.

I opened Visio, selected an object, and pressed Ctrl+C to copy it to
the clipboard.

I then opened the Word document and clicked on Edit | Paste Special |
Paste Link. It apeared to work. The image appeared in the Word
document. If I changed it in Visio, it was automatically changed in
Word. Perfect. Or so I thought.

When I went to save the document, it took longer than I thought it
should, so I checked the size. It was almost .5MB and it only had a
few images. It appears that Word is storing both the link and the
actual image. What's up with this?

So, my question remains: how can I embed just a link to a single Visio
object in a Word document without including the actual object.

Thanks, and sorry for bothering you all with a Word problem. I was
just hoping that someone might have solved this for Excel and the same
approach would work for Word.


--
Running MS Office 2K Pro
PC: HP Omnibook 6000
OS: Win 2K SP-4 (5.00.2195)
Email: Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com
(11/03/04)

"Top Spin" <[email protected]> wrote...
>I am posting this here because Excel users seem to do more linking.
>I'm having trouble getting this answered in the Word NGs.
>
>I am looking for a way to embed individual Visio graphic objects in a
>Word document in such a way that only a link is actually stored in
>Word -- not the entire graphic object.
>
>I am writing a large tutorial that includes hundreds of graphics -- as
>many as 7-8/page. Some pages are 90% graphic images with just a few
>lines of text. I am creating the graphics in Visio. I started out just
>using cut and paste to paste the actual graphic objects into the Word
>document. This causes the Word document to get very large (8MB and
>growing). It takes forever to load and save.
....

One thing Microsoft does *worse* than every other software maker is design
file formats. Just tested: Word can handle linked Excel drawings as file
links, storing only a link to the Excel file; but Word doesn't seem to be
able to handle linked bitmaps as file links, it seems they're always
embedded. If Visio objects are treated as bitmaps, maybe that's the
explanation.

FWIW, OpenOffice Writer handles every sort of file/object type I've thrown
at it as file links, including bitmap files. It may be the case you'd be
better off using OpenOffice (or anything other than Word) to produce the
manual you're writing. While there may be some combination of Web and
General options in the Save As dialog that would prevent bitmaps from being
embedded, it's a dead certainty OpenOffice Writer's default behavior is
better than Word's.

On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:54:24 -0800, "Harlan Grove" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>"Top Spin" <[email protected]> wrote...
>>I am posting this here because Excel users seem to do more linking.
>>I'm having trouble getting this answered in the Word NGs.
>>
>>I am looking for a way to embed individual Visio graphic objects in a
>>Word document in such a way that only a link is actually stored in
>>Word -- not the entire graphic object.
>>
>>I am writing a large tutorial that includes hundreds of graphics -- as
>>many as 7-8/page. Some pages are 90% graphic images with just a few
>>lines of text. I am creating the graphics in Visio. I started out just
>>using cut and paste to paste the actual graphic objects into the Word
>>document. This causes the Word document to get very large (8MB and
>>growing). It takes forever to load and save.
>...
>
>One thing Microsoft does *worse* than every other software maker is design
>file formats. Just tested: Word can handle linked Excel drawings as file
>links, storing only a link to the Excel file; but Word doesn't seem to be
>able to handle linked bitmaps as file links, it seems they're always
>embedded. If Visio objects are treated as bitmaps, maybe that's the
>explanation.

You may be right. It would be tragic if these drawings were treated as
bitmaps because they are all line art.

>FWIW, OpenOffice Writer handles every sort of file/object type I've thrown
>at it as file links, including bitmap files. It may be the case you'd be
>better off using OpenOffice (or anything other than Word) to produce the
>manual you're writing. While there may be some combination of Web and
>General options in the Save As dialog that would prevent bitmaps from being
>embedded, it's a dead certainty OpenOffice Writer's default behavior is
>better than Word's.

Ugh. All I need is another software program to learn and maintain. I
am pretty deeply invested in Word. I think I'm too old to learn so
many different systems.

--
Running MS Office 2K Pro
PC: HP Omnibook 6000
OS: Win 2K SP-4 (5.00.2195)
Email: Usenet-20031220 at spamex.com
(11/03/04)