I was wondering if it's possible to have a Microsoft Word (2007) document depend on image files, very similar to how HTML websites depend on images. I've tried searching on Google, but had no luck. For example, if I edit 'example.png', an image file in the same directory as the Word document (keeping the image dimensions the same), the 'example.png' image found inside the Word document would also be updated. I'm running a program that generates a ton of images based on code that I'm constantly updating, so I'm going to have well over 500 images, maybe a thousand. Individually updating them in Microsoft Word would be a pain. I know it's kind of a silly request, since I could just do everything in HTML and then probably convert to a Word document, but then I'll start working on formatting, etc. If Word can't do it, would Adobe Acrobat be able to (since I plan on converting the document to that format once I'm finished)? If not, then I'll just continue individually updating each image in the document. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
I'd have to look a little more, but I think that you can "link" the images when you insert them. The file insert dialog box should have a drop down list for the insert command.
I found something like this: Insert->Object->Create from File. It creates an object in the Word document that links to the (any) file, though I can't get it to appear as the actual image in the document and update whenever it's edited using an outside program. And yes, it would be absolutely superb if someone could find a way to make this work, as I don't know what the proper term for this would be (in order to yield better Google search results). Again, if anyone knows if Adobe Acrobat would provide something like this, please let me know!
Now that I had time to look at it, the links I mentioned do work. This is for 2003, but there shouldn't be much difference with 2007: Insert->Picture->From File Select your image(s). Instead of hitting enter or just pressing the "Insert" button, click the down arrow next to the "Insert" button and pick "Link to File". This will place the image in the Word doc as a linked image. This will maintain a link to the image file instead of just copying it. When you edit the images and reload the document, the images will update on their own (though it could take a while to open the file if you have a lot of linked images). I could not find anything equivalent in Acrobat, though I did not look much.
