This article was previously published under Q291874
For a Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 version of this article, see 241440
For a Microsoft PowerPoint 97 version of this article, see 167886
If you open a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, one or
more of the graphics may appear as a red "X." This problem may also occur if
you attempt to paste a graphic into the presentation.
PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel all use a
drawing and graphics engine called OfficeArt. When a program that uses
OfficeArt cannot display a graphic for any reason, it replaces that picture
with a red X.
On Windows 7
- Right-click the desktop, and then click Personalize.
- Click Screen Resolution, and then click Advanced Settings.
: It may not be possible to recover a picture after it becomes a
red X. If the techniques in this article do not recover the picture, you may
have to reimport the picture from its original source.
If you open a
presentation that contains a red X instead of the original graphic, follow
- Close the file without saving it.
If you save the
file, the red X will be permanently stored in the file.
- Restart your computer.
- Close all other programs to free up as much memory as
- Open the file again.
If this does not correct the problem, or if you encounter this
problem frequently, you may have a problem with your video driver or your
Windows display settings. You might want to try the following techniques to
reduce the frequency of this problem:
- Use your current display driver, but lower the resolution
and/or color depth. If your driver is set for High Color or True Color, try
changing it to 256-color. Additionally, you may want to modify the hardware
- On the Start menu, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Double-click the Display icon.
- Click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
- Click the Troubleshoot tab.
- Move the slider to the left to reduce the hardware
acceleration, and then click OK.
- When you are asked if you want to restart your
computer, click Yes.
The hardware acceleration changes take effect when you
restart your computer.
- If your video driver was not included with Microsoft
Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows NT
4.0, or Microsoft Windows 2000, you might want to check to see if your video
adapter emulates one of the drivers that is included with Windows 98/Me,
Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000. Try to run your computer with the emulated
video driver. If nothing else, most video drivers can use the Windows 98/Me or
Windows NT/2000 VGA display driver.
- If you cannot use one of the video drivers that is included
with Windows 98/Me or Windows NT/2000, contact the manufacturer of your
computer or video adapter to see if there is an updated video driver
If you try to paste a picture into PowerPoint, and it appears
as a red X, follow these steps:
PowerPoint 2007 and 2010
- Delete the red X.
- Under the Home tab, in the Clipboard section, click the Paste drop-down button, and then click Paste Special.
- Click the second choice in the As list, and then click OK.
If a red X appears, repeat steps 1 through 3, but
instead of selecting the second choice in the As list, select the third choice, and then click OK.
If neither of the previous options resolves the problem, follow
- Double-click the X. The toolbars and menus may change to
those of another program, and the X may be replaced with the actual picture.
Click outside the picture to restore the PowerPoint toolbars and
- If step 1 fails, select the X and then click Ungroup on the Draw menu. Click Yes when you receive the following message:
This is an imported object, not a group. If you convert it to a Microsoft
Office drawing, embedded data or linking information will be lost. Do you want
to convert the object?
This problem has occurred in the following scenarios. Note
that other reasons may exist for why OfficeArt cannot display the picture.
- To display any type of graphic element, Windows uses a
memory pool called Graphics Device Interface (GDI) resources or GDI memory.
This is a fixed amount of memory; it is the same regardless of how much
physical (RAM) memory your computer has. If you have many open windows, many
programs running in the background, or many open files, you may be running out
of GDI resources. If there is not enough GDI memory available to display all
the pictures in your file, one or more of them may not be displayed
- The Office programs can save files by using one of two
methods: Full saves and Fast saves. To choose which type of save you want to
use, click Options on the Tools menu, click the Save tab, and then click to select the appropriate option. If a full save fails because you do not have enough disk space, and PowerPoint then attempts a fast save, OfficeArt may lose track of where the picture data is stored in the document. The Microsoft 2007 Office suites removed Fast saves.
Article ID: 291874 - Last Review: July 13, 2012 - Revision: 5.0
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
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