Nikon D5000 images into Word Documents

[jennifer 2011]

I have recently aquired a Nikon D5000 and recently pasted some images into a Masters Dissertation I am in the process of writing. No problems. When I next tried to edit the images down to fit into my text I got weird pinks and greens in the images - as if some of the information was missing.
My daughter did insert my card into her laptop at Christmas to transfer images that she had shot, and I wonder if something has gone wrong in that process. I have not used the camera since then, until I discovered the problem today.
Have reformated card, tried uploading images to a different computer, but same results.
As a dslr beginner, am at a loss as to what this might be.
Word is OK as far as I know because images from my Canon IXus copy over just fine.
Need to be able to use this facility, as I produce a large number of illustrated documents on fairly regular basis.

[DigMe]

This is probably not a D5000 problem but rather some problem with your computer or your memory card. There are so many possibilities that it would be really hard to say. Have you printed out one of the pages to see if it prints with these weird colors? Maybe that's just how they're showing up in the program. Could you try emailing one of the images that looks bad to yourself and then opening it on another computer? Can you have your daughter send one of the good images that she put on her laptop and see if that one looks normal on your computer? Does the image look normal until you resize it or does it look weird from the get-go?

brad

[jphess]

Is there any chance that the images from your D5000 are raw files, and they were not before? Just grabbing at straws, wondering if this could be a possibility.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day Jennifer

May I offer some thoughts - I do this sort of stuff 'every day' as part of producing training notes ...
>> it may well be a Word issue, tho you have not given enough info to determine this exactly

Firstly - I suggest you stop trying to get the original images 'working' in Word
Q - do the images look okay ex-camera & on your computer screen? ... ie: are they okay or buggered? If they're okay, keep using them, if they're 'dead' go and shoot them again [if possible]

Presuming that they are 'okay' - now we go to the end-of-the-process
Are printing your Dissertation on a laser printer, or an ink-jet colour printer
If a [black] laser, your images can be inserted as "256-colour grey scale": if an ink jet or colour laser, your images can be inserted as either "256 colour" or "16-bit, 65000-colour" ... you don't need 'true-colour' as no printer on the market can do 16-million colours and the file sizes are 'huge'

The thing here is to reduce the photo file size dramatically as Word has a very definite limit on the size of all the items inserted into the whole document. By working 'backwards', I can produce a 100-page document with dozens of inserted images, and the total document size is less than 10Mbytes

Possible Solution
Open your photo in a photo-editing package [I use PS Elements] and use "image > image-resize" to go down from ex-camera to 640pixels on the longer side; then I go to Grey-scale via "image > mode > greyscale"

Then when I insert the image into Word, I have a much smaller (than ex-camera) image that Word can work with and be resized to fit into the text etc etc

Hope this helps a bit
Regards, Phil

[kazuya]

i would agree with Ozzie
resize the pictures before you insert them into word

[jennifer 2011]

Thank you all for your replies.
First Digme - I have printed some of the images and they come out wrong. I have also emailed images to myself and to my husband at work. I have transferred images via USB stick to another PC at home and a MAC at work and the same thing happens on each.
jphess - how easy is it to accidentally (cant think I would do it deliberately - ie would have to look up manual) shoot RAW? It is a possibility and a colleague has suggested that the files may be too big for Word.
Ozzie - I dont think it is a printer issue - the images look OK on camera, and OK on screen until I start to edit - mainly reducing size to fit into documents. The colours are dayglo pink and acid green etc Think Andy Warhol prints!!
I am a bit puzzled about the Word thing. Not sure why images which I shot months ago and have used in documents and they have been fine, are now behaving in this way. And on several different computers.
Should I perhaps re-install Word - which has been behaving a bit strangely lately?
Best wishes
Jennifer

[DigMe]

If the images look fine until you resize then it does sound like a Word issue to me.

Try downloading Irfanview, resizing in that and then putting the smaller images into your Word doc. Irfanview a small and simple program to use.
http://www.irfanview.com/

I would also try reinstalling Word if you have that option.

brad