The Default Picture Editor

If you have used Word for some time, you may have noticed that you can supposedly change what picture editor Word uses by default. You can see where such a change can be made by selecting Options from the Tools menu, and then clicking on the Edit tab. Supposedly you can select a default picture editor on this page. Unfortunately, for 99% of the world, you only have a single selection in the Picture Editor pull-down list. Not much of a choice!

Understand, that the default picture editor is only used when Word cannot figure out the program to which a particular OLE image belongs. If you insert the graphic as an OLE object belonging to a particular type of graphics program, then you can use that graphics program when you double-click on the image in Word. Be that as it may, it is still frustrating to not be able to choose the picture editor you know, love, and are comfortable with.

Why additional picture editors are not listed is apparently due to how the third-party programs are registered in the Registry when they are first installed. If they do not include a specific sequence of Registry entries, Word refuses to recognize them as compatible. This is covered in a several Microsoft Knowledge Base articles (Q112199 for Word 6, Q181435 for Word 97, and Q211795 for Word 2000) on the subject. These articles indicate why Word doesn't recognize popular software programs as potential default picture editors.

One of the most popular picture editors is PaintShop Pro. I must get a couple requests a month for how to make PaintShop Pro the default picture editor. In talking to the support personnel at Jasc (the publisher of PaintShop Pro), they indicate that there is no way to make their product the default picture editor in Word. The problem is that they just have not built that capability into their product. They are, however, considering adding the capability for future versions of the product. Thus, you may want to send an e-mail to them (techsup@jasc.com) or call their technical support number (for registered users only) to let them know you want this feature to be included.