How to embed a file as an icon in MS Word 2011

iconms office

This should be fairly simple and it appears to be a bug in MS Word. I have a MS Word document and I simply want to embed an image in the document, but have it show up as an icon instead of the full image.

What should work is the following:

  1. Select Insert -> Object…
  2. Press the "From File…" button
  3. Make sure the 'Display as Icon' item is checked
  4. Select the image file
  5. Press Insert

However, the image shows up as itself instead of being represented by an icon.

This works in MS Word on Windows.

Is there a way to make it work in MS Word 2011 for OS X?

Best Answer

A solution to this is to insert the icon and link the icon to the image file.


Find the image in Finder. Highlight the icon and select Get Info from the File menu; right-click on the icon and select Get Info from the contextual menu; or select the icon and press the Command+i key combo. Next, click on the icon the appears in the upper-left of the panel.

not-selected icon

Selected icon

Press Command+c to copy the icon and then paste it into your document. Resize to your liking.


If you want the icon to link to the file, right-click on the image and choose "Hyperlink." enter image description here

Then click the "Select" button and open your file. Finalize by click "OK"