I'm using Word 2007. I created a massive (300 page) Word document by copy-pasting text, tables and images from various external (Word and Excel) documents. This might not have been the best way but I needed a quick sample document which I managed in the end.
The problem is, along with the text and data, some links got copied over to the new Word document too. I don't want any external links in my Word document; I want it completely separate from all the documents I copied data from. So I broke links by going to the 'Office Button' > Prepare > Edit Links to files, selected all links and clicked 'Break links'. All existing links got broken, but one remained:
I have NO idea what this NULL source file is and am not able to break this link. When I try to update all my fields by doing ctrl+A and F9, I get the following error message:
This is really frustrating, as I just cannot locate the faulty link. I've scanned through my entire (300 page) document and still couldn't find a way to locate where this 'chart' object is.
Has anyone else experienced a similar problem in Word 2007/2010? Any help on how to locate the faulty link or break it would be greatly appreciated!
611 Answers
I fixed this problem relatively easily by going to to the 'Office Button' > Prepare > Edit Links to files, and selecting 'Change Source'.
I basically changed the source to a random blank Excel workbook within the same directory as the word document. After this, I carefully scanned through all Excel charts in my document. The faulty chart was caught red-handed and showed up as a blank Excel plot, as follows:
I just had to delete the chart and the link automatically broke.
SUMMARY: Break all links, find that there is one NULL source (or many) in the document, and then specify a pseudo-source Excel sheet. Only the chart with the external link shows up as a blank chart. All correctly copied charts that are clean (not linked to the external workbook) have no such issues.
1This thread seems to describe a very similar problem : NULL Source file in my template.
Q: my template appears to have a link to a source file that when looking at File/Info/Links to Files shows a NULL source file and its name is CHART.
A: Found it was a pie chart linked to an Excel spreadsheet - deleted the pie chart and bingo link removed
One way to search your document is to do Find (Ctrl-F), "Go To" tab, and search for a chart object. For example :
You can fix the NULL reference without affecting the usability of the chart in the document, but it requires some heavy lifting inside the DOCX or PPTX file. I haven't tested Excel.
- Make a backup copy of your file. The steps below have a real risk of rendering your file unreadable by Word/PowerPoint.
- Rename your file so it has a
.zipextension. Example:mypaper.docx --> mypaper.docx.zip - Open the ZIP file in Windows Explorer or your favorite ZIP tool.
- Inside the ZIP file tree, go to
word\chartsorppt\charts. - You will find one or more
chart#.xmlfiles representing each of your charts. - Extract a chart file and open it in Notepad.
- Near the very end of the XML string, find the string
<c:externalData r:id="rId3"><c:autoUpdate val="0"/></c:externalData>. It may have a different ID, but the tag name,<c:externalData>, is the important part. - Delete the entire string.
- Insert the updated files back into the ZIP file. In Windows Explorer, you can simply drag it back into the
chartsfolder inside the ZIP. - Rename the file to remove the
.zipextension.
When you open the file, you should no longer see a NULL link for the chart you updated. If you can't open the file, it's possible that your edits were not exactly as listed above. I've tested these steps in Word 2013 and in PowerPoint 2013.
1I know your document has a lot of pages, so I am hoping this will work because it's an easy fix. Hopefully the cut and paste wont choke on it.
- In the existing document, select all text using Ctl+a
- Right click and select copy
- Open a new document
- Right click and select the "Text Only" paste option.
This should paste only text (without links) into the new document.
4For me, replacing the source chart object with a blank chart did not work. The problem ended up being the fact that I was tracking all changes made in the document as part of a revision process.
If you are using track changes, a deleted chart object stays within the document, even though you can't see it anymore. This also means that the Link, NULL or not, will stay in the document, and give you those annoying warning messages if the link is broken.
The solution was to turn on visibility for all changes, find the chart deletion "change" and accept it, thus deleting the chart for good.
FINALLY figured out a simple way to break the link!
Under the "Start Mail Merge" button, just select "Normal Word Document." I saved & closed the document and re-opened it, and this time there was no prompt about placing data from my database. The link had been broken.
Very simple to do, but it's ridiculous that Microsoft changed it so much from previous versions of Word that we couldn't find it at all.
I had the same problem and I fixed it by cutting every chart and pasting it back in with the correct paste option. Sometimes this didn't seem to work but repeating this procedure fixed it anyway.
[The hard way] Follow these steps:
- Make a copy of your file.docx: File-copy.docx
- Open the copied file.
- Remove the second 150 pagesand save.
- Reopen to see if the link is in the second 150 pages.
- If yes, make another copy of the original file and remove half of the second 150 pages.
- Continue halving the pages to find which page the link is in.
Once you have found which object has the null source, you can cut the object, then paste it back into the same spot.
After you paste select the drop down in the corner( "Paste Options") and select an option that does NOT link it to the original file, either of the options on the left with the red arrows under it.
I had the same problem and there is an easy fix. The problem are all the tables and graph that you have been copying and pasting from other documents which are linked to different excel files that are not in your PC. When you copy and paste a table and graphs, if you right click you have the opportunity to paste it as picture. Tables and graphs will look the same as you paste it normally and you can still use the tables and graphs captions. The only difference is that you will not be able to modify them inside the word document as they will be pictures. This problem only applies to tables and graphs that have been copied from excel. If you have created a table using the word option, you will be ok.
This may be helpful: The 'link'ed graphic causes the problem because Word is looking for a NULL link, and this cannot be removed from the Info/Links window. It turns out that a linked graphic is contained in a window with rounded edges. So, you might be able to find it by comparison with other graphic windows which have square windows. Fix by copying the offending graphic and then paste as 'Picture' in the Paste options.
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