Troubleshoot Clip Organizer

When you insert or drag a picture or motion clip into your document, and you do not have a graphics filter installed for that clip, you may get an image of a red "X" instead.

Please make note of the information in the accompanying dialog box, which will explain why your request was not processed and point you towards solving the problem.

To play animated GIF files, you must open the files in the Preview/Properties window.

Clip Organizer will look and act slightly differently when running in earlier programs than it does running with current programs; however, you will be able to accomplish the same tasks when using the current version of Clip Organizer.

Earlier Microsoft programs may allow only some of the functions of the current version of Clip Organizer. You may notice that some buttons are inactive or missing. Check the tips on the Help page that describe the function. There may be an alternate way of doing what you want to do. For instance, you may not be able to insert clips, but you may be able to copy and paste clips instead.

If you import an animated GIF that shows a blank thumbnail and preview, it is most likely the result of file incompatibility. You can try opening the file in a GIF animation program, saving it again, and then adding it into Clip Organizer again.

If you import a graphic, such as a JPG, Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), or other photographic format, that shows a blank thumbnail, it is most likely because the graphic is too large and your computer doesn't have enough memory to show the thumbnail. However, the clip has been added successfully and can be inserted in your documents. In order to see the thumbnail, try opening the clip in a graphics program and then resizing it to make it smaller or changing it to a lower resolution, or both. You can then add the new version of the clip.

For Microsoft Clip Organizer to be able to work with a specific graphic or other media format, your computer must have the appropriate software. Graphic filters and media players come with operating systems, graphic programs, and other programs. If you get an error message that says your graphics import filter or media player may be missing, corrupted, or incompatible, do one or more of the following:

• Try to add another file of the same type. If this works, then the first clip file is probably corrupted. However, one or more clips may be incompatible with the installed graphics filter or media player for a given file type. Or, a filter or media player might need to be installed. You can re-run setup for Clip Organizer to install filters for the following file types: Computer Graphics Metafile (.cgm), CorelDRAW (.cdr), FlashPix (including PhotoDraw and Picture It!) (.fpx and .mix), Kodak Photo CD (.pcd), Macintosh PICT (.pct), PC Paintbrush (.pcx), and WordPerfect (.wpg).
• If the file you are having problems with is a picture file, look up "graphics file format" or "graphics filter" in the Help file of the programs on your computer that were installed with Clip Organizer. There may be information about which graphics filters come with that product and which ones do not, and how to install filters from that product that you may not have already installed.
• If your program comes with a graphics filter that you do not currently have installed, you can reinstall that program to get the missing filter or player.

The file MStore.mgc is the main Microsoft Clip Organizer catalog where Clip Organizer stores property information about clips you import. Clip properties include information such as keywords, categories, and thumbnail previews. If you get the message that this file is corrupted beyond repair, Clip Organizer can no longer access this information.

You can try compacting the main catalog to fix this problem. On the Tools menu, click Compact.

If compacting doesn't work, you may need to create a new main catalog. You will need to delete or rename the file to allow Clip Organizer to create a new one. When you create a new file, you will lose all user-added clip property information. Once a new version of this file is created, you can add the clips you had previously imported, and re-enter the clip property information for those clips.

Note  If your computer is set up to be used by more than one person or has more than one profile, be careful to delete only the copy of this file that is in a folder or path with your account name (login ID) on it. If you are on a network, ask for help from your network administrator if you do not understand how to find the correct file.

When you upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Clip Organizer, user-created categories in older versions of Clip Organizer (Clip Gallery) will not automatically be added to the latest version. You must create a new collection and then add old or new clips to that category.

When Microsoft Clip Organizer asks you to insert a disk in order to find a previously available clip catalog, you have a choice of inserting the disk and clicking Retry, or clicking Cancel. When you click Cancel, Clip Organizer will not prompt you for that clip catalog until your next session. To see clips in that clip catalog, you will need to close and reopen Clip Organizer.

If you delete a clip from Clip Organizer by using the Delete from "Collection" or Delete from Clip Organizer command, the clip is deleted only from the Clip Organizer database, not from your hard disk (or other location). Your collection may have properties set that tell it to automatically add files from specific directories on your disks. Then, when you browse a collection that is set to scan this folder, a clip you had deleted might be added to the gallery again. To avoid this, try one or more of the following:

• If you don't want the clip, delete it from your disk by using Microsoft Windows Explorer.
• If you want to keep the clip in its same location on your disk but do not want to see the clip added to a specific collection, set the Collection Properties for that collection to exclude this folder. To do this, in the collection list, right-click the collection, and then click Collection Properties. Verify that the folder where the clip is located is in the folder list. If you want to remove the folder permanently from the properties for the collection, select the folder and press the Delete key. If you want to temporarily suspend the collection from adding new clips from this folder and other folders that may also be in the folder list, select the Don't add files or folders for this collection option.

You probably have the collection set to add new or changed files and subfolders during an automatic scan, which occurs when you browse Clip Organizer.

• If you still wish to watch for new subfolders with media in them for this collection, but do not wish to see a specific subfolder automatically added to Clip Organizer for you under this collection, you can move the folder by the same name as the subcollection to a different location on your hard disk, and then delete the subcollection in Clip Organizer. To see where this folder is located on your disk, select that subcollection, and then click Collection Properties on the File menu. The directory listed in the folder list in the Collection Properties dialog box will be the location of the folder on your disk.
• If you want to continue scanning the folder in the collection for new clips but do not want to scan any of its subfolders, you can set the collection properties such that subfolders are not scanned when you browse the collection. To do this, in the Collection list, right-click the collection, and then click Collection Properties. Select the Add new or changed files only option. This will keep all subfolders in this folder from being added to this collection.

This may be caused by the following:

• Earlier Microsoft programs may allow only some of the new Microsoft Clip Organizer features. Check for tips on the Help page that describe the function you want, as there may be an alternate way of doing what you want to do.
• If you are in a special mode of Clip Organizer (for instance, one that only inserts bullets), you'll have to open Clip Organizer on the Insert menu of your program in order to have access to all Clip Organizer features.
• Stand-alone mode operates slightly differently for certain features.

The location of the file may have changed. You may have moved or removed the file, or changed your hardware configuration (for example, you may have added a new disk drive, which changes the drive volume to a different letter designation).

When the Can't Locate Clip dialog box appears:

• If you know the new location of the file, click Update Location and browse to the new location of the clip.
• If the clip is gone and you wish to remove the preview of this clip from Clip Organizer, click Remove this Clip.

You may have lost your connection with the Clip Organizer database. Try one of the following:

• If you are in the Insert Picture task pane (in an Office product), close the task pane and then re-open it.
• If you are using the stand-alone version of Clip Organizer, on the File menu, click Exit, and then start Clip Organizer again.

You may have a total of more than 10,000 clips in a collection. You can only view up to 10,000 clips per collection. You can narrow the search to find the specific clips you are looking for. Or, organize the collection into several smaller collections, so that you can always view the clips you have added.