Deleting a phantom image in Microsoft Word

I recently had to edit a file that someone sent me. In it, there was an image I needed to replace - but for some reason the image would not select when I clicked directly on it, so there seemed to be no way to remove it. I even tried a Special find and replace, searching on Graphic in the expanded Find options.

After a little head scratching and fruitless searches to find a known solution, I dug into the Ribbon on Microsoft Word and found the magic button that made it easy to select and delete my unwanted picture: Select Objects.

clip_image001

By default, the command is located at the far right of the Home tab. Click the Select button to find a dropdown list, and then click Select Objects. After doing this, I was able to click directly on the image (which somehow had been embedded as an object instead of a picture) and then tap the Delete button on my keyboard.

Suzanne