Let me begin by saying I can merge images.
Got the include picture, select all, F9.
check

My problem is the behavior of the images once they are in word.  the
images print fine, and appear perfectly on the computer where the
document was generated, but that doesn't help when others need to use
it. For example, I need to take the new word document and email it to
someone else, or burn it on a disc, and then must move the images to
the new disc (or a public drive, or whatever) and update the include
picture field.

I have considered printing it to pdf, but then most people loose
ability to edit the document. I know I could manually go through the
document and copy each image, then paste special, as "gif", and then
reformat. but that gets old fast.

Can anyone explain how I might copy and paste all the images as gifs?
I tried the macro recorder but it wouldn't allow me to change certain
things.

Can I do this with VBA?

Any help would be wonderful.

thanks
anne