From Tom Mighell and his Internet Legal Research Weekly Newsletter comes this tip about how MS Word handles graphic images by default. He calls this feature "VERY annoying." I’d go further and say that the way Microsoft Word treats graphics when you try to place them into a document is its Most Annoying Feature (Non-security/privacy division.) I think the reason this bothers me so much is that I do the following steps. Then I forget to do the tweak when I get an upgraded version of MS Word (or I may working on another’s computer) and it always seems to come back to haunt me when I’m putting some graphics into a document under a tight deadline.

"If you have Word 2002 or later and you try to insert an image into a document, you may notice that Word wants to create a box called a "Drawing Canvas" to hold the graphic.  VERY annoying, in my opinion.  Here’s how to banish the canvas to the Word dungeon:  Select Tools, then Options, then General.  Simply uncheck the box next to Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes.  Then select OK.  If you really, really need the drawing canvas, you can always make it come back by checking that option, OR on a case-by-case basis by selecting the Insert menu, then Picture, then New Drawing." Thanks for the reminder, Tom.