Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to externally stored static elements for a document in a document editor and provide a method, system and computer program product for moving static elements for a document between an external file and the document in a document editor. A data processing system for moving static elements for a document between an external file and the document in a document editor can include an automated de-externalization and re-externalization processor coupled to a document editor. The automated de-externalization and re-externalization processor can include program code enabled both to replace static elements in a subject document with static element references while storing replaced static elements in entries in an external file, and also to replace static element references in the subject document with corresponding static elements stored in the entries in the external file.