Compress feature for pictures in a word file

[jbellamy]

I was used to use this feature in PC-Office 2003. Click right on one picture, go to edit picture, select compress and you could compress this particular picture or all. Very nice feature to reduce filesize.

However, it does not exist on office for mac 2004.

Does it exist in MacOffice 2008?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

I was used to use this feature in PC-Office 2003. Click right on one picture,
go to edit picture, select compress and you could compress this particular
picture or all. Very nice feature to reduce filesize.

However, it does not exist on office for mac 2004.

Does it exist in MacOffice 2008?

No.

 

[jbellamy]

Thanks for the answer. Would you know another way to get the same benefits of reducing filesize in word?

Last night, I finalized a word document for a client. it was 1.3M, added 2 pictures on front page, size jumped to 3M (?). Was not able to do better with office 2004 for mac. Transfer the file to my vista computer using office 2007, compress the picture using the feature in edit picture, save the file and got the same file at 600k!!!!!! fantastic. However, I did this with a PC-Vista, no way around this with Mac?

Thanks for your help

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Thanks for the answer. Would you know another way to get the same benefits of
reducing filesize in word?

Last night, I finalized a word document for a client. it was 1.3M, added 2
pictures on front page, size jumped to 3M (?). Was not able to do better with
office 2004 for mac. Transfer the file to my vista computer using office 2007,
compress the picture using the feature in edit picture, save the file and got
the same file at 600k!!!!!! fantastic. However, I did this with a PC-Vista, no
way around this with Mac?

Thanks for your help

After the file is closed, Select it in the finder and choose compress from
the File menu.

 

[CyberTaz]

Thanks for the answer. Would you know another way to get the same benefits
of reducing filesize in word?

Last night, I finalized a word document for a client. it was 1.3M, added 2
pictures on front page, size jumped to 3M (?). Was not able to do better
with office 2004 for mac. Transfer the file to my vista computer using
office 2007, compress the picture using the feature in edit picture, save
the file and got the same file at 600k!!!!!! fantastic. However, I did
this with a PC-Vista, no way around this with Mac?

Thanks for your help

I hope you don't expect to get any kind of print quality from the resultant
file. The compression algorithm basically discards information (pixels &
color data) in order to reduce file size on disk. Worst of all it gives the
user no say in what information is discarded. Depending on the settings
used - it sounds like it may have been at 150 or even 96 ppi - it is most
likely well short of what's required for printing witout pixellation & loss
of tonal quality... no matter how good it looks on screen. Even the max
offered (220 ppi) which MS deems "suitable" for print falls noticeably below
the preferred resolution of 300 ppi.

 

[jbellamy]

Yes I expect a certain quality that is fine as is (with Vista!). It is a technical report and I usually put a picture on the cover page or better a composite picture made up of a few pictures from my field work. I am not a mathematician, but when you put a 1M or 1.5M picture that has a large size and you bring it on a cover page to resize it to a few centimeters width and height (few inches), you don't need to keep it all, yet when the file is saved, it keeps everything. I understand that if the file is reduced in size, you cannot bring the picture to the quality it was before but in office 2003 and 2007, the quality offered with this "compress" feature is fine for this use and, by the way, used by many, many people. So why office for mac is not providing this same feature that exist in office 2007?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Yes I expect a certain quality that is fine as is (with Vista!). It is a
technical report and I usually put a picture on the cover page or better a
composite picture made up of a few pictures from my field work. I am not a
mathematician, but when you put a 1M or 1.5M picture that has a large size and
you bring it on a cover page to resize it to a few centimeters width and
height (few inches), you don't need to keep it all, yet when the file is
saved, it keeps everything. I understand that if the file is reduced in size,
you cannot bring the picture to the quality it was before but in office 2003
and 2007, the quality offered with this "compress" feature is fine for this
use and, by the way, used by many, many people. So why office for mac is not
providing this same feature that exist in office 2007?

I gave you a possible solution in a prior post. As for your last sentence -
the reason probably is that they did not have enough time or resources to
include it in this version. It therefore did not make the cut along with
hundreds of others.

 

[John McGhie]

I understand that if the file is reduced in size,
you cannot bring the picture to the quality it was before but in office 2003
and 2007, the quality offered with this "compress" feature is fine for this
use and, by the way, used by many, many people. So why office for mac is not
providing this same feature that exist in office 2007?

Basically, because this functionality is not important in the Mac market.

As soon as you begin to discuss printing and graphics, you get into the
space that the Macintosh "owns". The majority of the flashy graphics and
beautiful typography that you see, anywhere in the world, is done on a Mac.

Mac users in that space are professional, skilled, and demanding.

The crude tools offered in Windows for corporate cube-dwellers (who are
generally not very focussed on appearance or presentation) are not of value
on the Mac.

Mac users normally have advanced image and typography applications capable
of the meticulous and exacting workflows they use. On the Mac, users expect
to have each image at the size, shape and colour standard they will use
BEFORE they insert it into the output workflow.

Everything you put into software costs money: and on the Mac, this kind of
thing simply wouldn't be used. It's not good enough to do the job a Mac
user expects. Better to leave it out, and concentrate Microsoft's money on
things Mac users DO require, such as ligatures and Open Type fonts.

Those will be used, and will add value to Office on the Mac. Crude
image-editing won't.

Which is not going to stop me from asking for it, either I am a
"Windows at Work, Mac at Home" user. And I work almost entirely to
electronic output. High-quality image editing is not a driver for me (I
can't draw a cheque...). So I will continue to pursue Microsoft about this.
But you can take it from me that this is about 500th on their list of
"things to do" on a Mac

Cheers

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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
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http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
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