Converting pictures within a Word document

[david]

I just discovered that a group within my company has been creating
instruction documents and incorreclty pasting pictures into the documents,
subsequently creating huge Word files. For example, one 5-page document with
about 20 pictures in it is saving to 270MB. I copied out the pictures,
resaved them as .JPG (50%), reinserted, and was able to save the document
down to 9MB. Using the Compress Pictures function in Word, I got the file
down to under 5MB.

Here's the problem - there are hundreds of these documents. Does anyone know
of a utility that will run within a Word document to accomplish the same
process I described above?

Please, let there be a god!

 

[macropod]

Hi David,

Saving a Word document as an HTML file generally reduces the size of any
oversized embedded graphics - you can control the resolution via File|Save
As web page|Tools|Web Options. Saving a document this way, reopening the
html file in Word and re-saving it in .doc format might give you a short-cut
way to significantly reducing the file sizes. This could be automated fairly
easily. Some formatting might change along the way, though.

If you don't wan to risk that, you could still save the document as an html
file, this will of itself reduce most of the embedded image sizes, and you
could then replace the originals with the smaller ones. This would be harder
to automate, since there's probably no reliable way to ensure each new image
goes back to the same place as the old one.

One other thing to consider is that, if some of these images are being used
over and over (eg company logos), it might be better to replace the embedded
images with links to them. That way, only one copy of each such image need
exist, and the link code pointing to it would require far less storage than
embedding multiple copies of the image would.

Cheers

 

[Ken Johnson]

I just discovered that a group within my company has been creating
instruction documents and incorreclty pasting pictures into the documents,
subsequently creating huge Word files. For example, one 5-page document with
about 20 pictures in it is saving to 270MB. I copied out the pictures,
resaved them as .JPG (50%), reinserted, and was able to save the document
down to 9MB. Using the Compress Pictures function in Word, I got the file
down to under 5MB.

Here's the problem - there are hundreds of these documents. Does anyone know
of a utility that will run within a Word document to accomplish the same
process I described above?

Please, let there be a god!

Hi David,

Have you tried the "Compress" option on the "Picture" tab of the
"Format Picture" dialog?

Ken Johnson

 

[david]

hi macropod - I did try that before I removed and reinserted the pictures,
but it only reduced the overall size by 10% or so. These are also controlled
documents (these are manufacturing instructions for a medical device), so any
format changes would be very problematic.

Thanks for your input - dmt

Hi David,

Saving a Word document as an HTML file generally reduces the size of any
oversized embedded graphics - you can control the resolution via File|Save
As web page|Tools|Web Options. Saving a document this way, reopening the
html file in Word and re-saving it in .doc format might give you a short-cut
way to significantly reducing the file sizes. This could be automated fairly
easily. Some formatting might change along the way, though.

If you don't wan to risk that, you could still save the document as an html
file, this will of itself reduce most of the embedded image sizes, and you
could then replace the originals with the smaller ones. This would be harder
to automate, since there's probably no reliable way to ensure each new image
goes back to the same place as the old one.

One other thing to consider is that, if some of these images are being used
over and over (eg company logos), it might be better to replace the embedded
images with links to them. That way, only one copy of each such image need
exist, and the link code pointing to it would require far less storage than
embedding multiple copies of the image would.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I just discovered that a group within my company has been creating
instruction documents and incorreclty pasting pictures into the documents,
subsequently creating huge Word files. For example, one 5-page document with
about 20 pictures in it is saving to 270MB. I copied out the pictures,
resaved them as .JPG (50%), reinserted, and was able to save the document
down to 9MB. Using the Compress Pictures function in Word, I got the file
down to under 5MB.

Here's the problem - there are hundreds of these documents. Does anyone know
of a utility that will run within a Word document to accomplish the same
process I described above?

Please, let there be a god!

 

[david]

hi Ken -

I did try that to no avail - it only made a difference after I reinserted
all the pictures.

Thanks - dmt

 

[macropod]

Hi David,

Check that the picture resolution you're saving at is the most appropriate
for your document. Lower resolutions will give fewer bytes per image.
Another possibility, after saving to html, is to open the images in an image
editor and change the amount of compression, then save the image again.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

hi macropod - I did try that before I removed and reinserted the pictures,
but it only reduced the overall size by 10% or so. These are also controlled
documents (these are manufacturing instructions for a medical device), so any
format changes would be very problematic.

Thanks for your input - dmt

Hi David,

Saving a Word document as an HTML file generally reduces the size of any
oversized embedded graphics - you can control the resolution via File|Save
As web page|Tools|Web Options. Saving a document this way, reopening the
html file in Word and re-saving it in .doc format might give you a short-cut
way to significantly reducing the file sizes. This could be automated fairly
easily. Some formatting might change along the way, though.

If you don't wan to risk that, you could still save the document as an html
file, this will of itself reduce most of the embedded image sizes, and you
could then replace the originals with the smaller ones. This would be harder
to automate, since there's probably no reliable way to ensure each new image
goes back to the same place as the old one.

One other thing to consider is that, if some of these images are being used
over and over (eg company logos), it might be better to replace the embedded
images with links to them. That way, only one copy of each such image need
exist, and the link code pointing to it would require far less storage than
embedding multiple copies of the image would.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

I just discovered that a group within my company has been creating
instruction documents and incorreclty pasting pictures into the documents,
subsequently creating huge Word files. For example, one 5-page

document
with

about 20 pictures in it is saving to 270MB. I copied out the pictures,
resaved them as .JPG (50%), reinserted, and was able to save the document
down to 9MB. Using the Compress Pictures function in Word, I got the file
down to under 5MB.

Here's the problem - there are hundreds of these documents. Does

anyone
know

of a utility that will run within a Word document to accomplish the same
process I described above?

Please, let there be a god!