How big can a Word doc get before you're courting disaster?

[Jill C]

Hi All

For the past several years I've updated and formatted a corporate
manual that keeps growing. It's currently 7+ MB. The original text
contains styles and columns. The client keeps adding new material from
Excel and Word docs created by others which I paste in and reformat.

Previously I've used a master document, but that blew up on me last
time around, so now I'm trying to keep it in one big document. I save
and start a new document after every major successful insertion, so if
something goes haywire I won't lose everything. I try to paste stuff
in unformatted, and Excel as pictures, to minimize introducing
corruption into the document.

I use Word 2000, Win XP Pro, a Pentium 4 3 GHz processor, 256 K RAM. I
do keep a bunch of stuff running in the background including my mail
program, time keeper, etc., etc, including streaming audio. Can anyone
opine on whether this is enough horsepower to process this document,
which likely will be maybe 3x the size it is now?

Your help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Bonnie

 

[Jonathan Sachs]

Hi All

For the past several years I've updated and formatted a corporate
manual that keeps growing. It's currently 7+ MB. The original text
contains styles and columns. The client keeps adding new material from
Excel and Word docs created by others which I paste in and reformat.

When I was working as a technical writer I developed several large
manuals with Word, always using a single document file. I don't
remember how big the files got, but the longest document was over 500
pages, with moderate amounts of tables, footnotes, and other
formatting, and no special precautions taken. I had no trouble at all.
Based on the date when I was doing this, I would guess that I was
using a 450MHz machine (or slower) with 256MB of RAM (or less). The
operating system was probably Windows NT 4.0. The application was
probably Word 95 or Word 97.

I would recommend upgrading to 512MB of RAM or more, mainly because
it's cheap insurance. If it prevents a couple of lock-ups or saves you
a couple of hours of working time over the next year, it will pay for
itself. I don't think you'll need a faster CPU. If saves and searches
start slowing down, a faster disk is more likely to help.

Previously I've used a master document, but that blew up on me last
time around, so now I'm trying to keep it in one big document. I save
and start a new document after every major successful insertion, so if
something goes haywire I won't lose everything. I try to paste stuff
in unformatted, and Excel as pictures, to minimize introducing
corruption into the document.

The Word implementation of master documents has always been a
disaster. Stay away from it.

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.

 

[Jill C]

Thanks, Jonathan. That's reassuring. Good idea about getting more RAM,
too -- it's as cheap as lollipops these days, so why not!?

Bonnie

 

[Graham Mayor]

I agree also - the more RAM the better the working experience. If your
machine will handle it, add 512mb, rather than 256.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Jill C]

Oh, it can handle it! I think I'll buy myself a little Christmas present... Thanks!

Jill

 

[Scott]

Hi Jill:

See my post - "Large doc with many Excel links crashes Word" - regarding a
67 Mb file that has started to crash Word 2002. I have a Gb of RAM and I
suspect the crashing is related to all the bitmaps that are linked from
Excel into the document. I wonder if there is a way to assign more memory
for Word's internal use? Task manager says I'm not using even half my RAM
with a 55 Mb Excel file open and a 67 Mb Word file open. If I exit Word and
return after about 5 saves, crashing rarely happens, but that is a nusance.

Scottflyer

 

[Marya]

Hi Jill:

I work in an environment about the same as yours, and am
able to work on much larger Word documents than 7 MB, have
lots of other applications open, and everything is fine. I
discovered, however, that Word 2002 does have a document
size limitation of 32 MB.

Cheers.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The 32 MB limitation applies to text only, not counting graphics and other
embedded objects.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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