Project File Size is HUGE suddenly

[Hadi]

I was working with about 25 MS Project files with different sizes. I am not
sure what happened but I moved some tasks around between the different files
and all of a sudden most of these files have increased significantly in size.
even if I go to one of these files and delete all of the tasks and resources
and the files sizes remain the same.

help is always appreciated

 

[John]

I was working with about 25 MS Project files with different sizes. I am not
sure what happened but I moved some tasks around between the different files
and all of a sudden most of these files have increased significantly in size.
even if I go to one of these files and delete all of the tasks and resources
and the files sizes remain the same.

help is always appreciated

Hadi,
Heavy editing can add a lot of overhead to files and it can also lead to
corruption. Take a look at our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
Look at FAQ 43 - File Bloat? Could be corruption

John
Project MVP

 

[Hadi]

John,
thanks for the link but it does not seem like it is helping

any other ideas?

 

[Catfish Hunter]

I have had several projects do the same thing. MS called it bloating, really!
I was at 8MB on a project one dat and the next day it was at 17MB. It
continued to grow until MS sent me the fix. FAQ 43:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm Good Luck

 

[Hadi]

Thanks for the reply. I tried that but no luck. the size seems to be the
same after I do that.

any other ideas, can I export to excel or access then bring it back

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Although you can move the data to Excel, I don't know if it will solve your
ploblems. But it's worth a try. I have just highlited the columns I wanted,
copy and paste. Make sure you get the logic ties, name.....
Did you see the part about saving as soon as you open the project?
Wish I had a better reply.

 

[Debbra]

HAVE YOU TRIED compacting and repairing?? The bloat occurs any time you do
change something in design mode.

 

[Catfish Hunter]

I got this out of Projects help. Good Luck!!

Automatically repair Microsoft Project
You can automatically repair Microsoft Project using Microsoft Project 2000
or later versions only.

Caution When you use Detect and Repair in Microsoft Project, the program
automatically finds and fixes errors in all Microsoft Office files. By
default, some personalized settings are restored, such as a user name or
recently used file settings. However, you may want to discard these
personalized settings if you suspect they have been corrupted. [ Click for
more ]

When repairing errors in Office files, the following default settings may be
reset:

The Office Assistant character selection
The size of the program window
Menu and toolbar positions and customization
Security levels
View settings
Also, most recently used entries on the File menu are removed. And you need
to reenter your user name and initials when you restart Microsoft Project.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 On the Help menu, click Detect and Repair.
To restore program shortcuts to the Windows Start menu, make sure to select
the Restore my shortcuts while repairing check box.

2 Click Start.

Notes

This procedure detects and repairs problems associated with the installation
of Microsoft Project, such as registry settings and missing installation
files. It does not repair personal files, such as project files or templates.
If this procedure does not fix the problem, you may need to reinstall
Microsoft Project.

 

[Hadi]

I TRIED exporting the Project file to MS Access and do the compact & repair
but no luck either. Can you do that command in Project directly then?

 

[Hadi]

No luck either

I got this out of Projects help. Good Luck!!

Automatically repair Microsoft Project
You can automatically repair Microsoft Project using Microsoft Project 2000
or later versions only.

Caution When you use Detect and Repair in Microsoft Project, the program
automatically finds and fixes errors in all Microsoft Office files. By
default, some personalized settings are restored, such as a user name or
recently used file settings. However, you may want to discard these
personalized settings if you suspect they have been corrupted. [ Click for
more ]

When repairing errors in Office files, the following default settings may be
reset:

The Office Assistant character selection
The size of the program window
Menu and toolbar positions and customization
Security levels
View settings
Also, most recently used entries on the File menu are removed. And you need
to reenter your user name and initials when you restart Microsoft Project.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 On the Help menu, click Detect and Repair.
To restore program shortcuts to the Windows Start menu, make sure to select
the Restore my shortcuts while repairing check box.

2 Click Start.

Notes

This procedure detects and repairs problems associated with the installation
of Microsoft Project, such as registry settings and missing installation
files. It does not repair personal files, such as project files or templates.
If this procedure does not fix the problem, you may need to reinstall
Microsoft Project.

I TRIED exporting the Project file to MS Access and do the compact & repair
but no luck either. Can you do that command in Project directly then?

 

[John]

No luck either

Hadi,
Just how big are your files both in terms of task lines and storage
size? Also, do you have any imbedded graphics?

If you used the methods described in our MVP FAQ 43, then maybe that is
simply how big your files should be. However, if your files are really
big, I mean really really big for the number of tasks and nothing else
has helped, a VBA solution could do the trick. It could basically read
the necessary data from each existing file and re-create fresh new files
(it's kind of like copying to Excel or Access but I wouldn't trust that
a simple copy would capture all the Project data). That's basically what
should have happened with the "save to database and re-open with
Project" approach but maybe some "baggage" is still retained.

John
Project MVP

 

[Hadi]

John,
To give you an idea on the size issue. just 2 weeks ago my static master
was 22MB and now it is 90MB

as far as the VBA code, is there a standard macro or something like that i
can use to do i need to know VBA code to be able to do it

 

[John]

John,
To give you an idea on the size issue. just 2 weeks ago my static master
was 22MB and now it is 90MB

as far as the VBA code, is there a standard macro or something like that i
can use to do i need to know VBA code to be able to do it

Hadi,
That does seem like a very large file but depending on how many task
lines it contains, it may be a reasonable size - nothing I'd care to
work with but then Microsoft does provide for files as large as 1
million tasks (crazy). When you tried the suggestions in FAQ 43, did you
use them on all 25 of your subprojects? If not, then you should - they
are the source of the bloat and until they are reduced, a static master
built from them will still be large.

There is no standard VBA code to do what I suggested so you or someone
else would have to write the code. But here's a hair-brained idea I had
last night. The "Compare Project Versions" utility/add-in creates a new
Project file based on the comparison of two related files. Why not try
this:
1. Save a bloated file under a different name
2. Run the compare utility against the original and new file
3. Check the size of the resulting compare file and see if it helped.
Note: Some spare fields are used by the utility to show difference
information so be careful that you don't have data in those fields.

John
Project MVP