reduce size of my Visio file

[Matt]

I've got a Visio file that's 850KB that has 3 pages to it. Both the print and
page size are set to Tabloid format. When I remove one of the pages (tabs),
the file size more than doubles to 1900KB. Actually, I don't even have to
remove a page, all I need to do is re-order the pages and the size more than
doubles. What gives?

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

You didn't mention what version of Visio you have, so it's not clear what
might be happening.

Are you working with any shapes from the Backgrounds stencil. Those full
page images are quite large. Users that experiment and try a few out are
left with all of them taking up space in their document. You can check for
unused shapes in your document this way:

Go to File > Shapes > Show Document Stencil
Select each master shape and press Delete
If you get a warning message that the shape is in use, cancel the delete
Otherwise the master shape will be removed from the document, reducing file
size

One other thing to try is turning off the document preview. You can do this
in the File > Properties dialog.

 

[Matt]

Thanks Mark. Sorry I neglected to mention my version - its Visio 2002 at work
and Visio 2000 at home. I'm pretty darn sure that I've modified that
particular document in both locations. Your comment about the master shapes
makes sense - my document includes some UML stuff, and everytime I load it,
even though I've closed down the UML stencils, they re-load back up. I'll try
deleting master shapes when I get back to the office.

-m

 

[Matt]

I did try removing unused master shapes, it helped reduce the file size, but
not by much: 10-100KB depending on the file. I tried this on both Visio 2000
and 2002. Similarly I didn't get much reduction by turning off the page
preview. I did find a MS KB article that had some other ideas including a
Cleanit utility that I'm frankly a little wary of running. Here's the link to
that:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305025

I keep thinking that it has something to do with the UML Stencil/Navigator.
Every time I open one of my files, it displays the UML Navigator even though
I've closed down that panel window many times and only have a few simple UML
objects in my file. Makes me think I'm somehow paying a file size tax due to
the UML stuff.

 

[David Parker [Visio MVP]]

Quite possible, becuse the UML solution stores stuff in the Visio file, and
the UML window is probably activated by pesistent events which trigger the
UML solution...
Perhaps SaveAs XML, and then edit with notepad, or something...

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Yes, UML documents have a special master shape that stores a ton of
information about the UML model. Go to View > Drawing Explorer to see it.
There is a master named UML under the Masters section of the hierarchy.
Right click to delete this shape.

To remove the persisted events that keep reloading the UML add-on, you will
need to follow David's suggestion to save the file as XML (from Visio 2002)
and edit it in Notepad. Go to the very end of the document and delete
everything between the <EventList> tags.

--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Matt]

Thanks Mark & David,

Save as XML and removing the UML stuff from the EventList worked.

From what I can tell the Drawing Explorer UML Master Shape and the Master
Shapes listed in the Document Stencil are the same thing (I delete from one
and the other goes away too).

At any rate, thanks for the help,
-m