Saving Word file dramatically increases its size

[Deodand]

In both Word v.X and Word 2004, I've had this problem when editing cases from a legal database. Whenever I make a single change to the file -- no matter how small such as removing a space or highlighting words -- saving the file increases its size dramatically. I just had one RTF go from 84K to 2.1M after highlighting a sentence. In both versions, I have not used fast saves. The problem occurs whether I keep the files as RTFs or save them as Word documents. The files do come w/inserted icon symbols, which aren't very big and which I don't touch. This problem only seems to occur with files I download from this database, not with the Word docs I create. Any ideas how to tame the explosive save?

 

[Michel Bintener]

My guess is that the size explosion occurs because of the picture. The
picture was probably saved in some kind of Windows-native picture format,
which needs to be translated to a Mac-native format whenever you open the
document. Word then saves both pictures in the file, which explains why the
file size grows so suddenly. The best solution would be to get someone to
replace the picture with a picture in a universal file format, such as JPEG
or PNG, as these do not need to get converted into a platform-native file
format.

In both Word v.X and Word 2004, I've had this problem when editing cases from
a legal database. Whenever I make a single change to the file -- no matter how
small such as removing a space or highlighting words -- saving the file
increases its size dramatically. I just had one RTF go from 84K to 2.1M after
highlighting a sentence. In both versions, I have not used fast saves. The
problem occurs whether I keep the files as RTFs or save them as Word
documents. The files do come w/inserted icon symbols, which aren't very big
and which I don't touch. This problem only seems to occur with files I
download from this database, not with the Word docs I create. Any ideas how to
tame the explosive save?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[Deodand]

Thank you for the response. I can't tell how to convert the icons to a universal format, and cannot get info on their size.

I did not mention originally, but I believe I have the exact same problem when I download one of these Word files from the database on my Wintel machine running Office 2003 at work. Plus, each time I make an edit and save the Word file, the file's size continues to increase. I just tested this on an already bloated file at 3.1 MB by adding a space, deleting that space, then saving the program. It is now 6.1 MB.

Having said that, you could be right that the icons are doubling the size with each save. I just added and removed other spaces to the same bloated file, but its size remains the same at 6.1 MB. Curiouser...

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, what Michel is saying is that the Icons are in a format that Word must
"convert" because it can't handle it native.

Chances are, the developer of the document has used "print" icons, which are
at a very high resolution, suitable for printing.

I have seen such files be nearly half a megabyte each. When Word converts
them, that's a whole megabyte stored in the file. Then you bring it to the
Mac, which converts the conversions, and each icon is now consuming 4 MB of
file space.

You can "downsize" them yourself.

1) Display the document

2) Take a screen shot of it

3) Save the screenshot.

4) Open the screenshot in Preview.

5) Highlight each icon and Copy.

6) Paste as a new File in Preview

7) Save it as a GIF

8) Delete each icon from the document

9) Use Insert>Picture>From file to insert your icon in its place.

This will shrink the Icon from 1440 dpi TIFF at millions of colours (nearly
a megabyte) to 96 dpi at 256 colours (less than 1 KB).

The author won't be able to tell that you have done this unless they print
the document

The file size saving may be 1,000 to 1

Basically, you need to get to the author of that document and give them a
couple of sharp whacks with a clue-stick, and tell them to "re-size their
graphics for online use". If they don't know what that means, whack them
again; rinse and repeat until comprehension dawns

Hope this helps

Thank you for the response. I can't tell how to convert the icons to a
universal format, and cannot get info on their size.

I did not mention originally, but I believe I have the exact same problem when
I download one of these Word files from the database on my Wintel machine
running Office 2003 at work. Plus, each time I make an edit and save the Word
file, the file's size continues to increase. I just tested this on an already
bloated file at 3.1 MB by adding a space, deleting that space, then saving the
program. It is now 6.1 MB.

Having said that, you could be right that the icons are doubling the size with
each save. I just added and removed other spaces to the same bloated file, but
its size remains the same at 6.1 MB. Curiouser...

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[Deodand]

Thank you both for your help.

 

[Jonathan Graham]

Hi guys.
I'm having a similar problem with file sizes. Adding pctures to the doc will greatly increase it's size. A 100KB jpg added will push the file size up a couple of MBs. When using office for Windows there is a feature that will reduce in the "format picture" box that will reduce a pictures size, and asks if you want to apply the same to all pictures in the doc. Does Word for Mac 2008 have this feature? If it does, I can't find it.
Thanks