unexpected file size

[Paul]

Hi,

When I tried to use an existing visio 2002 or 2003 file
as an template, for example, deleting some pages,
modifying pages, I found the file size kept growing. Even
I delete all pages from a file and save as a new file,
the size of the file which supposed to be a very small
file won't change a lot. It will remain, let's say 19M.

If I just copy and paste all pages to a new file, the
size will be much smaller.

I know this is not normal, I tried to search in the
knowledge base, no solution.

Anybody can help?

Thanks

Paul

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

You probably have a lot of master shapes in the document. When you drag a
master shape into a drawing from a stencil, a copy of that shape is stored
in your document. Even deleting the shape from every page does not get rid
of the master shape stored in your document. If you go to File > Shapes >
Open Document Stencil, you can see the masters in the document and delete
those you don't want.

 

[Guest]

Hi, Mark,

Thanks for your help. But after I deleted those shapes in
the stencil, file size increased from 19M to 31M. Even
worse. :-(

Paul

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

I assume that you did not delete any master shapes that Visio warned were
not in use. My suggestion was meant to get rid of unused masters only.

If you are using Visio 2002 SP2, there is a bug that can significantly bloat
the size of documents. This is tied to the preview thumbnail stored in the
file. Disabling the preview should prevent this problem.