Util to remove Office file bloat?

[Guest]

Is there any way to strip out all of the history, metadata, or whatever it
is that continually pumps up Office file sizes? I've seen 30MB ppt files
with just 1 simple slide. Word files should also shrink after accepting
changes, but they don't.

Any solution besides selecting all and pasting into a fresh doc? That works
but it's not very scalable.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

Is there any way to strip out all of the history, metadata, or
whatever it is that continually pumps up Office file sizes? I've
seen 30MB ppt files with just 1 simple slide. Word files should also
shrink after accepting changes, but they don't.

When I've seen PPT slides of that size it's because someone has put in a
huge graphic - foreground or background.

There are many reasons why Word documents may inflate. Two common reasons
are large embeddings (images mostly) and using Fast Save option, which
stores incremental rather than absolute changes to the file.



Mike Williams - Office MVP http://www.mvps.org/faq/
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Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup - not by email!
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[Martin]

When I've seen PPT slides of that size it's because someone has put in a
huge graphic - foreground or background.

There are many reasons why Word documents may inflate. Two common reasons
are large embeddings (images mostly) and using Fast Save option, which
stores incremental rather than absolute changes to the file.



Mike Williams - Office MVP http://www.mvps.org/faq/
If something doesn't make sense, it could be worse e.g.
http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/

Please respond in the same thread on this newsgroup - not by email!
Include details of your application and Windows versions, plus any
service pack updates. Answers may also be found by reading recent
posts, checking the FAQs or searching the relevant Google archive at.
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=microsoft.public

So, how do you shrink the file size after a bloat?

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

So, how do you shrink the file size after a bloat?

Replace the huge graphics and/or resave Word docs after turning off Fast
Save Option.

 

[Guest]

Well, the graphics totaled 9K out of the 30MB ppt file. Fast save in Word
was off.

There's still a huge amount of historical data in the files. Anybody know
of a utility to remove it?

Thanks.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi S.A.

You didn't mention the version of Office you're using.
If you're using File=>Versioning in Word then things
will grow as will saving a Picture Preview in File=>Properties,
or saving in a format other that Word's .doc (current version)
format. This article may help with metadata.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223396

In Word see if using File=>Save as to a new file name
then close and reopen the new file has any effect.

=============Well, the graphics totaled 9K out of the 30MB ppt file. Fast save in Word
was off.

There's still a huge amount of historical data in the files. Anybody know
of a utility to remove it?

Thanks. <<

--
Hope that helps,

Bob Buckland ? MS Office Products family MVP
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http://go.CompuServe.com/MSOfficeForum?loc=us


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[Guest]

Thanks, Bob.

I'm supporting Office 2000, XP, and 2003. I followed the link to 290945.
The two articles had a good bag of tricks that addressed both file growth
and security concerns.

I'm going to investigate the Office Resource Kit to see if I can suppress
some of the data by Group Policy.

 

[Mike Williams [MVP]]

Well, the graphics totaled 9K out of the 30MB ppt file. Fast save in
Word was off.

Did you check the slide background too?