Very different saved file sizes

[Oliver Walter]

A friend sent me a Word document file and it was over 700 kB in
size.
I edited it (added a few words and changed some text from 14 pt to
12 pt) and when I saved it (Word 2000 in my case - I don't yet know
the version used by my friend - probably 2000 or later) the file
size was only 33 kB.
Can you suggest a reason for this huge difference? If it's not
obvious from your suggested reason, how can one ensure that a saved
document is a small file, not an unnecessarily huge one? Fast save
was turned off already - that's a possible reason for large files.

Oliver

 

[Robin Graham]

A friend sent me a Word document file and it was over 700 kB in
size.
I edited it (added a few words and changed some text from 14 pt to
12 pt) and when I saved it (Word 2000 in my case - I don't yet know
the version used by my friend - probably 2000 or later) the file
size was only 33 kB.
Can you suggest a reason for this huge difference? If it's not
obvious from your suggested reason, how can one ensure that a saved
document is a small file, not an unnecessarily huge one? Fast save
was turned off already - that's a possible reason for large files.

Oliver

Some people appear to be very casual about how they construct a document.
For example they will use spaces between words to make columns with instead
of tabs. And they will leave unused tabs trailing at the end of lines, etc.,
etc. All these things add up to extra file size. I don't know whether your
friend had done this sort of thing and you tidied it up, but it's a
possibility.

Rob Graham

 

[Oliver Walter]

Some people appear to be very casual about how they construct a document.
For example they will use spaces between words to make columns with instead
of tabs. And they will leave unused tabs trailing at the end of lines, etc.,
etc. All these things add up to extra file size. I don't know whether your
friend had done this sort of thing and you tidied it up, but it's a
possibility.

Yes, many people edit documents like that, but:
(a) it wouldn't turn a 33 kB document into one of over 700 kB, and
(b) the only thing I did to this document was select about 20 lines
(font was Times New Roman), change the font size from 14 to 12, and
insert about 3 lines of new text. The rest of the document remained
untouched.
Thanks for trying to help.

Oliver

 

[Buck Frobisher]

Yes, many people edit documents like that, but:
(a) it wouldn't turn a 33 kB document into one of over 700 kB, and
(b) the only thing I did to this document was select about 20 lines
(font was Times New Roman), change the font size from 14 to 12, and
insert about 3 lines of new text. The rest of the document remained
untouched.
Thanks for trying to help.

Oliver

perhaps you have "embed fonts" turned on in your setup? I don't know what
this would add, but it is significant.

 

[Oliver Walter]

perhaps you have "embed fonts" turned on in your setup? I don't know what
this would add, but it is significant.

Aha, that's an interesting idea; I'll ask my friend.
Oliver