We hear you!!
The problem is that the "limit" is effectively "Unknown". There is no real
way to predict what it may be, because it varies from machine to machine and
from document to document.
When you hit that limit, what it really means is that Word has run out of
memory. As a rule of thumb, if the total file size is under 2GB, chances
are the problem is that the document contains one or more corrupted
pictures.
Rake the pictures out of that document and chances are it will open straight
up again. Then study the help on how to insert "Linked" pictures that are
NOT "Embedded in the document" so that the size of the picture files is not
added to the size of the text.
Using linked pictures, you can construct really prodigious documents if you
are careful. When using Linked pictures, make a special subfolder just for
the document, and put the document and ALL the pictures in that same folder.
If the pictures and the document are all in the same folder, Word will
automatically "find" the pictures if you need to move the document
somewhere. Otherwise, as soon as you move the document, all of your links
will break and all of your pictures will appear as one-inch squares.
Some explanation:
The OLD limit, for the 16-bit versions using the binary .doc format, was "32
MB of text, NOT counting any pictures or other inclusions."
And that was only for the 16-bit operating systems. The limits for the
modern operating systems is "a lot higher" but it is not possible to say
"how much" higher. The limit for the .docx file format is higher again, but
again, we can't say how much (but it's a lot!!).
The first limit you will hit is usually the amount of RAM available to Word
when it attempts to open the document. A computer with only 1GB of RAM will
hit the limit well under 32 MB of text. A computer with 2 or 4 GB of RAM
will hang on a lot longer, depending on how much RAM is actually available
to Word. Often it helps to reboot the computer and not allow any other
applications to start: this can double or treble the size of the document
you can get open.
An Intel machine will handle a document larger than a PPC machine, because
it has a more efficient memory map.
The later operating systems (OS 10.x...) are 32-bit, and there the file-size
limit is around 2GB.
The next limit you may hit is the ability of the operating system to assign
temporary files and swap files. It takes at least 20 times the size of the
document in free disk space to open a Word document.
The next limit you hit is the ability of the file system to store a file
that large. That's where the 32 MB came from: 32 MB is the file size limit
in the early 16-bit operating systems. They've never bothered to update the
error message. I guess that's because on a modern operating system it is
nearly impossible to hit the limit. And it isn't possible to calculate
accurately what it would be.
On the 64-bit operating systems, the limit is actually the size of the
largest disk volume you can create. The document must all fit on a single
volume: on this machine, that's 2.4TB
Hope this helps
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel
This issue is causing lots of problems.
After adding a 5 pages text on teh documentation the word allow me to save the
documentation, but after next day when I tried to open it the error message
appeared: "Word cannot open this file because it is largen than 32 Megabytes
file size". The file size is 658 Megs. I also tried to open the documentation
with openoffice and managed somehow to do that. The front page has quite
strange signs, but it worked.
This really caused me a problems, so now I really started to affraid of using
word.
Please help me out or is there any corrections available on this one? Please
let me know.
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!
--
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]