"empty" Powerpoint file is 3.2MB

[Mike]

G'day guys and gals. After receiving a "small" ppt file (.ppt) from a
co-worker (5 slides) I was puzzled at the file size (approx. 5MB).
Thinking it was the graphics, I deleted the pictures one by one
checking the file size each time (it went down about 100-150K each
time). The only remaining objects on the slides were the background
(an image) and some text boxes. I deleted these too and reset the
background to white. The file size went to about 3.3MB. Then I deleted
all the slides (one by one) until there were none left in the file and
saved that too. Final size 3.195MB.

Can anyone explain why?

Just to explain, I'm using Powerpoint 2002 SP-2. At the start of all
this I set the number of undo's to the minimum (3) under
"Tools->Options->Edit". I made sure to save each time as a Powerpoint
Presentation. I even quit PPT and reloaded the file before continuing
with the slide deletions, to no avail.

What could be taking up 3.2MB?

Thanks for any help you can provide

 

[Michael Koerner]

Did you by chance save the file as a backward compatible file with 95, also, do you have under Tools, "Allow fast saves" turned on

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


G'day guys and gals. After receiving a "small" ppt file (.ppt) from a
co-worker (5 slides) I was puzzled at the file size (approx. 5MB).
Thinking it was the graphics, I deleted the pictures one by one
checking the file size each time (it went down about 100-150K each
time). The only remaining objects on the slides were the background
(an image) and some text boxes. I deleted these too and reset the
background to white. The file size went to about 3.3MB. Then I deleted
all the slides (one by one) until there were none left in the file and
saved that too. Final size 3.195MB.

Can anyone explain why?

Just to explain, I'm using Powerpoint 2002 SP-2. At the start of all
this I set the number of undo's to the minimum (3) under
"Tools->Options->Edit". I made sure to save each time as a Powerpoint
Presentation. I even quit PPT and reloaded the file before continuing
with the slide deletions, to no avail.

What could be taking up 3.2MB?

Thanks for any help you can provide

 

[Mike]

To answer your questions.

No I did not save it as a backward compatible file. I have tried
saving as default presentation type and as a Powerpoint 97-2002
compatible file (no change in file size). I did have "Allow fast
saves" turned on, but I just turned it off and it made no difference.
The file has no slides and is still 3.195MB (just the "click to add
first slide" text).

Any takers for this problem?

Thanks.

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

No I did not save it as a backward compatible file. I have tried

saving as default presentation type and as a Powerpoint 97-2002
compatible file (no change in file size). I did have "Allow fast
saves" turned on, but I just turned it off and it made no difference.
The file has no slides and is still 3.195MB (just the "click to add
first slide" text).

To be perfectly clear, after turning Fast Saves off, did you then do File,
Save As and save the presentation again, preferably to a new name?

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

Forgot to mention:

See this for other reasons why MyPetiteFile.ppt turns into THE_HULK.PPT
Why are my PowerPoint files so big? What can I do about it?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00062.htm

--

Steve Rindsberg PPT MVP
PPTLive ( http://www.pptlive.com ) Featured Speaker
PPTools: http://www.pptools.com
PPT FAQ: http://www.pptfaq.com

To answer your questions.

No I did not save it as a backward compatible file. I have tried
saving as default presentation type and as a Powerpoint 97-2002
compatible file (no change in file size). I did have "Allow fast
saves" turned on, but I just turned it off and it made no difference.
The file has no slides and is still 3.195MB (just the "click to add
first slide" text).

Any takers for this problem?

Thanks.

"Michael Koerner" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Did you by chance save the file as a backward compatible file with 95,
also, do you have under Tools, "Allow fast saves" turned on

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


G'day guys and gals. After receiving a "small" ppt file (.ppt) from a
co-worker (5 slides) I was puzzled at the file size (approx. 5MB).
Thinking it was the graphics, I deleted the pictures one by one
checking the file size each time (it went down about 100-150K each
time). The only remaining objects on the slides were the background
(an image) and some text boxes. I deleted these too and reset the
background to white. The file size went to about 3.3MB. Then I deleted
all the slides (one by one) until there were none left in the file and
saved that too. Final size 3.195MB.

Can anyone explain why?

Just to explain, I'm using Powerpoint 2002 SP-2. At the start of all
this I set the number of undo's to the minimum (3) under
"Tools->Options->Edit". I made sure to save each time as a Powerpoint
Presentation. I even quit PPT and reloaded the file before continuing
with the slide deletions, to no avail.

What could be taking up 3.2MB?

Thanks for any help you can provide
--

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Assuming you have turned fast saves OFF
And Saved the file under a new name.

I have seen files that are excessively large, with no data on any of the
masters (slide,notes,etc), but they do contain some kind of "revision" or
"comments" data. The sort of data that accumulates when files are passed
around.

e.g. Mike makes comments....passes it to Jo, who adds comments....who gives
it to the Legal dept, who surprisingly approve the presentation and add
their comments.

The way to shrink these Bu**ers is to start with a blank pres and just copy
the content over.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free sample templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

To answer your questions.

No I did not save it as a backward compatible file. I have tried
saving as default presentation type and as a Powerpoint 97-2002
compatible file (no change in file size). I did have "Allow fast
saves" turned on, but I just turned it off and it made no difference.
The file has no slides and is still 3.195MB (just the "click to add
first slide" text).

Any takers for this problem?

Thanks.

"Michael Koerner" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Did you by chance save the file as a backward compatible file with 95,
also, do you have under Tools, "Allow fast saves" turned on

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


G'day guys and gals. After receiving a "small" ppt file (.ppt) from a
co-worker (5 slides) I was puzzled at the file size (approx. 5MB).
Thinking it was the graphics, I deleted the pictures one by one
checking the file size each time (it went down about 100-150K each
time). The only remaining objects on the slides were the background
(an image) and some text boxes. I deleted these too and reset the
background to white. The file size went to about 3.3MB. Then I deleted
all the slides (one by one) until there were none left in the file and
saved that too. Final size 3.195MB.

Can anyone explain why?

Just to explain, I'm using Powerpoint 2002 SP-2. At the start of all
this I set the number of undo's to the minimum (3) under
"Tools->Options->Edit". I made sure to save each time as a Powerpoint
Presentation. I even quit PPT and reloaded the file before continuing
with the slide deletions, to no avail.

What could be taking up 3.2MB?

Thanks for any help you can provide
--

 

[Echo S]

Forgot to mention:

See this for other reasons why MyPetiteFile.ppt turns into THE_HULK.PPT
Why are my PowerPoint files so big? What can I do about it?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00062.htm

Didn't we play with some files a few years ago from PPT 2000 which
displayed this problem? I think we finally narrowed it down to a problem
with the notes master or something, but we never were able to decide
exactly what was causing it.

Does that ring any bells?

At any rate, I think TAJ's solution is the one which finally resolved
the problem -- insert the slides into a new presentation.

Oh, I'd bet Shyam's round tripping through HTML would resolve it, too.

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

Didn't we play with some files a few years ago from PPT 2000 which

displayed this problem? I think we finally narrowed it down to a problem
with the notes master or something, but we never were able to decide
exactly what was causing it.

Does that ring any bells?

Yup, but same recollection here - we never did sort it out.

Other folks have come up with some slick tricks in the interim and they're
all laid out on the FAQ link (embedded Unicode fonts, presentation
review/changetracking or whatever it's called, suchlike)

Oh, I'd bet Shyam's round tripping through HTML would resolve it, too.

If it's not down to one of the other causes, quite possibly!

 

[Mike]

Ladies and gents.
I've tried saving this file under new names, with and without fast
saves on. None of the slides (in normal or master view) has any
deletable data.

The only thing that reduced the file size was to do Ctrl-A, delete
(i.e select all and delete on the master and the normal slide (even
though nothing was deleted, because there was nothing visible there).
Then saving the file as another name, brought up a dialog widget
referring to "you may want your changes to be marked as revisions.
blah blah Do you want to automatically add this additional information
when you save the file". After clicking no, the file went to 11KB.

Still, there is no explanation as to why this dialog only came up when
executing the above steps. Doesn't help with a large file though.

The probable solution (suggesting in this thread, that I have also
used before) is to open a brand new presentation and copy the content
when you suspect the revision information is bloating your file.

Thanks for all the input. Just another MS bug I guess.

Mike

Assuming you have turned fast saves OFF
And Saved the file under a new name.

I have seen files that are excessively large, with no data on any of the
masters (slide,notes,etc), but they do contain some kind of "revision" or
"comments" data. The sort of data that accumulates when files are passed
around.

e.g. Mike makes comments....passes it to Jo, who adds comments....who gives
it to the Legal dept, who surprisingly approve the presentation and add
their comments.

The way to shrink these Bu**ers is to start with a blank pres and just copy
the content over.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free sample templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

To answer your questions.

No I did not save it as a backward compatible file. I have tried
saving as default presentation type and as a Powerpoint 97-2002
compatible file (no change in file size). I did have "Allow fast
saves" turned on, but I just turned it off and it made no difference.
The file has no slides and is still 3.195MB (just the "click to add
first slide" text).

Any takers for this problem?

Thanks.

"Michael Koerner" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Did you by chance save the file as a backward compatible file with 95,
also, do you have under Tools, "Allow fast saves" turned on

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


G'day guys and gals. After receiving a "small" ppt file (.ppt) from a
co-worker (5 slides) I was puzzled at the file size (approx. 5MB).
Thinking it was the graphics, I deleted the pictures one by one
checking the file size each time (it went down about 100-150K each
time). The only remaining objects on the slides were the background
(an image) and some text boxes. I deleted these too and reset the
background to white. The file size went to about 3.3MB. Then I deleted
all the slides (one by one) until there were none left in the file and
saved that too. Final size 3.195MB.

Can anyone explain why?

Just to explain, I'm using Powerpoint 2002 SP-2. At the start of all
this I set the number of undo's to the minimum (3) under
"Tools->Options->Edit". I made sure to save each time as a Powerpoint
Presentation. I even quit PPT and reloaded the file before continuing
with the slide deletions, to no avail.

What could be taking up 3.2MB?

Thanks for any help you can provide
--

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

The only thing that reduced the file size was to do Ctrl-A, delete

(i.e select all and delete on the master and the normal slide (even
though nothing was deleted, because there was nothing visible there).
Then saving the file as another name, brought up a dialog widget
referring to "you may want your changes to be marked as revisions.
blah blah Do you want to automatically add this additional information
when you save the file". After clicking no, the file went to 11KB.

Bingo. Revision tracking, one of the things mentioned in the FAQ we sent
you to earlier.
Was that part badly or incompletely explained? If so, let me know; I'd
like to get it fixed.

 

[Steve Rindsberg, PPTMVP]

Revision tracking is mentioned in the FAQ, but Powerpoint doesn't make

it easy to turn it off.

Nor to understand what's going on. I hear ya.

I think you have to open the file in question, merge any changes, then Save
As to clear it's head.
I don't use the feature, so I'm not really very familiar with it.
Maybe somebody who is can chime in ...

That was one of the first things that I went

looking for in the preferences and tools->options. After looking
through the help I found mention of the revision toolbar. However, in
this case the revision toolbar was greyed out, preventing me from
doing anything directly. As usual, the MS help is helpless...

Mike



Bingo. Revision tracking, one of the things mentioned in the FAQ we sent
you to earlier.
Was that part badly or incompletely explained? If so, let me know; I'd
like to get it fixed.

[/QUOTE]