Max86 - glad to hear you got RD fields working, but for future reference MS
Word can easily handle 400 pages, I regularly have document double that and
even with many images and complex tables these files tend to be less than
20mb.
"extensive formatting" - this sounds as if your documents have manually
applied formatting instead of using styles which Word prefers. The documents
mentioned above may be large (pages-wise) but they all only have around 20
styles that cover all formatting requirements, out of a preset template
listing of 40+ styles.
I would do a test on your documents, maybe working on copies but I would
open these via the Open and Repair and see if any are starting to corrupt,
hopefully not.
Do you have many images? Poorly created images can cause file bloat,
especially inserted Visio, but many others can as well. My usualy problems
are with Visio as well as extremely large JPG files.
A quick way to see which (if any) images are large within your document, you
can save the file as a HTML file, this will automatically create a folder
containing the image files. I usually investigate any files that are over
200k.
See below some standard causes and cures for File bloat that is could
staring point.
There are a number of reasons for excessive file size, including:
1. Fast Saves: Disable this at on the Save tab of Tools | Options.
2. Preview Picture: Clear the check box on the Summary tab of File |
Properties.
3. Versions (File | Versions): Make sure "Automatically save version on
close" is not turned on.
4. Revisions (Tools | Track Changes):
Highlight Changes: Make sure "Highlight changes on screen" is turned on
(or that "Final Showing Markup" is displayed).
Accept/Reject Changes: If "Accept All" or "Reject All" is available then
revisions are present; accept or reject all changes, then turn Track Changes
off.
5. Keep track of formatting (Tools | Options | Edit). This is reportedly a
major cause of file bloat in Word 2002 and above.
6. Embedded True Type fonts (Tools | Options | Save); embedding fonts should
be avoided wherever possible.
7. Embedded linguistic data (Tools | Options | Save).
8. Embedded graphics: When feasible, it is preferable to link the graphics.
That is, when you insert the graphic, click the arrow beside Insert in the
Picture dialog and choose Link to File rather than Insert or Insert and Link.
9. Embedded objects: These are even worse than ordinary graphics saved with
the document. If you see an { EMBED } code, the graphic is an OLE object.
Unless you need to be able to edit the object in place, unlink it using
Ctrl+Shift+F9.
10. File format: Make sure you are saving as a Word document; in some cases
..rtf (Rich Text Format) files are significantly larger than .doc files.
11. Document corruption: See
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.
The above is written for 2003, 2007 instructions may differ.
All the best
DeanH
