File became too large to edit.

[WFL]

I have been working on a family chronology which includes text and imported
pictures and documents. On the last import of scanned documents it became 5.7
gig. Up to that import I was able to edit it, but after all edit functions
became grayed, thus making it impossible to sweep and cut out pictures or
sections of the file. I added Ram memory to the max, but it still will not
allow editing after opening, telling me that there is not enough memory to
show all the pictures.
The file involved hundreds of hours to construct to this point and it would
be tragic if I could not cut it in half. I can use a file splitting program,
but the individual sections will not open in Word and when combined I have
the same problem.
Help! Are there any solutions? I run 3.25 RAM in a Gateway 835 GM machine
using Windows XP with Word 2003.
Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I would hope that with a document like that, you would be making regular
back ups.

You may try turning on the display of picture placeholders
(Tools>Options>View) but with the file of that size already, just getting it
open may be an issue.

The other thing that you should do is link the scanned documnets to the
file, rather than embed them.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[CyberTaz]

Additional to Doug's insights, disk space may also be an issue... Word needs
to create a number of temporary files for any documents you open. I believe
this can be exceptionally critical since the file size exceeds the amount of
physical RAM in the computer. If there is insufficient disk space it can't
do so, & with a file of that size & complexity those temp files can be huge.

You might free up as much space on your HD as you possibly can. It may also
help to defragment your hard drive. Additionally, make sure no other
programs are running & that no other documents are open when you attempt to
use the file.

I know that this is not very helpful after-the-fact, but this type of
project is not what a word processing program is designed to handle. If
you're able to get the file working again you might want to consider using a
more object-oriented program such as InDesign. In fact, you may be able to
import the Word doc into another file created by a page layout/desktop
publishing program... Although I can't even begin to guess how successful
that might be.

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Mi Tasol]

Additional to Doug's insights, disk space may also be an issue... Word needs
to create a number of temporary files for any documents you open. I believe
this can be exceptionally critical since the file size exceeds the amountof
physical RAM in the computer. If there is insufficient disk space it can't
do so, & with a file of that size & complexity those temp files can be huge.

You might free up as much space on your HD as you possibly can. It may also
help to defragment your hard drive. Additionally, make sure no other
programs are running & that no other documents are open when you attempt to
use the file.

I know that this is not very helpful after-the-fact, but this type of
project is not what a word processing program is designed to handle. If
you're able to get the file working again you might want to consider using a
more object-oriented program such as InDesign. In fact, you may be able to
import the Word doc into another file created by a page layout/desktop
publishing program... Although I can't even begin to guess how successful
that might be.

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

If all else fails
1 try and make disk space by copying file to USB drive and, if it
still will not open on your computer - opening on another machine or
with OpenOffice.
2 As soon as you open it save a copy then cut out last X pages and
save with new name,
3 then open and delete first x pages and save.
4 THEN, when you get home, replace all the images with links as per
Doug's suggestion. That has the additional advantage that when you
get a better graphic it will automatically be inserted if you give it
the same name as the original one.