Reducing file size

[JoAnn Paules]

I've been working an recreating a technical manual that exists in paper form
only right now. As of this morning it was at 175MB and I still have about 10
large graphics to insert. It keeps crashing Word so I Googled for ways to
reduce the file size.

I compressed the graphics - no change. No versions. Fast Saves and
Background Saves are deselected. No change.

I found a tip to save the file as an HTML, close the .doc, open the HTML in
Word and save as a .doc. My file is now under 5MB. I saved it as a new name
just in case. What are the dangers of doing this? It *appears* okay but I'm
hesitant to overwrite the master file. It represents weeks of work - some of
it done at home on my own time. I'd really rather not lose anything. (Yes, I
can/will back the file up on a flash drive but I'd still like to know about
any risks of doing this.)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[Henk57]

Dear JoAnn
Appreciating that Word has a bad reputation when working with graphics
and puts a lot of "air" in its files, one of the risks I can think of
is that you lose graphics quality (resolution, colour quality, ..) in
this way. It depends what you want to do with it (just viewing as
eBook? or also printing). I have a major project with many graphics
and texts, 600+ pages, 3000 Xrefs, and still growing - that I publish
as an eBook. It's still manageable - 10MB or so. Conversion to pdf
and then into a specific protection format gives about same file size.
(In case you want more details on this just send me an email {info at
eurebooks.eu} as this is beyond the scope of this forum)
I also found that OLE links blow up files tremendously - e.g. Excel
tables pasted "as link" into Word. If you had these in yr 175 MB file,
it may be worthwhile to check them.
HTH, Henk

I've been working an recreating a technical manual that exists in paper
form
only right now. As of this morning it was at 175MB and I still have
about 10
large graphics to insert. It keeps crashing Word so I Googled for ways
to
reduce the file size.

I compressed the graphics - no change. No versions. Fast Saves and
Background Saves are deselected. No change.

I found a tip to save the file as an HTML, close the .doc, open the
HTML in
Word and save as a .doc. My file is now under 5MB. I saved it as a new
name
just in case. What are the dangers of doing this? It *appears* okay but
I'm
hesitant to overwrite the master file. It represents weeks of work -
some of
it done at home on my own time. I'd really rather not lose anything.
(Yes, I
can/will back the file up on a flash drive but I'd still like to know
about
any risks of doing this.)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi JoAnn -

A little far from home, aren't you little girl‽ Welcome to the lighter side
of personal computing

Actually, that technique is currently the *preferred* method for recovering
a corrupt doc as well as reducing file size. You should not lose anything...
Have a look at this - especially the *How It Works* note:

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[JoAnn Paules]

I'm tearing my hair out. Yes, even the dyed ones. That document is a b*tch.
I was working on the smaller version of it and something screwed up some of
my formatting. I have 35+ sections thanks to a goofy page numbering system
and was told to make each page contain the same text that was in the
original document. Save for a few words here and there, I did that. I have
page breaks on every single page, unless it has a section break, to make
sure of that.

I ended up tossing the smaller file and will try again tomorrow. Sometimes
you have to know when to work on something else for a little while. ;-)


--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[JoAnn Paules]

Not worried about color - all black and white. Graphics are not OLE. Getting
it to the point where I can create the .pdf is the challenge. I've been
literally able to make one or two *minor* text changes before it goes
Pfffft! If I'm lucky I can save it before it locks me out.

I'm going to try the HTML thing one more time today. I've requested more RAM
(running 1GB now) but that will take time, if it's even approved. If this
doesn't work for me today, I'll take it home and work on it there. My system
can handle it.

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375

Dear JoAnn
Appreciating that Word has a bad reputation when working with graphics
and puts a lot of "air" in its files, one of the risks I can think of
is that you lose graphics quality (resolution, colour quality, ..) in
this way. It depends what you want to do with it (just viewing as
eBook? or also printing). I have a major project with many graphics
and texts, 600+ pages, 3000 Xrefs, and still growing - that I publish
as an eBook. It's still manageable - 10MB or so. Conversion to pdf
and then into a specific protection format gives about same file size.
(In case you want more details on this just send me an email {info at
eurebooks.eu} as this is beyond the scope of this forum)
I also found that OLE links blow up files tremendously - e.g. Excel
tables pasted "as link" into Word. If you had these in yr 175 MB file,
it may be worthwhile to check them.
HTH, Henk

I've been working an recreating a technical manual that exists in paper
form
only right now. As of this morning it was at 175MB and I still have
about 10
large graphics to insert. It keeps crashing Word so I Googled for ways
to
reduce the file size.

I compressed the graphics - no change. No versions. Fast Saves and
Background Saves are deselected. No change.

I found a tip to save the file as an HTML, close the .doc, open the
HTML in
Word and save as a .doc. My file is now under 5MB. I saved it as a new
name
just in case. What are the dangers of doing this? It *appears* okay but
I'm
hesitant to overwrite the master file. It represents weeks of work -
some of
it done at home on my own time. I'd really rather not lose anything.
(Yes, I
can/will back the file up on a flash drive but I'd still like to know
about
any risks of doing this.)

--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375