Size of small docx file doubles

[George CA Talbot]

As installed in Vista HP in Feb 08, a page of text in Wd07 created a docx
file of >30K 50% bigger than with Wd03, and an RT file of >40K much bigger
than with Wd03. Then docx files reduced to ~20K until late Apr 09 when they
doubled. This was before SP2 was installed. Reformatting from text does not
help nor has the diagnostic.
I seek technical data on how big various documents should be and why.

 

[George CA Talbot]

Unzipping a smaller and larger docx file of the same document reveals the
cause of the increase in size. In the larger docx, in the folder docProps is
thumbnail.wmf; a Paintbrush Picture file of 20K when compressed for my test
docx. Word Help does not know it and I don't know who uses it. A description
of how to remove it is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934284.

Both unzipped docx files have in the folder word, a document.xml file that
fragments the documents' text so it is almost unreadable: The xml version of
a simple paragraph of 349 characters has 3039 characters. I am sure this is
wrong and am seeking an explanation.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That's an interesting article because the description it gives for Word is:

1. In the DocumentName Properties dialog box, click the Summary tab.
2. Click to clear the Save Thumbnails for All Word Documents check box.

But the Summary tab of the Advanced Properties dialog (for me at least)
shows nothing of the kind, just the traditional "Save preview picture" check
box, concerning which see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/PreviewPicture.htm

Perhaps there's a message about thumbnails if you're running under Vista?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[George CA Talbot]

Suzanne
I suggest “Save preview picture†in your Wd03 has the same meaning as “Save
Thumbnails for all Word Documents†in Wd07. It has “Save Thumbnail†on Save
As.
I note the warnings on your Document/Template Previews about saving a
thumbnail in Wd03 when it would have a picture although Wd07 does compress
wmf files on saving.
Your page tells me that a thumbnail enables a preview in Open. Mine does not
appear and Word just stalls. Nor do I get the scrollable page you mention! I
have weird document.xml files as noted and Office SP2: I have always had the
files despite several System Recoveries!
To see a fuzzy thumbnail, I must unzip the docx file, copy the wmf file out
of the folder and open it with Picture Manager! Vista HP does previews of
files open on the task bar, of course.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

But my copy of Word 2007 also shows "Save preview picture" (not "Save
Thumbnail for All Word Documents" on the Summary tab of DocumentName
Properties, which I thought is what I said. I can't imagine that the wording
would be different under Vista, but I was willing to accept that this might
be the case. Since I have both Word 2003 and Word 2007 installed, I suppose
it's possible that 2007 is "borrowing" the dialog from 2003. Do you actually
see "Save Thumbnail for All Word Documents" on the Summary tab of the
Properties dialog in Word 2007?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[George CA Talbot]

I do actually see "Save Thumbnail for All Word Documents" on the Summary tab
of the Properties dialog (box) in my Word 2007 (with SP2) and it does work.
I assumed you meant this partly because section 4. Word 2007 2. of kb/934284
uses this phrase.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

And you're running under Vista? If not, I can't imagine why the wording
would be different. (Even that seems unlikely to me.)

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Beth Melton]

To confirm, the option wording and behavior is different in Vista and
Windows 7. As noted it's named "Save Thumbnail for All Word Documents" and
behavior is a per Word setting rather than a per document setting.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks for confirming, Beth. I hadn't realized that Word could show
different dialogs depending on OS (although of course I'm aware of the
difference in the Open and Save dialogs between XP and Vista (no Places Bar
<sob>).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Beth Melton]

There isn't a Places Bar but there's a Favorites section to the left of the
contents view that works like the Places Bar with a few changes: Favorites
appears at the top to the left of the Contents view, you drag/drop your
folders from the Contents view to create the shortcuts (links), and you can
drag/drop to rearrange them. I actually like it better than the Places Bar.


As an additional note, I'm not sure if this is in Vista, I think it's new to
Windows 7, but there's also a section for the application that contains
application shortcuts, such as a shortcut to your User Templates folder, and
it's automatically updated when the location to your User Templates is
modified.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not unfamiliar with the Favorites section under Vista. I struggled with
it in trying to help another person use Word 2007 under Vista, and I
consider it much less user-friendly than the Places Bar. Perhaps when I
actually have Vista or Windows 7 on my own machine, I'll get used to it, but
the little interaction I had with it was discouraging.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[George CA Talbot]

Suzanne, I see Beth has the reply we both needed! I have Vista HP and Office
H&S.
By the way, I have again sought a Preview in Open from a docx file with a
thumbnail. No thumbnail pic! But I got a 2mm wide strip of scrollable text!!

 

[George CA Talbot]

Beth, could you comment on my fragmented document.xml files that must
increase file sizes in Word 2007? All the docx files I have checked look
similar despite several System Recoveries and new DVDs from HP a year ago. I
install Office 07 H&S from a CD; initially in FEB 08. Now it has SP2 and 13
other updates from 29 APR 09.

The document.xml file in the folder word in unzipped docx files has text so
fragmented it is almost unreadable in IE8. The xml version of a simple
paragraph of 349 characters has 3039 characters. Surely this is wrong?
That para came from a single page letter. Since then I have retested with
only the few simple paras in a sample file Microsoft Help sent me and found a
para of 356 chs yielded 445 chs in the xml file and all its paras looked
normal! That’s seven times smaller.
How can this be?

 

[Beth Melton]

Do you have a sample document you can email me? It's much easier to
determine the source of an issue with a sample document.

To obtain a valid email address remove NoSpam4Me from
(e-mail address removed).

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

 

[George CA Talbot]

I have found several factors that affect the size of docx files for small
Word documents.

Fragmented text in the document.xml file increases its size. To fix this go
to Word Options: Trust Center: Trust Center Settings...: Privacy Options.
Then clear Store random number to improve Combine accuracy. Beth and
Stephanie differ about whether this is good practice. I am baffled by it!

The smallest paragraph header occurs when Normal style is set. This takes
the default paragraph and font details. A larger header occurs when any other
style is set. The largest header occurs for a paragraph that has no style set
and is not in the default style.

New styles add to styles.xml; a large file that contains details of many
unused default styles.

Copying a Bulleted paragraph into a document increases numbering.xml.

The Document Inspector offers to remove a small customXml folder but I had
to re-input the header and footer to remove header and footer xml files that
had been added.

Smaller but growing with the document, webSettings.xml contains 9 digit w:id
numbers.

I do not know why a simple Word document requires the customXml folder or
the webSettings.xml file.