Word 2003 Maximum Document Size?

[Max]

I did a search I cannot find this documented defnitively anywhere. A Google
search turned up a post where the answer was they "assumed" it was about the
same as the 32MB limit in Word XP.
Other posts seem to indicate that it might be much larger and they had
worked with 270MB files in Word 2003 with no problem.
Is there a link on the Microsoft website that states an approximate or
finite limit?
I have users who "must" work with 80 MB and larger Microsoft Word documents
of 200 pages or more in length (with embedded graphics and equations).
They use 2 Ghz Pentim 4 systems with 512MB RAM with Windows 2000 or XP Pro.
Word 2002 often stops responding while the huge documents are saved on a
network share.
I suggested they copy the documents to their local desktop to make edits,
then copy the file back to the network to be backed up overnight to
eliminate frequent saving across the network as the source of the problem.
Will upgrading from Word 2002 to Word 2003 eliminate the problems of large
document size?

Secondy, what are the best ways to work with very large Word documents?

 

[Graham Mayor]

The 32 mb limit is for the text part of the document. Graphics can inflate
this as you have no doubt gathered. I suspect your problem is more concerned
with your network than with Word. Certainly an ability to readily save to
the local drive would point to this as a factor. I do not believe that 2003
has changed anything from 2002 in this respect.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Max, if you type "limits for Word" into Help, MS will tell you a number of
parameters.

DM

 

[TS]

Max, if you type "limits for Word" into Help, MS will tell you a number of
parameters.

DM

That only applies to Word 2002. That search does not provide useful
results in Word 2003.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

That only applies to Word 2002. That search does not provide useful
results in Word 2003.

2002 and earlier, I imagine, certainly 2001. Silly of them to take that
away--thanks for letting me know.

DM

 

[PhilosopherDog/PhD]

I did a search I cannot find this documented defnitively anywhere. A

Google search turned up a post where the answer was they "assumed" it
was about the same as the 32MB limit in Word XP.
Other posts seem to indicate that it might be much larger and they had
worked with 270MB files in Word 2003 with no problem.
Is there a link on the Microsoft website that states an approximate or
finite limit?

Word 2003's file size limit was adjusted for any size document, as long it
does not exceed Word's 32,766 page limit. Text itself can certainly exceed
a mere 32Mb. I have created various documents (.doc) of 35, 102, 270, and
505Mb in size, each formatted with both headers and footers, including
page numbers. The 270Mb file was nonstop text, filling each page and the
505Mb file include exactly 440 photos. The 270Mb file opened in Word 2003
in 1 second; 505Mb file in 2 seconds.*

*I qualify this by saying I have a fast computer (3.0GHz, 200Gb HD, w/2Gb
of RAM running WinXP Pro-SP1).

Microsoft's philosophy is the same for Excel's Row/Column limit: if you
need to create a document longer than 32,766 pages, then create two or
more and link them to one another. Besides, editing, updating, and
repaginating a 30,000 page document is enormously time consuming and not
worth the time, whether you're using Word, WordPerfect, or OpenOffice.

I disagree with Microsoft on this point, but in Office 2006, you will see
these limits be erased if it helps at all.

-phd

 

[Max]

Was the change in maximum size documented anywhere on Microsoft's web site?
I can't find it.