Hi,

We have a server on which we store our letter templates. If I open up one of
the letter templates (which contains an image in both the header and footer,
as well as an automatic date), and then save it without adding any
information, the file size is around 110kb. However, one of our users in a
remote office has been having problems for about a week now where if he does
the same thing from the same template, his file size will be 3.2Mb. The
images seem to be responsible for this problem, as when I delete one of them
and then save, the file size goes down to 1.6Mb, and down to 11Kb if if I
delete both of them.

I checked all the other messages related to file size, and none of them seem
to be involved.

Thank you

First of all, you can reduce the size of documents based on such a template
by linking the images instead of embedding them. If it is necessary to send
the documents "into the wild" (where the linked images are not available),
then they can be unlinked using Ctrl+Shift+F9. There are numerous other
factors that can cause file size to balloon. One often overlooked one is
saving a preview picture. Here's the whole list:

1. Fast Saves: Disable this at on the Save tab of Tools | Options.

2. Preview Pictu 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. Embedded True Type fonts (Tools | Options | Save); embedding fonts should
be avoided wherever possible.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Charles" wrote in message
...
Hi,

We have a server on which we store our letter templates. If I open up one
of
the letter templates (which contains an image in both the header and
footer,
as well as an automatic date), and then save it without adding any
information, the file size is around 110kb. However, one of our users in a
remote office has been having problems for about a week now where if he
does
the same thing from the same template, his file size will be 3.2Mb. The
images seem to be responsible for this problem, as when I delete one of
them
and then save, the file size goes down to 1.6Mb, and down to 11Kb if if I
delete both of them.

I checked all the other messages related to file size, and none of them
seem
to be involved.

Thank you

Hi,

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, none of these suggestions seem to
fix the issue. As I said in my poste, part of the strangeness is the fact
that if I create a document from the template, the size is very normal
(around 100 kb), but when the other user creates a document from the same
template (same file on the network in the same place), he gets a 3,2Mb
document. This suggests to me that the issue is not with the actual document,
but rather something on his computer that converts the image embedded in the
document (I can't use the link strategy you suggested, as the document in
question is a letter template and will be sent in 99% of cases to people
outside the network - as for the embedded graphics vs object, I don't see the
{ EMBED } code you are talking about, and I know that when i created it I
used insert picture rather than insert object). I remember once reading
something about Word being unable to re-compress an image in a document if
one of the "Temp" folders in the Windows architecture is too large, but we
already cleaned all the ones we could without results.

Thanks for your time

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

First of all, you can reduce the size of documents based on such a template
by linking the images instead of embedding them. If it is necessary to send
the documents "into the wild" (where the linked images are not available),
then they can be unlinked using Ctrl+Shift+F9. There are numerous other
factors that can cause file size to balloon. One often overlooked one is
saving a preview picture. Here's the whole list:

1. Fast Saves: Disable this at on the Save tab of Tools | Options.

2. Preview Pictu 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. Embedded True Type fonts (Tools | Options | Save); embedding fonts should
be avoided wherever possible.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Charles" wrote in message
...
Hi,

We have a server on which we store our letter templates. If I open up one
of
the letter templates (which contains an image in both the header and
footer,
as well as an automatic date), and then save it without adding any
information, the file size is around 110kb. However, one of our users in a
remote office has been having problems for about a week now where if he
does
the same thing from the same template, his file size will be 3.2Mb. The
images seem to be responsible for this problem, as when I delete one of
them
and then save, the file size goes down to 1.6Mb, and down to 11Kb if if I
delete both of them.

I checked all the other messages related to file size, and none of them
seem
to be involved.

Thank you