How to Quickly Reduce Microsoft Word File Size

How to Quickly Reduce
Microsoft Word File Size


I have faced a 85MB word file! Can you believe that? I have spent alot of time researching this issue and here is what i found on http://www.klariti.com/microsoft-word/Reduce-Microsoft-Word-File-Size2.shtml

What happens if you’re given a file that’s already bloated to massive
proportions. It’s too late to create fancy new styles at this stage. This requires
some drastic action.



Here's what to do.

1. Open the Word file in Microsoft
Word, if possible.



Tip: If this is not possible, try opening it with Internet Explorer -
sometimes this works!



2. Cut and paste every graphic from the file into an image-editing tool. Create a naming
convention, (e.g. Page1-A.gif, Page1-B.gif etc) and name each one accordingly.



WARNING: DON’T SAVE THE FILE YET!



3. Do File | Save As HTML. Name the file with an HTML extension, e.g.
ProposalTemplate.html. Exit Word completely.



4. Re-open Word. Do File | Open and select the ProposalTemplate.html file.



5. Do File | Save and save with ProposalTemplate.html with a new Word .doc extension, e.g.
ProposalTemplate2.doc.

This simple process of converting the
Microsoft Word file into HTML and back into Word, removes all the unnecessary (i.e.
corrupt) code in the file, and will significantly reduce the file size.



I’ve seen Word files larger than 20MB reduced to less than 3MB in
less than one minute by using this technique.



Might be worth a try!



These are some secrets we learnt from the tech doc frontline. What’s been your
experience?



Please drop me a line at ivan <at> klariti <dot> com and we’ll share it
online.



PS: The reason you don’t save the file at Step 2 is because this
would trigger Word into action (i.e. I WILL now save this humongous file) and, as it
struggles to save the oversized file, will probably crash the entire application.