Word 2008 file size unusually large

[siseo05]

The files that Word 2008 has been saving have all been huge, abnormally so. A two-page document is over 100 KB (.docx) and ~30-40 KB (.doc). I thought maybe it was something in Word 2008, because I just got my MacBook Pro a few months ago, but I asked my friend and she told me she'd had no such problems, nor could I find anything on the Internet.

Just to compare, a ten-page paper I'm working on in class is 123 KB now in '08. I went and saved it in '07 as a test, and it came out to 27 KB (.docx both times).

I've been through all my Save settings, but nothing looks out of the ordinary--nothing that would blow up the size like this. Anyone have ideas? It's not exactly hurting anything, but I'm just collecting masses of enormous files that are taking up memory they shouldn't be, plus the fact that they're bulky and hard to distribute.

Thanks in advance.

 

[317342]

Turn off "Save preview picture" under the Save setting in Word preferences.

 

[Gregg2]

That's active in my Word preferences, and I don't have huge file sizes for a small number of pages.

 

[randywombat]

File sizes extraordinary

I switch between Mac and Windows a lot, and I have exactly the same problem with all .docx files saved in Word 2008 for Mac.

Symptoms are:

(1) A 3-page document with no images has a filesize of 23K when saved in 2007 for Windows. The identical document in 2008 for Mac is 489K.

(2) Switching off 'Save preview picture' makes a small difference (it reduces the filesize by about 40-50k) but doesn't eliminate the problem.

(3) If I open the 2008 Mac-created file in 2007 for Windows, and then save the file again, its size shrinks to 23K. But the converse is not true: if I open a 2007 Windows-created file in 2008 for Mac and then save it, the size does _not_ increase; it stays small. In fact, regardless of where I first created a document, if it's _ever_ been saved on Windows in its history, its filesize stays small, even when I save it on Mac. Weird.

Anyone got any advice?

 

[d.baer]

I switch between Mac and Windows a lot, and I have exactly the same problem with all .docx files saved in Word 2008 for Mac.

Symptoms are:

(1) A 3-page document with no images has a filesize of 23K when saved in 2007 for Windows. The identical document in 2008 for Mac is 489K.

(2) Switching off 'Save preview picture' makes a small difference (it reduces the filesize by about 40-50k) but doesn't eliminate the problem.

(3) If I open the 2008 Mac-created file in 2007 for Windows, and then save the file again, its size shrinks to 23K. But the converse is not true: if I open a 2007 Windows-created file in 2008 for Mac and then save it, the size does _not_ increase; it stays small. In fact, regardless of where I first created a document, if it's _ever_ been saved on Windows in its history, its filesize stays small, even when I save it on Mac. Weird.

Anyone got any advice?

I have the exact same symptoms- has anyone found a solution?

 

[bkap16]

I have the exact same symptoms- has anyone found a solution?

I don't have this problem, but I'm pretty interested in finding out what's going on. Try this: rename the file to .zip instead of docx, then extract it. Dig through there and try and find what's taking up most of the space. Take note of anything that's not an XML file (there's the word/_rels folder, but the .res files in there are still really XML files) or anything taking up a bunch of space.

 

[d.baer]

I don't have this problem, but I'm pretty interested in finding out what's going on. Try this: rename the file to .zip instead of docx, then extract it. Dig through there and try and find what's taking up most of the space. Take note of anything that's not an XML file (there's the word/_rels folder, but the .res files in there are still really XML files) or anything taking up a bunch of space.

I created a file with about two pages of text in .doc it was 33k and in .docx it was 47k. (the difference is usually larger). I changed .docx to .zip and found a 40k jpeg preview picture. I changed the setting in word preferences "save a preview picture" and the .docx file size is now LOWER than .doc!!

To the above who said this didnt solve your problem- open up the docx file and see what's in there.

I have no idea what that preview picture is even used for...after i turned it off i still get preview pictures in finder.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[d.baer]

I also looked into the issue where .docx go to normal size after opening in word 2007. I extracted a file this happened to and noticed that word 2007 removed the jpeg preview picture.

 

[roadbloc]

123KB =/= Big

 

[d.baer]

123KB =/= Big

No, but it is compared to the word 2007 file size, which was much less.