Re: Word 2007 produces very large Word 2003 compatible files

The setting varies depending on your operating system. If using Vista then the "Preview Picture" option is application specific. If you turn it on the default for all new documents will also save a preview picture (thumbnail). If using Windows XP then it's still a document only setting.

Very interesting. So, Word deliberately checks the OS and performs different actions depending on it - even though those actions could both work on all systems. Do you know: why the change, and why only on Vista? And is there anything else like it?

Also, documents saved in the new file format (.docx) shouldn't encounter the file bloat issues as found in the binary file format. I say "should" because so far in all of my tests it hasn't. Mainly this is because the thumbnail is saved as a small graphic in the ZIP package instead of the (usually) large embedded image (sometimes 2 images depending on the image file type) saved in the old file format.

Also interesting. By and large, 2007 format documents are large compared to 97-2003 format ones but they're kept small by being zipped. In this example, the 220K doc will zip to 50K or so but the 2007 format gains its advantage by being small to start with because of the small metafile compared to the 'clipboard format' bitmap of yore.

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Enjoy,
Tony

www.WordArticles.com

"Beth Melton" <bmelton@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eJpt7HbdJHA.1704@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Tony Jollans" <My forename at my surname dot com> wrote in message news:OMTxo$WdJHA.3792@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you for the files.

The reason for the increase in size is that the big file contains a Preview (Thumbnail) Picture.

I can't say I know much about this, but in 2007, the setting is held in the registry as a common Office setting, although it appears to be a collection of bit flags, one per application. The effect of it seems to be to set the "save preview picture" option on the documents you save, and this setting then travels with those documents, which seem to grow like Topsy.

The setting varies depending on your operating system. If using Vista then the "Preview Picture" option is application specific. If you turn it on the default for all new documents will also save a preview picture (thumbnail). If using Windows XP then it's still a document only setting.

Also, documents saved in the new file format (.docx) shouldn't encounter the file bloat issues as found in the binary file format. I say "should" because so far in all of my tests it hasn't. Mainly this is because the thumbnail is saved as a small graphic in the ZIP package instead of the (usually) large embedded image (sometimes 2 images depending on the image file type) saved in the old file format.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx



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