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Business Plans: 8 Ways To Stop Word Crashing
Important Biz Documents
I write all my
business plans, case studies and
marketing plans in Microsoft Word. Everything! When I worked in
technical writing, I wrote very long user guides and
technical specifications in Word, some
which were more than 200 pages long. So, how do you write large reports
in Microsoft Word that don¡¯t crash?
How to Write Long Business Plan in Microsoft
Word
The biggest problems when writing long documents
in Word, such as Annual Reports, tend to involve formatting, styles,
graphics, tables, and bullets.

In Word 2007, click Microsoft Office
button, Word Options and Save Tab.
Here¡¯s how to make sure your Word documents
don¡¯t crash.
- Formatting ¡ª don¡¯t cut and
paste material directly from one file into another. This
brings in unwanted Styles in the
target Word file.
Instead convert it to plain text and then import it. Apply the
correct styles in the source document, for example, your Business
Plan.
- Styles ¡ª create specific
styles and avoid over-riding the default settings.
Avoid using the default settings in the
Normal.com template file.
Instead spend a few hours and develop a bullet proof Microsoft
Word template. Then use this for all your business writing.
While this takes time up front, it saves more time in the long run.
- Graphics ¨C don¡¯t cut/paste
graphics into Word. Instead, either reference the images with
Insert, Picture and then Reference OR add the images to a new folder
and add them from there.
The problem with pasting in images is that if the Microsoft
Word document is at capacity ¨C and you paste the image ¨C it may
crash and destroy the formatting, text, and image locations. Insert
graphics after the core content has been written!
- Tables ¡ª don¡¯t use the
default Word auto-format settings. Instead create new Tables and add
these to your business template. Keep the design simple and make
sure it prints out cleanly. Avoid using striped tables. These
degrade when you print and also can look very different when saved
to PDF.
- Bullets ¡ª use styles to
create bullets, numbered and other types of lists. Avoid using the
toolbar and menu options to create bullets and try to avoid
over-rides.
Bullet lists will cause more damage than any other feature in
Word, especially if you cut/paste from different documents. See
Bullet Lists Do's and Dont's.
- Default Setting in Word ¨C
Turn off Allow Fast Save and Save Auto Recover.
In Word 2003, go to Tools, Options, Save, Allow Fast Save.
In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office button, then Word Options
and the Save Tab.
- Language ¨C Make sure this
is set to the correct language setting. Why? If you try to insert
characters from other languages you may create a conflict in the
Normal.dot file.
Also, if your language settings are in, for example, French and you
do a Spellcheck, it won¡¯t find the spelling error you expected.
- Other good habits ¨C don¡¯t
leave the file open when you leave the desk. Instead, close it when
you go for a break.
If you leave the file open all day ¨C and keep making saves ¨C
Microsoft Word will keep making TEMP files in the background
that incrementally increase the file size.
Those are a few ways to reduce the file size of
your business and technical documents.
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