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: DONT 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.
TIP: This 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 well 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.
I hoped you enjoyed these articles on fixing Word. What's been
your experience using Word?
Want more tips? Try
IvanWalsh.com. |