File Sizes for Documents with Graphics

WordTips reader John Greenstreet recently wrote concerning problems he was having in converting files from Word 95 to Word 97/2000 format. His files, which contained a link to a graphic, would grow tremendously in size when created in Word 95, opened in Word 97, and then saved in Word 97 format. This growth was apparent regardless of whether an actual Word 95 document was being opened and resaved, or whether a document was being created based on a Word 95 template.

To test how this works, I conducted an experiment. I created the exact same document in each version of Word. It contained seven characters and a link to a large (1,414,046 bytes) graphic file in the BMP format. Remember that this was only a link, and the picture was not saved with the document. This was done to minimize the size of the resulting document. The native files, in each version, had the following sizes:

These are reasonable sizes for the files, and can be easily handled. Problems arose, however, when files from earlier versions were loaded into a later version of Word and then saved in the newer version's file format. The results were as follows:

Notice that the Word 6 and Word 95 files grew tremendously when saved in Word 97 and Word 2000. The Word 97 file didn't grow at all when saved in Word 2000. At first guess, it may seem that somehow Word 97 and 2000 are saving the actual graphic with the file, but this can't be, since the larger file sizes are still half the size of the original BMP graphic.

Fortunately there is a way around this problem. All you need to do is update the links in files you originally created in Word 6 or Word 95. These are the detailed steps:

1. Load the Word 6 or Word 95 file in Word 97 or Word 2000. (The file can be either a document or a template, as desired.)
2. Choose the Links option from the Edit menu. This displays the Links dialog box.
3. Make sure all the links are selected, if there are more than one.
4. Click on the Update Now button and wait for Word to update the links. (It may take a while.)
5. Click on OK to close the dialog box.
6. Use Save As to save your file under a new name.

When this process was followed with the engorged files reported earlier in the tip, the resulting files were only 23,552 bytes each, regardless of whether Word 97 or Word 2000 was being used.