William

In the past, I have worked with files over 100Mb and things were kind of slow. If your file size is 1.5Gb then I would expect Word to move at snails pace.

It is possible to work with separate docs but I would keep it combined if you are the only author and you keep plenty of backup copies.

I think your major problem is the size of the graphics. You have two choices to resolve that issue.
1. You can link the graphics instead of embedding them so the Word file itself doesn't need to contain the graphic itself.
2. There is no valid reason for the graphics to be that large. What format are the big ones in and what resolution are they saved in? If they are photos, 200dpi is the maximum resolution that should be needed, anything beyond that is wasted space.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia