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Old 11-29-2017, 06:05 AM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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Question Opening Large Files

I am working with Word 2011 for Mac and am having difficulty opening a large file.

I am creating a book that is large because of images. When it was all compiled, it was 700 MB! Word would not open it because of the size - the msg kept coming up that it was larger than 30 MB. According to all research I was able to find, that size figure relates to text only.

The next step I went through was creating 2 files and then merging them. Same thing - file was too large to open.

The files are:
  1. 854 KB file of tables and columns of text. The file opens and saves perfectly with no problems.
  2. 272.5 MB file that is nothing but images with maybe 75 words as titles in the entire file. The file opens and saves perfectly.
Both files are formatted exactly the same. I then merged the files and the resulting file was 685 MB! Not only can I not figure out why the file is so large but it will not open.

Anybody have any suggestions? I've tried to open the files in other programs (Open Office, Libre) but because of the formatting (columns, tables, and images), they always get distorted or do not display properly.
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  #2  
Old 11-29-2017, 01:53 PM
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The maximum file size Word can open is 512Mb, with a text limit of 32Mb.

I can't explain why merging your two files would take the combined capacity from 273Mb to 685Mb (approaching three times the size) - that's just weird! The only thing I can think of that would contribute to a disproportionate increase in file size is using 'Track Changes' but even that shouldn't have much effect in this case. Adding your file 1 to file 2 might also produce different results from adding file 2 to file 1; it shouldn't, but you never know...

That said, you should consider allowing Word to compress your pictures or, if that's not suitable, re-examine them to see which ones can be scaled down. For print purposes, you're unlikely ever to need an image to have a resolution of more than 300dpi/ppi in the document (especially for photos). Thus, if a photo is scaled to, say, 6in*4in in the document, the copy you insert from disk really doesn't need to have more than 1800*1200 pixels.
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Old 11-29-2017, 04:40 PM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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Thank you Macropod - I reduced the size of file 2 and it went down to 84.5 MB! Its weird because the images were only at 300 dpi to begin with. Now they are at 200 so we'll see if they pass for printing. They are just black and white images of tables so hopefully they will be clear enough.
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Old 11-29-2017, 04:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah123 View Post
the images were only at 300 dpi to begin with. Now they are at 200 so we'll see if they pass for printing. They are just black and white images of tables so hopefully they will be clear enough.
It's not the image resolution outside Word that matters, but what it becomes once the image has been resized in Word. FWIW, a reduction from 300dpi to 200dpi reduces the pixel count to 44.44% of the original, a 55.56% reduction.
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Old 11-29-2017, 05:18 PM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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The images are all about 6.5" x 6" and are reduced down to 2.5" x 3". Their original dpi was 300 because they are going in a book for printing. The individual image file sizes are between 3 and 4 MB. They are inserted into the downsized shapes in the word file - I have just sampled one of the images and saved it as a picture and the resolution has gone down to 150.

This is the only way I have figured out how to have any consistency with the sizes without great manual effort. Ideally the best resolution for printing is 300 dpi but I haven't figured out how to get word to produce that quality of a file in a reasonable size. I can't seem to find that information anywhere.
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Old 11-29-2017, 05:28 PM
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If you reduce a 300dpi image's size by 50% (e.g. from 6.5" x 6" to 3.25" x 3"), you increase its dpi to 600.

One way of inserting lots of hi-res images without dramatically increasing the file size is to insert them as links. That way, only the link need be stored in the document. The downside is that the links are liable to no work if you move the document to another computer (especially if you don't move the images, too).

The highest resolution Word's compression options allow is 220dpi, which may be unsuitable in some contexts.
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Old 11-29-2017, 07:41 PM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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I've just been playing a bit with that and I don't seem tobe able to get it to work. The final output needs to be a PDF.

First I inserted the shape and then linked the file to the shape but all that happens is the link showing up when I hover over the shape. The image doesn't show up at all and since this is print book, the image should show up.

Any other suggestions?
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Old 11-29-2017, 09:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah123 View Post
First I inserted the shape and then linked the file to the shape
That isn't how you insert a shape as a link; all you've done is to insert a shape plus a hyperlink to the copy on disk. On a PC, at least, you need to choose the 'link to file' option when inserting the picture.
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Old 11-29-2017, 10:39 PM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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Thanks Paul but it still embeds the image. I even searched online for more clues and they say the same thing.

Steps:

Insert -- picture from file
Check link to file
Uncheck include with doc
Insert

I even saved it and opened it back up and it is still embedded.

This is in a new document with no formatting. It is Word version 14.7.2. I don't know where else to look. Word 2011 has some strange glitches in it that MS has never worked out. I guess this is one of them.

Any other suggestions?
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Old 11-29-2017, 10:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah123 View Post
Thanks Paul but it still embeds the image.
I'm not sure what you mean by that. If you mean you can still see the image, that's only to be expected. What should happen (assuming you deleted the original image) is that your document's saved size should decrease.
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  #11  
Old 11-29-2017, 11:01 PM
Deborah123 Deborah123 is offline Opening Large Files Mac OS X Opening Large Files Office 2011 for Mac
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WOW - thanks! I just went into a copy of the 272.5 MB file and cut 3 images and reinserted them that way. They did show up onscreen but the saved file was over 15 MB smaller. There are 50 images in this file so I'll just create a new one.....

Thanks so much for your help. I always seem to want to have Word do these types of things and the information is not always readily available.
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