Word Ghosting
CGj...@officeformac.com
When the user modifies the document (they may customize a headline, contact information and/or add logo) and then saves the changes, the document size jumps up to 6 MB and a logo has not even been added at this point. I was told that this is called "Word Ghosting" and that I need to avoid it...obviously, if I new what it was I would've avoided it. Can anybody clue me in? Help is very much appreciated.
CyberTaz
whether it applies. What I can tell you is that the file bloat is directly
attributable to resaving the file from one format ot another & back again.
The former binary file format (.doc) & the current OXML format (.docx) are
not different in name only. The structures are totally distinct from one
another. Word 2007/2008 provide a number of recognizably new features which
are supported only by the OXML format as well as a number of other features
which -- on the surface -- appear to be the same as in 2004 & prior but are
handled differently "under the hood." When a file is saved back to the old
format it has to generate content compatible with that format for use in the
older versions as well as retain the element data for reopening the file in
the newer versions... Essentially it's being forced to create a 'file within
a file' & that's what causes the escalation in size.
For example, if I create a new document in Word 2008 with no content other
than a properly inserted 1.5MB JPEG image the document's file size is 1.6MB
on disk. If I then take the same file & Save As in .doc the resulting file
is 4.7MB on disk.
I'm not sure why you're saving in the 97-2004 format, but that's most likely
what's causing the lion's share of the bloat.
HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
On 5/6/10 10:55 AM, in article 59bb8...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
John McGhie
but the terms we're more familiar with are "file bloat" or "stranded RTF".
The actual cause is quite complex, and can be affected very much by how you
handle the document.
Generally there are two things happening: images are being duplicated, and
the internal structure is being converted to RTF.
When you insert an image into a Word document, Word stores the entire
picture file. It then makes a lower-resolution copy in its native format
for display.
If you then move that document cross-platform, Word will convert the image
into a different format, and store another display version. By this time,
the picture store in the document will be twice the size, even if nothing
else happens.
When you convert a file from .docx to .doc, you are converting a compressed
XML format to an uncompressed binary format. The .docx format is plain text
internally, and compresses by 70% on save. The binary is similar to RTF:
not only is it a rather verbose format, but it doesn't compress very well.
Even if a document contains nothing but text, you should expect the old .doc
format to be four times the size of a .docx containing the same text.
The only practical way to avoid this is "Don't work cross-platform; or if
you do, don't convert to a different format."
In a small well-trained workgroup that is all on the same network (no
laptops...) you can use external pictures. You can avoid embedding the
picture file in the document, instead adding only a link to the document and
allowing the original picture file to remain outside the document. This
works well and creates extremely small documents: but it blows up as soon as
someone emails the document somewhere.
Sorry: no good answers: tell the IT department to buy some more disk space.
Hope this helps
On 7/05/10 12:55 AM, in article 59bb8...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"CGj...@officeformac.com" <CGj...@officeformac.com> wrote:
--
The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:jo...@mcghie.name