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An AppleScript to reduce large Word file sizes
Authored by: mmmmark on May 21, '03 06:18:57PM

I'm a tech writer and unfortunately am forced to work in Word (on a PC) all day. I create huge docs and experience this file bloat syndrome daily.

Everyone is correct about leaving off fast saves, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Documents still balloon. Reviewing, commenting, tracking changes--ALL these things are never purged from a document, even when you "Save As". I work on docs that get well over 10 megs, so this is important to know.

The solution mentioned in this thread is ok for simple docs. It does not work well when documents have multiple sections, headers/footers, TOCs, styles, and other complex attributes. I wish MS would offer a way to purge old data much like is done in Access databases. Sigh.



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An AppleScript to reduce large Word file sizes
Authored by: Safar on May 22, '03 03:47:02PM

Have you tried the script on complex document ? I have runed my script on my girl friend thesis, and all went well... but there was a 25% increase in size ! The document had styles, footnotes, page numbers, etc...

Files for which the script is very useful had all photos in them. there was a 9 to 1 compression ratio. I do not know what to conclude from this.

Of course i work with "fast save" off, but i have still experienced the problem nevertheless.
The other point of my script is batch treating a lot of stupid files, eg before sending them by email.
Last but not least, if anything goes wrong, the original will be waiting for you in the trash.



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