Problem statement: I am facing a peculiar problem - the size of my word document increases dramatically every time I open the document and close it  after saving it - even though nothing has been added content wise. I have checked for virus - all my files are clean. I am able to reduce file size by a small percent if I do a "save as" and rename the document. But I face the  problem once I re-open my files and do a save. I am using Ms-Word (Office 2000.) This problem was also present when I was on Office 97. Has anyone faced a similar problem? Is there any permanent solution?

Possible Solution: I have faced such situations many times. Here are some observations.

  • When you delete some thing, it is not accessible to you, but the content is still present in the file. For example, you had a document of 30 pages and you deleted 10. These pages will not be seen when you open the document, but they will still be  stored as a part of the file.
  • When you do "Save As" it removes such deleted matter from the new files saved.  Hence the file size reduces.
  • If you do "Select All" and "Paste All", all the matter will be copied, but setting such as Page Size, Margins (and so on) may not be copied. So I prefer to use the "Save As" technique.
  • If you are using any graphics like Bitmaps, AutoShapes, Call Outs, Clip Arts, Banners, Flow Charts it will definitely have a bigger file size. The changes made to such  elements also result in considerable increase in file size. If you make simple text  changes, the increase is not much.
  • Try to do "Save As" more than once and see if there is a difference. I generally save the file - say file.doc as file1.doc and then again as file.doc. This helps me to  keep the number of "Save As" files to minimum and I can easily track them.
  • I have not yet used Word 2000, so I am unable to comment on it.
  • Check if you are saving many "Versions" of the document in the same file. This increases file size. Here is you delete the old versions and use "Save As" technique,  the file size will be considerably reduced.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Mak