Microsoft Word problem - my save files get bigger and bigger

Factual Questions
1

I’m writing a new novel, and using Microsoft Word 97 (on Win98) and I’m starting to get quite frustrated with this problem.

For some reason, whenever I spend a lot of time editing a chapter, the save file begins to get HUGE. I could type 20 pages with no edits and only increase the file by 50kb, but after an afternoon of changing this, that, and the other thing, without adding any new content, the file size swells like Monica Lewinsky in a donut factory. It got up to 1.5mb at one point, and that was on page ten!!!

About the only workaround I’ve found is opening a brand new document and C&P’ing the whole text over (which dropped the 1.5mb file down to 135kb or so.)

I’ve never had this problem with other documents, including ones I edit all the time, and are much longer. Any help?

2

Word stores the undo/redo stuff and it swells the doc size.

Turn off “Fast Saves” in Tools/Options.

Save it with a new file name.

3

MS Word saves a lot of extra information in its files (undo info, for example). I avoid the creeping file size by doing a “Save as…” and over-writing the same file. That’s probably easier than the copy and paste you’re doing.

4

Try doing a “Save As”, saving it to the same file name. I think Word will simply tack changes onto the back end of a file, making the save very quick. But if you do a Save As, it will force the full file to be re-written. HTH

5

Try doing a “Save As”, saving it to the same file name. I think Word will simply tack changes onto the back end of a file, making the save very quick. But if you do a Save As, it will force the full file to be re-written. HTH

6

Word saves a lot of “undo” garbage in its files.

Best method I’ve found is to save as RTF (Rich Text Format), close, reopen and resave as DOC. The RTF format doesn’t take the grabage with it, but be aware that you might lose some of the more fancier DOC-specific formating etc this way too. Keep a backup in case. I’ve seen files drop to as little as a 10th of their previous size this way.

Worth noting that the garbage that ends up in the DOC files can be quite persistant. So if you’re using an existing file to recreate, say, an invoice or a quote or some other sensitive letter, then emailing the DOC out, you could very possibly be emailing someone the previous contents of the letter too that you thought were long gone. If they know what they’re doing that person could easily be reading someone else’s correspondance. Always better to email RTFs only.

7

Some of this was covered recently by Woody’s Office Watch. See the section titled 2. TOP TIP: HIDDEN CHANGE LOG IN YOUR DOCUMENTS for more on Word’s autosave features.