I just created an MS Word 2000 file that has 12 Visio objects embedded as links to the Visio files. The Visio files are 155K each but the Word file is weighing in at nearly 25M!
Why does it do this? Is Word trying to store not only a link to the file, but a bitmap representation of the graphic? Is there a workaround to get the Word file size down?
I believe “embedded as links” is a contradiction in terms. If it is “embedded” then the file is in the Word document. If it is linked, then it is not embedded. At least that’s how I understand the terms.
Assuming your objects are embedded, they have probably been converted to BMP. Can you first convert to JPG, GIF, or other format and see if it works better?
Another thing to take into account is that WORD likes to keep track of changes so if you change graphics around the file will grow exponentially. Once you have the file as you like it you can select all (ctrl-A), copy and paste to a blank, new, document. That will get rid of all the history of changes.
I inserted the pictures by Insert, Object, Create from file, and checking Link to File. I thought that would just put it some kind of lightweight reference to the file without embedding any actual graphics. This linking appears to be working because if I update the Visio file independently, the next time I open the Word file the update is evident.
Your best bet would be to open the Word file on a computer that doesn’t have the Visio files and see if Word has embedded them or just linked them. From the way it sounds, Word has done both, which is something it likes to do (e.g. it checks for the linked file each time the document is opened and if the linked file has changed it updates, if not or if the liked file is missing it opens with the embedded image). At least that’s how I understand Word to work. IANAWE (word expert)
Watcha got there is a Word file with embedded images. The .vsd files are converted to .wmf format by Word automagically when you embed them. Viso .vsd files are vector files, while .wmf is Microsoft’s Windows Metafile format - a raster format. In over-simplified terms, the Visio file stores shapes and positions, the Word file stores pixel colors. This means that almost every time you embed a Visio image in a Word file, the representation in Word is larger.
The link, contrary to your expectations, actually adds slightly to the file size (it now has to store the image plus a pointer). The link is a tool to update the embedded image when you change the original Visio file. When you open a Word file with linked images, it checks the linked files and re-imports them if they have been altered.
It is not a tool to reduce file sizes.
If you want a smaller file, there aren’t many options I’ve seen that will preserve the detail and crispness of your original Visio drawing. Sorry I couldn’t help more.
Last time I used wmf files, they were primarily vector format. You could embed a raster image into one, but they were primarily composed of a whole bunch of vertices connected by line segments. None of the clip-art images used any rastering at all. And it should be relatively efficient to convert one vector format to another.
Admittedly, this was about seven or eight years ago, and Microsoft seems to enjoy re-scrambling their file formats periodically, so this may no longer be the case.
Chronos may be correct, inasmuch as my statement that .wmf is a raster format is based on infromation from MS. Consider the source and all that.
In every test I’ve done, however, .vsd produces a smaller file than .wmf.