[ldoodle]

Specifically with Word, all versions since 2003, we have major issues when working with documents with a couple of hundred pages with lots of embedded graphics, in that it takes ages to 'open' the document (it opens straight away but freezes if you try and do anything). If you wait 40-50 seconds or so it seems to be fine, but then if you try and do a big scroll down, it will do nothing then all of a sudden jump down a million pages at once.

Sometimes it will save, sometimes it will not, saving there is not enough memory of disk space.

Is this something Word just cannot handle and if not what should we be using?

Cheers

[maf1970]

From your post it sounds like you have fallen into the same trap many people do.
Word cannot handle massive documents that are all in 1 file and have heavy formatting and graphics in them.
For this you should be using the Master Document system.

[SUMMONER]

I haven't authored any 100+ page documents since college, but back then I used Wordperfect because Microsoft Word (Office 97 or 2000 if I remember right) didn't cope very well with documents larger than 80+ pages.

WordPerfect Office Suite is available as a free 30day trial here if you want give it a spin.

[ldoodle]

Originally Posted by maf1970

From your post it sounds like you have fallen into the same trap many people do.
Word cannot handle massive documents that are all in 1 file and have heavy formatting and graphics in them.
For this you should be using the Master Document system.

I know a little about the MDS, but the problem is we get these documents from clients so we'd have to rip them apart each time.

And if it's a trap that many people fall into, maybe Microsoft ought to make a ~£400 software package handle it.

[ldoodle]

Originally Posted by SUMMONER

I haven't authored any 100+ page documents since college, but back then I used Wordperfect because Microsoft Word (Office 97 or 2000 if I remember right) didn't cope very well with documents larger than 80+ pages.

WordPerfect Office Suite is available as a free 30day trial here if you want give it a spin.

Thanks but it's for business so Word only I'm afraid.

[Singh400]

In regards to the embedded graphics. Are there a lot of them? And what kind of quality are we taking about. I've seen huge .doc files flying around with nothing but high quality pictures in them. I used to re-save them in a web friendly format, and the end users were never any wiser.

[ldoodle]

Tons. Not sure what quality as they are just grabbed from the web - I'm told all they're doing is using Windows 7's Snipping Tool to capture an image of text from an article on the web. There not actual images per-se.

They are no bigger than maybe 10cm wide by 3cm high though.

As a test I done a Replace All (^g for all graphics) and it found 557 instances.

The difference in file sizes was about 16MB - with images it was 17MB and without it was 1MB. The latter document has absolutely no problems whatsoever so it really is the fact that Word simply cannot handle lots of graphics.

[maf1970]

forgot to ask, do you just use (read) the documents or do you make further changes to them ?

I currently don't know of any software that would make a Master Document for you.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by ldoodle

Tons. Not sure what quality as they are just grabbed from the web - I'm told all they're doing is using Windows 7's Snipping Tool to capture an image of text from an article on the web. There not actual images per-se.

Yikes, they could be bitmaps just dragged into the Word document.

Originally Posted by ldoodle

They are no bigger than maybe 10cm wide by 3cm high though.

As a test I done a Replace All (^g for all graphics) and it found 557 instances.

The difference in file sizes was about 16MB - with images it was 17MB and without it was 1MB. The latter document has absolutely no problems whatsoever so it really is the fact that Word simply cannot handle lots of graphics.

Copy and paste one from Word to Paint, then save it (in JPEG and BMP) see what the file sizes are. Then you'll be able to establish what is causing the issue. For the record it sounds like they've just used the W7 Snipping Tool, saved the temporary screenshot as a BMP into the Word document.

[hyperfish]

Isn't there an option somewhere in Word to compress the images in a document?

I can't check this atm.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by hyperfish

Isn't there an option somewhere in Word to compress the images in a document?

I can't check this atm.

Yes in the Save As... dialog there is a tools options near the Save button. From there you have two relevant options. Web options and Compress pictures.