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Subject:Re: Visio and File Size... From:"Richard G. Combs" <richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 4 Nov 2002 12:14:30 -0700
Dan Goldstein wrote:
> I've been using Word for years, but only recently started using Visio. My
> new company uses Visio objects extensively within Word documents. I found
> that when I created an 81K Visio file and inserted it as an object into a
> Word document, the Word file grew by about 400K. I tried saving the Visio
> file (within Visio) as a PNG file, and when I inserted the PNG as a
> picture into the same Word document, the Word file grew only by the size
> of the PNG file. This was true whether I saved the Visio file as a 300 DPI
> PNG or a 72 DPI PNG.
>
> And the moral of the story is... Microsoft products don't do so well with
> Microsoft products?
In the Windows environment, when you insert something from one application
into a file from another application as an "object," you're using "Object
Linking and Embedding," or OLE.
OLE provides the magical ability to open or edit the "object" in place in
its container. For instance, in your Word document, you can double-click the
Visio drawing and edit it with Visio. The drawback, as you've discovered, is
that there's a lot of overhead behind the scenes to make this work.
It's not specific to MS products (just to the Windows OS). The same thing
happens if you import a Visio object into FrameMaker or an Illustrator
object into WordPerfect.
If the overhead is a problem, don't use OLE. Export your Visio drawing in a
format that you can import into Word using Insert>Picture instead of
Insert>Object. The drawback is, if you change the Visio drawing, you have to
re-export it. The advantage is your Word doc is much smaller. And many
people argue that using OLE increases the risk of file corruption or
instability.
HTH!
Richard
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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
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