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Re: Do you think I am asking for trouble? Was RE: Real World Advantages of Office / Word 2007 and Windows 7
Subject:Re: Do you think I am asking for trouble? Was RE: Real World Advantages of Office / Word 2007 and Windows 7 From:Margaret Cekis <margaret -dot- cekis -at- comcast -dot- net> To:Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com> Date:Wed, 9 May 2012 14:43:32 +0000 (UTC)
Kat Kuvinka asked about problems producing a large Word document on a 2GB XP system.
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Kat:
I think you can do it if you watch for any bloating tendencies. My advice:
1. Start with a clean template, and periodically go into the Styles and delete any ad hoc styles Word tends to create for you.
2. Create character styles for any special effects like bold or italics you may need, and use no other local formatting.
3. For safety's sake, save the sections as separate files in addition to the combined document file, just in case you have to recreate the document at some point.
4. If there are a lot of screenshots or other images, you can use Snagit to convert a whole directory of image files to another format. I recommend making them all .GIF instead of .PNG if size becomes a problem.
(Since .GIF was the first graphics interface format, every graphics program created since can import, export, and save as in .GIF format, and it is 30-50% smaller than .PNG. I had one monster Word doc wit 160 illustrations that I couldn't convert to .PDF until I changes all the .PNGs to .GIFs. Also, when I had a document --both in Frame and Word-- reject or refuse to print a problem graphic, converting it to .GIF made it work. But I digress.)
5. Double-check all your section breaks (by using Normal View). I always make sure each one is on its own line, and in no danger of being accidentally pulled into another paragraph or deleted, especially when you are preparing to add a new section.
6. When adding new sections, prepare by making sure that there are section breaks and page breaks before and after a blank page where you will insert content from somewhere else. You want to isolate it from the rest of the document so it won't affect the rest of the document.
7. Also limit how many other applications you have open while you are working on the monster document.
Good luck.
Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA
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