How to compress and reduce the size of a Word document

There is no need to reiterate just how important Microsoft Word is. Word documents come into use almost everywhere and thus, we must make sure they are applicable at all times. One problem people may run into with Word documents is their file size; it may be too big sometimes. Although it’s not an issue people face very frequently, it helps to know what you should do if you ever want to reduce the size of your Word document. So, in this article, we will discuss all measures you can implement to reduce the file size of your Word document.

How to reduce the file size of a Word document?

  1. Compress images in the document
  2. Don’t embed fonts
  3. Save it as a .docx file
  4. Don’t store a thumbnail for your document

1] Compress images in the document

There is only so much drive space that words on a document may be eating up, it is the pictures that you’ve uploaded in your document which eat up the space. A method to remediate that is to compress these images. Here’s how media items can be compressed in MS Word:

Another tactic that may just come into play here is inserting pictures into Word as media objects instead of simply copying and pasting them. It has been observed that the file size is smaller when the former is done.

2] Don’t embed fonts

Embedded fonts can also contribute to larger file sizes, so disabling the option to do so can be helpful. Here’s how you can do that:

compress and reduce the size of a Word document

This should help you greatly with the file size.

3] Save it as a .docx file

Microsoft introduced the .docx format in Word 2007, so if you’re someone who’s still using an older version than that you can try changing your file format, which I’m guessing is .doc to .docx. Go to File and then Info. Here, you’ll see a Convert option. Click on it and click on Ok in the subsequent prompt. The .docx file essentially acts as a .ZIP folder which is able to compress a substantial amount of data in a file of a rather small size.

4] Don’t store a thumbnail for your document

There’s a slight chance this option may be enabled on your system. An alternative way to disable this is from the Save As file manager box where you can make sure that the ‘Save thumbnail’ box isn’t selected.

If none of the aforementioned methods help and you need to reduce the size of your Word file a bit more, you can always compress it. Different compression levels reduce size and impact document quality differently, so it’s recommended that you do it smartly.

What is the maximum size of a Word document created?

The maximum file size for a Microsoft Word document is 512 MB. The maximum text in the file is 32 MB. So if the file contains graphics, the maximum file size can be larger than 32 MB. After you reach the limit, you may experience problems while saving or working with the file. Word really has no maximum page limit – it all depends on the file size.

How to reduce Word files online free?

Some of the most commonly used online tools for Word document compression are SmallPDF and WeCompress. You can also use a free file compression software.

We hope that this post was of help to you!

Updated on July 22, 2024 Tags: Word

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ShiwangiPeswani@TWC

Shiwangi loves to dabble with and write about computers. Creating a System Restore Point first before installing new software, and being careful about any third-party offers while installing freeware is recommended.