How to Reduce Microsoft Word File Size
Introduction
As a content writer, the file size may become an issue when you are uploading your MS Word files to a cloud storage account or attaching it to an email. File sizes in general can quickly become overwhelming if they are too large. For example, a 4 MB PowerPoint presentation will take roughly two minutes to upload a 1 MB PDF file.
Here are some easy methods to reduce the file size of your MS Word document.
Reduce File Size by Changing the Save-As Format
You can easily reduce the file size by changing the format in which you save your MS Word document.
Here are some examples.
Original .DOCX file size (screenshot below): 350 KB
Saved as a Word Template (.DOTX): 350 KB (No change)
Saved as HTML: 49 KB (86 % reduction)
Saved as Word97-2003 (.DOC): 364 KB (4 % increase!)
Saved as PDF: 205 KB (41% reduction)
Saved as Plain Text (.TXT): 3 KB (99% reduction but you lose all formatting and the image)
Reduce File Size by Compressing Images
The best way to reduce the size of your MS Word document is to use images instead of high-resolution screenshots. Images also reduce the size of your MS Word document while providing additional illustrations. Additionally, you should optimize the images for compatibility with PowerPoint and Keynote presentations by reducing their resolution and saving them in JPEG format.
The original size of the below image is 75 KB.
Go to https://imagecompressor.com/ or any other image compression software site.
Upload your image.
It automatically shrinks the image size by 6%:
Other Simple Steps for Reducing MS Word File Sizes
REMEMBER: Less formatting means smaller file size. Every time you embellish and add fancy formatting to a header, text, or image, you will increase the file size of your MS Word document.
Here are some selected suggestions to reduce file size:
- Remove images from your document.
- Use tables instead of graphics for displaying data.
- Convert it to a PDF file.
- Delete unnecessary formatting styles, images, comments, or track changes.
- Replace embedded links with hyperlinks in your document.
Conclusion
Compress your MS Word images and try different saving formats to reduce your file size. Such tactics reduce the size of the document by removing spaces, tabs, line feeds, and other formatting elements and replacing the bloated images with ones that look the same but are smaller in size.
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