Compacting a Very Large Word Document?

[SilentAiche]

Hi All,

I'm using Word 2002 on Win XP.

I have a 14-page Word document that is saved as a Form. It contains hundreds of checkboxes and text fields, each of which has a bookmark name. The document has 13 tables, none of which is very big, and about half of which have formulas to total columns. Finally, it has a macro that causes the Enter keys to behave like the Tab key and move to the next field (got that from Fumei a while back). So, why am I giving you all these details... because

This Form is nearly 500 Kb when EMPTY! Is there any way to reduce the file size (similar, I suppose, to compacting an Access database)? By comparison, the Word doc containing the instructions for using the form is 29 pages of just text and is 185 Kb.

A search of the forum found a similar question from a few years ago, but no solution.

All ideas welcome and appreciated.

Tim

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[fumei]

Hi.

Hundreds of checkboxes and text fields???? Hmmmmm.

OK I just did a test. I made a 15 page document with hundreds of formfields - checkboxes and text fields. It was 1.9 Mb.

I then wrote a Sub that:

1. searched the document for text formfields (ignoring Checkboxes)

2. selected the text formfield, then collapse to the Start

3. picked up the name of text FormField.

4. deleted the text formfield

5. inserted a bookmark with the same name

The new file size is 715 Kb. So it dropped the file size by more than 50%.

Why did I do this? At this scale (hundreds of formfields), there is likely a need for a redesign of the form. Some suggestions. Of course I do not really know you requirements, so some of these may not be useful. However, you can think about it.

1. Are all the text formfields needed? Or are they only applicable if a checkbox is checked? If so:
removed text formfields
replace as bookmarks
make OnExit macros for checkboxes
if checked, run an Inputbox asking for text
take Inputbox text and insert into bookmarks

2. perhaps a UserForm? Using Multipages, you can get a LOT of input from the users.

3. is there a possibility of deriving information that can be placed into the document using some sort of conditional logic?

Gerry

 

[SilentAiche]

Gerry,

There is no easy way to replace the formfields. This electronic form is essentially a copy of the manual form it is to replace. Based on the instructions I was given, there was not a lot of wiggle room for "thinking outside the box" and redesigning the entire concept.

Are all the boxes necessary? Depends on your definition, I suppose. In many, many instances, there are a series of questions followed by three columns of checkboxes: Yes, No and N/A. Two out of three boxes will be left unchecked for any given question, which seems wasteful.

In my situation there is not a widespread opportunity to replace text fields with bookmarks. Almost all of the text fields are for entering comments or numeric values and (to answer your question) they are not dependent on a checkbox being checked.

The conditional logic idea won't work here either. The form is essentially a review tool used when we audit institutions administering our program. We record names, addresses and such, a number of event dates, the aforementioned Yes/No/NA questions, findings and suggestions (comments), and some numeric quantities that are used further in calculations of totals or percentages.

I did replace a number of formfields with fields once I realzied from your post that you could place the same kind of formulas in a field. It the reduced the file size to closer to 475 Kb, but it's still mighty big.

Also, in some of my later testing, as I would Tab out of a field I would get a message warning that MS Word was out of memory and if I continued I could not undo. I clicked OK and proceeded without apparent ill effect (I didn't try using the undo/redo buttons, which the caution might have been about - but I could still Shift-Tab back to the field and change the entry).

I'm nearly ready for full-burden testing, so you may hear from me again (this same project is what led me to TT - but the people who gave me the task of creating this electronic form are the same ones who keep giving me other #*&$ to do so I can't finish it).

As always, I really appreciate your help.

Tim

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[fumei]

Why not replace the THREE checkboxes (Yes, No, N/A) with ONE dropdown (Yes, No, N/A)?

Gerry

 

[SilentAiche]

The powers that be wanted the electronic version to be visually identical to the manual form - they insist this will reduce retraining time (and they seem to not have much faith in the staff being able to learn anything tech-related).

Having said that, would the dropdown significantly reduce the file size (I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a dumb question, as in, Yes dummy, you're trading in THREE boxes for ONE). On the other hand, the dropdown seems a bit more complex of a being, so...

Perhaps down the road I can convince them it doesn't have to look like the old form... and then I'll probably use dropdown boxes.

Thanks,
Tim

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[fumei]

Hi Tim,

Alas I do know the powers that be, or a version there of. What can I say? Frankly, I am positive your form could be redesigned to function more easily, but....sigh. Good luck.

Gerry

 

[SilentAiche]

Gerry,

Thanks again for all your help. This is the strangest program I've ever been involved with- it seems to need "nutritionists" who know accounting AND accountants who know "nutrition." A very strange combination. Hmmm - I suspect the government is involved...

Thanks again,
Tim






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[eman6]

Sorry to intrude here, gentlemen.
A little question: In the save options, there is a checkbox called "Save data only for forms".
It saves the data as a tab delimited text only file format.
Could that option not be useful?
Honestly, I don't know how you can get the results back when you open the document again, but if this is not done somehow automatically by word, a macro could do it, I would guess.
What do you think?

Eman_2005
Technical Communicator

http://www.smartistek.com