How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size
This wikiHow teaches you how to reduce the file size of a Microsoft Word document. If your Word file is too big, it's often because the images in your document weren't inserted properly or aren't compressed enough. You can reduce the size...
Method 1 of 5:
Inserting Images Properly
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Picture 1 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Insert. It's a tab in the menu bar at the top of the screen. This will reveal a new set of options at the top of the page.- It's better to use the "Insert" option to add images to a Word document instead of using Copy & Paste. When you copy and paste an image you lose compression, change the file type, and bring in extra data that can increase the file size.[1]
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Picture 2 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size ClickPicture 3 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size - On Mac, this opens a small drop-down menu. Select Picture from File... in the menu.
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Picture 4 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Select the image you want to insert. Use the file browser window to navigate to the location of an image and click the image file to select it. -
Picture 5 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Insert. It's the button on the bottom-right corner of the file browser window. This will insert the image into the Word document in a format that works best with Word documents, without copying any unnecessary extra data.
Method 2 of 5:
Compressing Images
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Picture 6 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Select an image in your Word document. Click on any image on the page of your Word document to select it. This will open the "Format" menu in the blue menu bar at the top.- On Mac this tab is labeled "Picture Format" at the top of Word.
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Picture 7 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size ClickPicture 8 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size - On older versions of Word, click Format at the top and select Compress Image from the drop-down menu.
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Picture 9 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Select which pictures you want to compress. If you want to apply compression to all the pictures in the document, select "All pictures in this file" unchecked. If you only want to compress only the image you selected, Select "Selected pictures only".- If you've cropped any images in Word you can also check the box for "Delete cropped areas of pictures" which will delete the cropped areas permanently. This will reduce the file size, but you'll no longer be able to adjust the cropping.
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Picture 10 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Select a resolution. Click the radio button for the level of compression you want to use, ranging from HF (Maximum image size), (HD 330 PPI) to Email (96 PPI). The lower the PPI, the more you will lower the file size of your Word document which will also decrease the image quality of the picture as well.- Some options may be unavailable if the images in your document are already compressed below the higher PPI resolutions.
- Lower PPI resolutions are designed to be viewed on a computer screen. The image may look fuzzy in print format.
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Picture 11 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Ok. It's at the bottom of the window. This compresses the images in your document which will reduce the file size of your Word file.[2]
Method 3 of 5:
Deleting Auto-Recovery Versions
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Picture 12 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click File. It's the first option in the top-left of the blue menu bar at the top of Word. -
Picture 13 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Info. It's the first option at the top of the blue column on the left. -
Picture 14 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Manage DocumentPicture 15 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size -
Picture 16 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Delete All Unsaved DocumentsPicture 17 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size
Method 4 of 5:
Turning Off Thumbnails
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Picture 18 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click File. It's the first option in the top-left of the blue menu bar at the top of Word. -
Picture 19 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Info. It's the first option at the top of the blue column on the left. -
Picture 20 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click PropertiesPicture 21 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size -
Picture 22 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Advanced Properties. It's the only option that appears next to the icon of a small bullet-point list. This will display the Properties window for your document. -
Picture 23 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click the Summary tab. It's the second tab at the top of the window. -
Picture 24 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Uncheck the boxPicture 25 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size -
Picture 26 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click OK. This will save the changes to your document.
Method 5 of 5:
Turning Off Embedded Fonts
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Picture 27 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click File. It's the first option in the top-left of the blue menu bar at the top of Word. -
Picture 28 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Options. It's the last option at the bottom of the blue column on the left. This will open the main settings for Microsoft Word. -
Picture 29 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click the Save tab on the left. Click the "Save" tab on the left-side column to open all the settings to customize how Word saves your documents in the pane on the right. -
Picture 30 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Uncheck the boxPicture 31 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size -
Picture 32 of How to Reduce a Microsoft Word File Size Click Ok. It's at the bottom of the Save menu. This will save your changes in Microsoft Word.- When this option is disabled, use only the standard common fonts in your Word document so other users will not have problems viewing your document correctly.
Update 05 March 2020
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