HELP - Gigantic File! (2003)

[cshepard]

I received a doc that was created in Word 2003 (about 4 Mb). My office uses Word 2002. When I save it as a Word 97-2003.rft format it's over 34 Mb. Does anybody know what's going on? Now I can't open it in 2002 - it's too big.

[HansV]

Depending on the contents of the document, the .rtf file can be MUCH larger than the .doc, for example if the document contains embedded objects (pictures, for example).
There is no need to use .rtf, for Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 share the same .doc file format. Users with Word 2002 can open documents created in Word 2003 without problems.

[cshepard]

Hans - thanks for the reply. I can not open this doc in 2002 - also, there are a ton of embedded pics in it.

[HansV]

There must be some kind of problem with the document, for there are no significant changes between Word 2002 and Word 2003. From the online help:

<hr>When you open a Microsoft Office Word 2003 document in Word 2002 or Word 2000, most items in your document will be unchanged. Therefore, there isn't an option to disable Word 2002 or Word 2000 features.<hr>

You could try the following:
- Make a copy of the document.
- Open it in Word 2003.
- Select Tools | Options...
- Activate the Save tab.
- Tick the "Disable features introduced after" check box.
- Select "Word 97" from the dropdown list.
- Click OK.
- Save the document.
- See if this version can be opened in Word 2002.

[cshepard]

Hans - THANKS!!!! That worked! Caroline