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I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem Word document which has become blank after editing. It's file size is 22.0KB (22,528 bytes).

Is this the same file size of an empty document - i.e. if you open Word 2003 and then save the empty doc?

I only have Office 2007 available.

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I have Word 2003 installed and using Explorer's Right Click -> New -> Microsoft Word Document option I got a file which is 10.5 KB (10,752 bytes)

This creates a copy of the document located at C:\WINDOWS\ShellNew\WINWORD8.DOC.

They are "Binary same" as reported by Beyond Compare.

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Interesting. If I right-click to get a new Word 2007 doc it is 0 bytes (suggesting it's not actually a Word file at that point but just a placeholder with a .docx extension). Whereas, if I create a new blank .docx from within Word 2007 it is 9.82KB. What size do you get if you launch Word 2003 and then save the blank doc? – pelms May 25 '10 at 12:00
@pelms - I get 19.5 KB (19,968 bytes) – Shevek May 25 '10 at 12:23
I think the 'ShellNew' file will by definition be the same as the one you get by right-clicking. Is that the same file size as when you start from Word and save a blank doc? – pelms May 25 '10 at 12:24
@pelms - interesting, I did a Beyond Compare (which compares Word Doc contents) on the 2 files and they are content identical – Shevek May 25 '10 at 12:24
@Shevek. OK, thanks. Looks like my file might not be completely blank then. – pelms May 25 '10 at 12:26
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Each user can edit their own standard document template, Normal.dot, so there isn't a specific size against which you can compare. However, 22k is in the ballpark for a typical Microsoft Word 2003 blank document.

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It would be pretty much the default normal.dot – pelms May 25 '10 at 11:46
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That would also very per user. Some users have extra information such as copyright information which could add to the empty word document's file size.

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