My father called me up with an issue he needed help with. He had edited a Word document he received and found out he was unable to mail it, as it was extremely large. The number of pages was low, but there were images. I knew immediately that one of the images had to be a large file. I had him remove the images one by one till we found the offending image.
But, there has to be an easier way to do this, isnt there?
For pictures:
File--> "reduce file size" from there you can chose various options including compress all or only selected pictures. You can also have the file eliminate cropped regions data which may still be piggy-backing with the pictures.
This won't help you identify the offending image but is a quick way to compress all pictures in order to eliminate them as possible offenders.
Save the Word file .docx as .zip and open the zip folder word\media\.
It will show the file sizes.
Open the Word (.docx) document with compression utility such as 7-Zip. Open folder \word\media\ and there you will have a list of all embedded media files, with sizes.
This macro will tell you the PPI of each image and suggest reducing or increasing the size. I found it on the microsoft community. As noted, macro was made by Richard Michaels. FYI, it inserts a comment for each image, so if you have lots of comments, it could make a mess.
Sub PixelsMatter()
'Created by Richard V. Michaels
'http://www.greatcirclelearning.com
'Creating custom and off-the-shelf productivity apps for Office
On Error GoTo ErrHandler
Dim doc As Word.Document, rng As Word.Range, iRng As Word.Range
Dim shp As Word.Shape, iShp As Word.InlineShape
Dim PixelCount As Integer, FullWidth As Integer, PPI As Integer
Dim Mac As Boolean
Set doc = Word.ActiveDocument
Set rng = Word.Selection.Range
'Check only the range selected, else check entire body of the document
If rng.Start = rng.End Then Set rng = doc.Content
#If Win32 Or Win64 Then
'this is a PC
PixelCount = 96
#Else
'this is a Mac
PixelCount = 72
Mac = True
#End If
For Each iShp In rng.InlineShapes
'only looking for embedded or linked pictures
If iShp.Type = wdInlineShapeLinkedPicture Or iShp.Type = wdInlineShapePicture Then
'determining original width before scaling
FullWidth = iShp.Width / (iShp.ScaleWidth / 100)
'calculate PPI density based on the current scaled size of inserted image
PPI = FullWidth / (iShp.Width / PixelCount)
Select Case PPI
Case Is < 150
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & " and will result in poor print quality. " & _
"We suggest either reducing the size of the picture in the document or replacing with a higher quality source image."
Case Is < 200
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & ", which is marginal for a good print quality. " & _
"We suggest you print a sample and check if the print quality is satisfactory for your needs. " & _
"Higher print quality can be achieved by either reducing picture size or replacing with a higher quality source image."
Case Is < 240
'PPI density is optimal, no comment made
Case Else
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & " and does not contribute to better print quality... " & _
"it is only creating a larger than necessary file size for this document. We suggest replacing the image with a more appropriately sized source image."
End Select
End If
Next
If Mac Then GoTo ErrHandler
'With a Mac running Office 2011 there is no need to go further
'The excessively buggy Office 2011 VBA errantly places all "floating" shapes into the inline shapes collection
'No other PC version of Office VBA does this and if the following code is executed on a Mac, double comments
'would be placed on all floating shapes that met the PPI criteria specified in the following Select Case command.
If doc.Shapes.count = 0 Then GoTo ErrHandler
Dim wrapType As Integer, i As Integer
For i = doc.Shapes.count To 1 Step -1
Set shp = doc.Shapes(i)
If shp.Type = Office.MsoShapeType.msoPicture Or _
shp.Type = Office.MsoShapeType.msoLinkedPicture Then
If shp.WrapFormat.Type <> Word.WdWrapType.wdWrapNone Then
wrapType = shp.WrapFormat.Type
Set iShp = shp.ConvertToInlineShape
If iShp.Range.InRange(rng) Then
'determining original width before scaling
FullWidth = iShp.Width / (iShp.ScaleWidth / 100)
'calculate PPI density based on the current scaled size of inserted image
PPI = FullWidth / (iShp.Width / PixelCount)
Select Case PPI
Case Is < 150
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & " and will result in poor print quality. " & _
"We suggest either reducing the size of the picture in the document or replacing with a higher quality source image."
Case Is < 200
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & ", which is marginal for a good print quality. " & _
"We suggest you print a sample and check if the print quality is satisfactory for your needs. " & _
"Higher print quality can be achieved by either reducing picture size or replacing with a higher quality source image."
Case Is < 240
'PPI density is optimal, no comment made
Case Else
iShp.Range.Comments.Add iShp.Range, "PPI is " & PPI & " and does not contribute to better print quality... " & _
"it is only creating a larger than necessary file size for this document. We suggest replacing the image with a more appropriately sized source image."
End Select
iShp.ConvertToShape
shp.WrapFormat.Type = wrapType
Else
iShp.ConvertToShape
shp.WrapFormat.Type = wrapType
End If
End If
End If
Next
ErrHandler:
Select Case Err
Case 0
MsgBox "Action Complete", vbInformation, "Pixels Matter"
Case Else
MsgBox Err.Number & vbCr & Err.Description, vbExclamation, "Pixels Matter"
Err.Clear
End Select
End Sub
Probably the easiest way is to just compress each image. Click the Format menu and choose Compress Pictures. This will remove any unneeded image data including parts that have been cropped out but are still kept in the image data.
Here's a simple way to do this, if you only have a small number of pictures. Save a copy of the file with half the picture(s) deleted, and observe the file size. For example, if you have 4 pictures, delete the last 2, and if the file size is still huge, it's one of the first two. If it's small, it's one of the last two. Then repeat this, deleting one picture. If it's still large, it's the undeleted one.
