RTF Files Sizes

RWood · 01-03-2007, 04:07 PM

I have not paid too much attention to the file sizes generated by Word in RFT until today. I started with a 6.7 Megs Word file and saved it as an RTF. I was thinking maybe a 10% overhead, how bad could it be. The file turned out to be 524.3 Megs. Then I remembered reading that if you run and RTF through Wordpad it strips some of the "excess" Word formatting in RTF. That file was only 501.0 Megs.

I then tried to load the Word file directly in Wordpd to save it as RTF. That was started about 20minutes ago and is still loading. (This is not a slow machine so I'm a little confused at the time it is taking.)

airlik · 01-03-2007, 05:24 PM

Wordpad is provided by MS as a "get by" application... (and I hear in Vista it can no longer open Word documents). Do you have images in your file? In Word format, it stores them as compressed binaries. In RTF, it bloats like mad into a textual format. To see what I mean, take a small image and stick it in Wordpad, then save as RTF... open the RTF in Notepad and you'll see what I mean.

Since the reader can't display images in RTF files (yet), you could always remove them.

RWood · 01-03-2007, 09:05 PM

No images in the test file. I did as you suggested and the file expansion was even worse than the straight text expansion. It looked like a bad download of a USENET mime file.

TheMadBrewer · 01-04-2007, 12:45 AM

I had exactly the same thing happen. When I looked at the raw RTF file it looks like Word was applying formating to each individual word rather than to paragraphs (as is more standard).

Unfortunately, I don't know what else to have you try. I just called it up in Wordpad and saved, but my "base" file was about 500KB that expanded to 20M or so, so it didn't take that long (10-15 secs) to save.

The only thing I can think of is to split into small pieces and then cut and past them back with wordpad.

airlik · 01-04-2007, 01:30 AM

This is kind of lame, but you could try saving to an intermediate format... lacking images, it sounds like just major overhead to me inspired by internal references.

Things I would try:

- Save as HTML, then open in a browser and copy/paste to Wordpad. You'll save most of your formatting by saving as HTML, and copy/paste to Wordpad will do likewise - then you can just save as RTF.
- Look at the actual contents of the file... if you see it endlessly repeating font settings that are the same or something, rename the file as .txt, open it in Word again, then search/replace the "dumb stuff" with nothing to selectively be rid of it.

wallcraft · 01-04-2007, 04:14 AM

Have you tried Open Office? Open the original .doc file and save it as .rtf. Open Office's MS Word importing isn't 100%, but it is close. In this case, you probably want less than 100% fidelity, since if OO correctly imports all Word's formating you may again end up with a 500 MB RTF file.

Alternatively, in Word try saving in an early Word (95?) format and then importing this to Word or OO and then converting to RTF.

slayda · 01-04-2007, 11:21 AM

If the "each word formatting" is what's causing the overhead, you could try "selecting all" (i.e. <crtl>A) and setting the font format to your choice. Save this as RTF & see what the size is. If you are satisified with the format & size then you're done.

01-03-2007, 04:07 PM	#1
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	RTF Files Sizes I have not paid too much attention to the file sizes generated by Word in RFT until today. I started with a 6.7 Megs Word file and saved it as an RTF. I was thinking maybe a 10% overhead, how bad could it be. The file turned out to be 524.3 Megs. Then I remembered reading that if you run and RTF through Wordpad it strips some of the "excess" Word formatting in RTF. That file was only 501.0 Megs. I then tried to load the Word file directly in Wordpd to save it as RTF. That was started about 20minutes ago and is still loading. (This is not a slow machine so I'm a little confused at the time it is taking.)

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01-03-2007, 05:24 PM	#2
airlik Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 15 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	Wordpad is provided by MS as a "get by" application... (and I hear in Vista it can no longer open Word documents). Do you have images in your file? In Word format, it stores them as compressed binaries. In RTF, it bloats like mad into a textual format. To see what I mean, take a small image and stick it in Wordpad, then save as RTF... open the RTF in Notepad and you'll see what I mean. Since the reader can't display images in RTF files (yet), you could always remove them.

01-03-2007, 09:05 PM	#3
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	No images in the test file. I did as you suggested and the file expansion was even worse than the straight text expansion. It looked like a bad download of a USENET mime file.

01-04-2007, 12:45 AM	#4
TheMadBrewer Connoisseur Posts: 50 Karma: 145210 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kobo Aura Limited Edition, Kindle Voyager.	I had exactly the same thing happen. When I looked at the raw RTF file it looks like Word was applying formating to each individual word rather than to paragraphs (as is more standard). Unfortunately, I don't know what else to have you try. I just called it up in Wordpad and saved, but my "base" file was about 500KB that expanded to 20M or so, so it didn't take that long (10-15 secs) to save. The only thing I can think of is to split into small pieces and then cut and past them back with wordpad.

01-04-2007, 01:30 AM	#5
airlik Connoisseur Posts: 76 Karma: 15 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Sony Reader	This is kind of lame, but you could try saving to an intermediate format... lacking images, it sounds like just major overhead to me inspired by internal references. Things I would try: - Save as HTML, then open in a browser and copy/paste to Wordpad. You'll save most of your formatting by saving as HTML, and copy/paste to Wordpad will do likewise - then you can just save as RTF. - Look at the actual contents of the file... if you see it endlessly repeating font settings that are the same or something, rename the file as .txt, open it in Word again, then search/replace the "dumb stuff" with nothing to selectively be rid of it.

01-04-2007, 04:14 AM	#6
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	Have you tried Open Office? Open the original .doc file and save it as .rtf. Open Office's MS Word importing isn't 100%, but it is close. In this case, you probably want less than 100% fidelity, since if OO correctly imports all Word's formating you may again end up with a 500 MB RTF file. Alternatively, in Word try saving in an early Word (95?) format and then importing this to Word or OO and then converting to RTF.

01-04-2007, 11:21 AM	#7
slayda Retired & reading more! Posts: 2,764 Karma: 1884247 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Alabama, USA Device: Kindle 1, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S+, Kobo Aura One	If the "each word formatting" is what's causing the overhead, you could try "selecting all" (i.e. <crtl>A) and setting the font format to your choice. Save this as RTF & see what the size is. If you are satisified with the format & size then you're done.

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