How can I reduce the wasted space in a Microsoft word document?
Word 2000:   Added a 131K jpeg to a 110K word doc.  No other changes. 
New file is over 3 megabytes!

Dear Mike

Word 2000 can accept images in various formats including GIF, JPG,
PNG, Bitmap and TIFF using pre-installed graphics filters. You can
check whether the graphics filter you need is installed, by doing the
following:
 
- go to the INSERT menu
- choose PICTURE then FROM FILE. 
- you will see the 'Insert Picture' dialog box
- at the bottom where it says 'Files of type' you'll see a list of the
file types you can insert

If the filter you need isn't there, you may be able to install it from
your Word CD.  Otherwise, when you copy in a graphic from another
program it will be saved as a Windows metafile (.wmf). The best
solution is to open the image in a drawing program and save it in a
format that can be imported into Word.

However with your JPEG image it should be fine to insert it into the
document and keep it in the original format. That shouldn't add
anything to the size of the document.

The reason for the unexpected increased file size is probably not to
do with the image itself, but due to the Fast Save feature.
 
As Paradiddler mentions, Word saves all kinds of information over
time.  While this allows for much faster document saves, it can lead
to a significant increase in file size.  If you have Fast-Save
switched on, Word saves cumulatively all the information about your
document. If you delete or rewrite a large portion of the document and
save it, the original data, now garbage, will be kept within the
document. Your changes are added on to the end of the file.  So file
sizes can increase very rapidly.  Fast Save is set as OFF by default
(in Word 2000, though not in all earlier versions of Word) but to
check if you are running it:

- go to the TOOLS menu and choose OPTIONS
- select the Save tab 
- select or clear the Allow fast saves check box, then click OK

If Fast-Save is not switched on then Word does a Full-Save. That is,
any changes to the document are incorporated into the contents in the
same location as the change was made.

The advantage of Fast-Save is that it's quicker to save your document.
The disadvantage, apart from increased file size,  is that all
previous versions of your document are saved within the document
itself, and this information may be accessible (for example if viewed
in Notepad) which can have security implications.

Paradiddler suggests copying all the data into a new document to ditch
all the 'garbage' content. Another way is to do FILE then SAVE AS
which creates a new copy of the document without all extra data.

Let me know if you want me to clarify this answer or provide more
information. I've assumed you are running Word 2000 although
instructions given here apply to earlier versions of Word as well.

For more on Fast Save see 
Frequently Asked Questions about "Allow Fast Saves" 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q197978

Microsoft Office 2000: Working with Picture or Image Files
http://www.delta.edu/emptrain/bookworm/pictures-2000.html

Woody's Office Portal has a useful searchable forum for Word questions
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=wrd

Google search terms:
"Fast Save" + Word
 
Best wishes
 
Catherine-ga

This answer took a lot of space to say a little.   The only relevent
parts were: "Make sure fast save is off" and "Try Save-as" (which is
really just another fast-save workaround).
The first 4 paragraphs were irrelevent and even insulting -- since the
picture add was presented as a baseline condition.
The more helpful info was in the comments -- alienintelligence's
suggestions were good but not applicable.   Paradiddler had a good
refresher on optimizing image formats.

I believe MS Word stores images as an
uncompressed bitmap, regardless of what
the original file was.

Can you just link to the image?

Is size a concern for transmitting on
the net? Can you Zip it down in size?

-AI

MS Word typically saves all kinds of undo information that makes the
document grow over time. The document also grows if you are using the
"Track Changes" function (see if the TRK indicator in the statusbar is
active).

A good way to strip a word document of unnecessary old data, is to
create a brand new document and copy-paste over all content from the
old document to the new one.

The previous comment from alienintelligence about embedded images
being stored in an uncompressed form may also be valid. If the
dimension of the JPEG is larger than you need, you should scale down
the image prior to inserting it into your document. Scaling the
picture within Word only affects how it is rendered, while leaving all
the pixels from the original picture inside the document. Decreasing
the number of colors used in the image can also trim down the needed
size.

If the JPEG is not a photograph, but instead, e.g., a drawing made
with PowerPoint, it would be wiser to either paste the picture as a
metafile (a format containing a sequence of drawing instructions), or
embed the drawing as its own object (requires access to the drawing
software to render the picture). The point is to use the smallest
equivalent representation of the picture.

As a note to the previous paragraph: I do hope all you dear readers
are aware that JPEG format should only be used for pictures with lots
of colours (i.e. photographs and alike), and not for simple PowerPoint
drawings with only a few colors. As described in the JPEG image
compression FAQ [1]:

"Generally speaking, JPEG is superior to GIF for storing full-color or
gray-scale images of realistic scenes; that means scanned photographs,
continuous-tone artwork, and similar material.  Any smooth variation
in
color, such as occurs in highlighted or shaded areas, will be
represented
more faithfully and in less space by JPEG than by GIF.

GIF does significantly better on images with only a few distinct
colors,
such as line drawings and simple cartoons.  Not only is GIF lossless
for
such images, but it often compresses them more than JPEG can.  For
example,
large areas of pixels that are all *exactly* the same color are
compressed
very efficiently indeed by GIF.  JPEG can't squeeze such data as much
as GIF
does without introducing visible defects.  (One implication of this is
that
large single-color borders are quite cheap in GIF files, while they
are best
avoided in JPEG files.)"

More information of JPEG compression and a comparison to GIF
compression, can be found in a tutorial about "JPEG Compression for
the Web" [2].

My apologies for diverting from the actual topic!

References
[1] http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/section-3.html
[2] http://www.brycetech.com/tutor/windows/jpeg_compression.html

OK, based on the answer and the comments, I tried some experiments.
I always have Fast Save turned off -- I turned it back on and it took
quite a bit to add 3 M bytes.

Word does not save on bitmap form (I too had suspected this).   The
jpeg is 131K and the bmp is 880K.   Further, I was able to add the
jpeg to another doc and only increase the word doc by 143K.

When I go back to the original doc and cut the picture, it reduces the
file 3 M.   When I paste this to a new doc, it bloats by 3 M.
When the 3M picture is pasted into a photo editor, and resaved, it
becomes a 164K, high quality, jpeg or a 211K, medium quality gif.

When I insert these into the original doc, the size increase is
reasonable (for a Microsoft product).
I believe the real culprit was that I had originally pasted in the
jpeg and then used word to add arrows and text.    What should be a
150K image then becomes 3M!

The answer to my question now appears to be: Strictly insert pictures
only in gif or jpeg or wmf (choose per paradiddler, below) but do any
editing externally first.

-- MikeR

Hi all.  My solution to this problem reduced a 7mb file to 515Kb.
Using the Picture compress feature in word is sometimes inexplicably
unreliable.  The solution is to use the wrapping feature to bring your
picture/s to the "front" first, then select the compress button in
Picture formatting this works every time, so far.

Once compression is run you can re-wrap the picture to whatever it was
before, then save the file.

Regards