Save .docx as .doc Problem

The reason that .docx files are so much smaller than .doc files is that a .docx file is actually a .zip file whose extension has been changed to .docx. In other words, it has been compressed.

A .doc file is not compressed, so it takes up more space than the equivalent .docx file.

But 3,237 Kb is very large for a document containing only a few pages. Does it contain pictures, such as photos, or a company logo?

Hi Just to gain clarification on this, I regularly go from 2003 - 2010 overwriting 2003 documents with documents being revised in 2010, so when the file comes up to save as a docx file in 2010 the reasoning behind this is that it has been compressed?

Thanks for your assistance Hans - that explains it.  The document is a very large table with no graphics or photos.  Out of curiosity I saved it as a .pdf - 2401 Kb and as a .wpd - 2263 Kb.  Why is Word so much larger?

Hi Just to gain clarification on this, I regularly go from 2003 - 2010 overwriting 2003 documents with documents being revised in 2010, so when the file comes up to save as a docx file in 2010 the reasoning behind this is that it has been compressed?

I am not clear on what you are asking.

The default file format for Word 2010 (and 2007) is DOCX. So when you do a Save As of a DOC file, that is why it comes up as a DOCX.

Unless you specifically need 2010 features, there is no real need to convert all of the files.


Sobnrood:

PDF is mostly an image file so that can explain why a doc may be reduced in size when converted to PDF.

What program uses WPD format files.

Which Word format are you talking about, DOC or DOCX.  Either way, Word files are complex constructs. Not only do they have the simple text, they contain a lot of code to handle the formatting.  If you change the extension of a DOCX to ZIP (just add the .ZIP to the end of the file name, after the existing DOCX), you can look into the file structure to get an idea of all of the hidden baggage.

Rohn007 - thanks for the reply.

 

.wpd is a Word Perfect file extension.

 

Like .docx and .doc it is a complex construct and has a lot of code to handle the formatting.

 

Yet the resultant file is significantly smaller than its .doc counterpart.

It's been a while since I've worked with WordPerfect. Back then Word and WP took fundamentally different approaches to file structure. 

A WP document was very LOOSELY the equivalent of a HTML file.  A string of text with formatting codes embedded only as the formatting was applied. If you looked at it with a text editor, you could easily read the text and the formatting codes.

A DOC file, on the other hand was a complex structure, with a great deal of framework code in place even before you enter any content. Default Styles and other "Stuff" like that. A DOC file is a "Binary" construct, again, very LOOSELY like a compiled program.  If you open a DOC file in a text editor it is a mass of unreadable characters.  The body text is buried in the mess, but almost impossible to find by simply scrolling through the document.

A DOCX file is compromise that is half way between the two. When you convert a DOCX to ZIP, it is now in readable text format. But it is still a complex of folders and default files with at least some initial default formatting content.

Taking the example to an extreme, if I remember correctly, a WPD file with only one character was very close to 1 byte in size. There was some initial formatting information, like the printer assigned to the document but no where near as much as found in a DOC or DOCX.  The oldest example I have is from WinWord 6.0, released in 1993.  A DOC file with only 1 character entered in it was saved to around 9,216 bytes in size.  In Word 15.0 / 2013, released in 2013 the same 1 character DOC format file was bloated to 30,208 bytes, and a 1 character DOCX file is compressed down to 14,156 bytes.

Actually, since you have WP could you try the experiment, create a new blank file, the type a single character with no formatting and save as WPD.  Tell us what version of WP and the resulting file size.  I'll have to look, I think I have a slightly older version of WP installed on another partition I'll boot into some time.

Rohn 007 - good morning.  I created a file in Word Perfect X5 consisting of the letter A  - 2 Kb.  The same thing in Word 2010 is 22 Kb.

Thanks for the WP info. It is in the ballpark I was expecting. I suspect that 2KB is the minimum "block" size on your HD, and the actual file content is somewhat smaller. But that is close enough for me.

Thanks to the community for helping with my enquiry.