How to Compress a Word Document (and Why It Got So Big)

You finished the report, hit send, and your email bounced it for being too big. Or the upload form says the limit is 10 MB and your file is 38. The good news: you can compress a Word document inside Word itself in a couple of minutes, and if the person on the other end only needs to read it, a PDF is usually much smaller still.

First, though, it helps to know what's taking up the space.

Why is my Word document so large?

Here's what bloats a Word file, roughly in order of how often it's the culprit:

• Photos and screenshots at full size. A phone photo can be several megabytes on its own, and Word stores it at that size even when it shows up as a little thumbnail on the page. A few of those add up fast.
• Cropped-off picture edges. When you crop a picture in Word, the hidden part is still saved in the file, in case you want to uncrop it later.
• Pasted images and objects. Copying a picture or chart in from another app can bring along more than you see.
• Embedded fonts. If the document is set to carry its fonts with it, every one of them rides along in the file.
• Charts and spreadsheets with their data. A chart pasted from Excel can keep the whole workbook behind it.
• Editing history on pictures. Word can keep the original of a picture you've edited so you can undo the changes.

One more: old .doc files are bigger than the modern .docx format, which is compressed already. If yours ends in .doc, saving it as .docx is a free win.

To find the worst offenders, make a copy of the file, change the copy's ending from .docx to .zip, and open it. Inside, the word folder has a media folder with every image in the document. Sort by size and you'll see exactly which pictures to deal with.

Compress pictures in Word

This is the big win, since pictures are usually most of the file.

1. Click any picture in the document.
2. Open the Picture Format tab at the top and click Compress Pictures.
3. Untick Apply only to this picture, so it works on every picture in the document.
4. Tick Delete cropped areas of pictures.
5. Pick a resolution. E-mail (96 ppi) gives the smallest file, and Web (150 ppi) still looks fine on screen. Choose a higher one if the document will be printed.
6. Click OK, then save the document.

Word for Mac has the same Compress Pictures button on its Picture Format tab.

How much this saves depends entirely on how many pictures you had and how big they were. A text document with one logo won't change much. A 40-page report full of photos can drop dramatically. Check the file's size in File Explorer or Finder before and after, so you know whether you need to keep going.

If the pictures still look too soft afterwards, close the document without saving and try again with a higher resolution. Nothing is thrown away until you save.

Other settings that shrink the file

In Word on Windows, go to File > Options > Advanced and scroll to Image Size and Quality:

• Tick Discard editing data, so Word stops keeping the originals of pictures you've edited.
• Make sure Do not compress images in file is unticked.
• Set Default resolution lower, so pictures you add from now on go in smaller.

Then go to File > Options > Save. If Embed fonts in the file is ticked, untick it. If you need the fonts to travel with the document, tick Embed only the characters used in the document instead.

A few more:

• Swap live charts for pictures. If a chart doesn't need to stay editable, copy it and paste it back as a picture. The spreadsheet behind it goes away.
• Save a fresh copy. File > Save As as a new .docx often comes out smaller than a file that's been edited for months.
• Work on a copy. Compressing pictures is permanent once you save. If you'll need full-quality images later (a thesis full of figures, say), keep the original as your master and send the compressed copy.

Need it even smaller? Send a PDF

If the other person only needs to read or print the document, a PDF is often the smallest thing you can send. It won't be an editable Word file anymore, so keep the .docx for yourself.

1. Drop your document on Word to PDF. It takes .doc and .docx files and opens your document as a PDF.
2. Click Download and choose PDF.
3. Drop that PDF on Compress PDF, in the box that says Drag and drop a PDF here.
4. When it's done, it tells you how much smaller the file got. Click Download PDF (or Sign in to download PDF, if you aren't signed in yet).

The tools are free. Downloading the result takes a free PrintFriendly account, and you can make one right there. File size limits are on the Help Center's PDF Tools page.

Word can also make the PDF itself: File > Save As, choose PDF as the file type, and pick Minimum size (publishing online). You can still run the result through Compress PDF afterwards if it's too big.

If the PDF is going out by email, How to Compress and Email Large PDF Files has more on getting it through.

Still too big?

• Resize photos before you insert them. A picture that goes in small never has to be squeezed later.
• Keep scans as PDFs. Scanned pages pasted into Word are just big pictures. They're better off as a PDF.
• Split the document. Appendices or a photo section can go in a second file.
• Send a link instead. Most email services cap attachments somewhere around 20 to 25 MB. Past that, put the file in your cloud storage and share a link.