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Office 2016 save-to-pdf option creates a huge file

Anonymous
2015-10-06T04:57:23+00:00

Hi,

Using the common way to save a word document as pdf creates a huge file. I'm working on a 30 MB .docx file which saves a 12 MB pdf. When I try to do the same on Windows, the output pdf is only 2.7 MB. It has a few (non-high quality images).

So far I tried:

  • Saving to .doc (around 12 MB) and then converting it to pdf, achieving the same size that the original .docx would.
  • Deleting all images. In this case, the output .docx file is only 100kb, but the output pdf is 600kb (6 times bigger).

Important: Adding a 458 KB image to the .docx document increases the .docx file size to 13.3 MB (around 130 times bigger), which is clearly ridiculous.

I would be thankful if you help me to fix this :)

By the way, I'm running MS Word on OS X El Capitan.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-03-09T16:06:58+00:00

    When saving or printing to PDF, Office (and other apps) tell Mac OS, "I have something for you turn into a PDF" and then hands the job to Mac OS. A little more explanation about how this works is here:

    http://www.macworld.com/article/1157024/printers/pdfprinting.html

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-19T02:56:24+00:00

    One year later...still a problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-19T03:53:40+00:00

    By any chance do you have any PDF products such as Acrobat loaded on your Mac?

    If so Don't use the Save as PDF feature. Regardless if using Apple Products or Word. The save as pdf is provided by Apple (even for Word). You will run into this issue.  If you have Acrobat instead used the print menu, click on pdf, and the choose Adobe Pdf you'll find. Files to be much smaller. Also use PNG images instead. Avoid at all cost using jpeg files. Instead, Save as PDF at as close to the size you need.

    _________

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    The questions, discussions, opinions, replies & answers I create, are solely mine and mine alone and do not reflect upon my position as a Community Moderator.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-11-04T09:27:39+00:00

    I'm replying hoping to just get some answers for this. This has been a problem for years. Some Mac users say that it is a feature of Mac wanting to keep the original image size and that I needed to make sure I put smaller images in the file. I've tried that with no success. Windows handles this great.

    I'm working on a 874 KB file and it bloated to 7.2 MB. I need to send this by email, but can't.

    Right now my solution is work on this on my computer (Mac) then take it to the kids (PC) and save to PDF. Not the most convenient.

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