Fast save

[Ken]

What is Fast save? How does it work?

 

[lostinspace]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken" <>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.word.docmanagement
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 10:07 AM
Subject: Fast save

What is Fast save? How does it work?

The following from Word 2000 Help File:

You want Word to save a list of changes separately from your stored work
(you cannot view the list). For example:
a.. Your document contains large pictures, tables, columns, or linked
objects, or your document is very large and you want Word to save changes
more quickly.


b.. Your computer has ample disk space.


c.. You are not saving documents over a network connection.
If you have Word perform fast saves, it's good practice to periodically
clear the Allow fast saves check box so that Word can integrate the list of
changes with your stored work.

 

[Jay Freedman]

What is Fast save? How does it work?

Hi, Ken,

<soapbox> Fast Save is an outmoded, unnecessary kludge that corrupts
documents, and it should have been removed from Word long ago.
</soapbox>

Having gotten that out of the way, here's the explanation: Instead of
writing a complete copy of the document file to the disk each time you
save, Fast Save writes only the changes since the last save -- usually
a much smaller set of data. This stuff is appended to the end of the
disk file, along with pointers that indicate where the changes go.
When the accumulated changes reach some threshold, Word does a full
save to disk to incorporate all the changes, and then starts over.

That's the theory. In practice, trying to keep track of editing and
format changes, and changes on top of changes, is just too
complicated. Apparently Word sometimes loses its place and writes
changes into sensitive areas that corrupt the document. [Under the
hood, a Word document isn't just a stream of characters and formatting
codes. It's more like programming code, with structures and pointers
that have to be exactly right.]

To make matters even less understandable, the problem that Fast Save
is supposed to solve isn't really a problem any more. The hardware has
gotten so much faster since the feature appeared (Word 6.0) that
saving even very large documents doesn't take more than a few seconds.

So turn off Fast Save and don't even think about it.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Jay has given you the definitive answer. I would have been tempted to say,
"Fast Save is a shortcut to document corruption."

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

What is Fast save? How does it work?

Hi, Ken,

<soapbox> Fast Save is an outmoded, unnecessary kludge that corrupts
documents, and it should have been removed from Word long ago.
</soapbox>

Having gotten that out of the way, here's the explanation: Instead of
writing a complete copy of the document file to the disk each time you
save, Fast Save writes only the changes since the last save -- usually
a much smaller set of data. This stuff is appended to the end of the
disk file, along with pointers that indicate where the changes go.
When the accumulated changes reach some threshold, Word does a full
save to disk to incorporate all the changes, and then starts over.

That's the theory. In practice, trying to keep track of editing and
format changes, and changes on top of changes, is just too
complicated. Apparently Word sometimes loses its place and writes
changes into sensitive areas that corrupt the document. [Under the
hood, a Word document isn't just a stream of characters and formatting
codes. It's more like programming code, with structures and pointers
that have to be exactly right.]

To make matters even less understandable, the problem that Fast Save
is supposed to solve isn't really a problem any more. The hardware has
gotten so much faster since the feature appeared (Word 6.0) that
saving even very large documents doesn't take more than a few seconds.

So turn off Fast Save and don't even think about it.

 

[Wai]

Jay is right.

And I don't think "fast save" is really "fast". I can't
see any difference when I try to save with and
without "fast save".

Maybe you may save a second or a bit more if you are
working with enormous documents.

-----Original Message-----

What is Fast save? How does it work?

Hi, Ken,

<soapbox> Fast Save is an outmoded, unnecessary kludge that corrupts
documents, and it should have been removed from Word long ago.
</soapbox>

Having gotten that out of the way, here's the explanation: Instead of
writing a complete copy of the document file to the disk each time you
save, Fast Save writes only the changes since the last save -- usually
a much smaller set of data. This stuff is appended to the end of the
disk file, along with pointers that indicate where the changes go.
When the accumulated changes reach some threshold, Word does a full
save to disk to incorporate all the changes, and then starts over.

That's the theory. In practice, trying to keep track of editing and
format changes, and changes on top of changes, is just too
complicated. Apparently Word sometimes loses its place and writes
changes into sensitive areas that corrupt the document. [Under the
hood, a Word document isn't just a stream of characters and formatting
codes. It's more like programming code, with structures and pointers
that have to be exactly right.]

To make matters even less understandable, the problem that Fast Save
is supposed to solve isn't really a problem any more. The hardware has
gotten so much faster since the feature appeared (Word 6.0) that
saving even very large documents doesn't take more than a few seconds.

So turn off Fast Save and don't even think about it.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word
.