Max number of tables in Word 2003

[i-mt]

We write some rather large Word files with 400+ pages, 100+ tables and
100+ images (drawings and photos). Currently in one particular
document I have about 120 tables and about 150 pages that would be
better done as tables but I was told that in the past Word has choked
on large number of tables (obviously more than 120).
Is anyone aware of a limit or is it more likely they had some other
issue, I am not aware of?
I would hate to invest days to convert the text to tables only to find
this doesn't work.

Using Office 2003
on machines with XP, 3+GHz, 1Gb ram
files can be local or network

thx
mt

 

[Jay Freedman]

We write some rather large Word files with 400+ pages, 100+ tables and
100+ images (drawings and photos). Currently in one particular
document I have about 120 tables and about 150 pages that would be
better done as tables but I was told that in the past Word has choked
on large number of tables (obviously more than 120).
Is anyone aware of a limit or is it more likely they had some other
issue, I am not aware of?
I would hate to invest days to convert the text to tables only to find
this doesn't work.

Using Office 2003
on machines with XP, 3+GHz, 1Gb ram
files can be local or network

thx
mt

The article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211489 doesn't document
any specific maximum number of tables, and I doubt that there is any limit.

However, tables impose a heavier computational load on the layout engine
than does ordinary text, and many Word versions have had performance and
stability problems with tables -- more with very large tables than with many
small ones. Read http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/FastTables.htm
for some best-practices advice.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I can attest that I have done a document with many fairly short tables (as
well as many photographs--it was a family history book, and I used tables
for the genealogies), and it presents no performance issues on a properly
specced system (it did labor a bit on an old underpowered one). Of course,
it is true that I had weird problems with the index in that document, but I
can't really attribute that to the tables.