What is the maximum file size for a Word document?

[Minniemouse Driver]

How big can a Word document be? Does it become unstable when it reaches a
certain file size? I'm writing a novel and would like to keep a lot of it in
one document.

 

[Jezebel]

For the full gory details, go to Help and search for 'Limits'. You can have
32Mb of text, which is more than somewhat for a novel. Word files usually
have size-related stability problems only if they contain graphics or
copious complex tables. I've worked with text-only documents well into the
thousands of pages without any hiccups. If your novel is very large (are you
knocking Proust into a cocked hat?) and your computer has very little
memory, speed might become a problem.

 

[Graham Mayor]

You *should* keep all of it in one document - make sure you make regular
backups. Any novel that anyone would want to read will easily fit in a
single document.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Jezebel]

so will most novels that *no-one* will want to read.

 

[Misery Guts]

so will most novels that *no-one* will want to read.

Don't believe them MinnieMouse, they're setting up an aunt Sally.

What you have to realize is that both Jezebel and Graham can make
Word sing and dance, and they can recover documents easily. When
you've that ability you can work Word at its limits. For us modest users,
you'll be lucky to get 400 pages double spaced - the size of a novella.

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Bonjour,

Dans son message, < Misery Guts > écrivait :

Don't believe them MinnieMouse, they're setting up an aunt Sally.

What you have to realize is that both Jezebel and Graham can make
Word sing and dance, and they can recover documents easily. When
you've that ability you can work Word at its limits. For us modest users,
you'll be lucky to get 400 pages double spaced - the size of a novella.

Absolutely not true.
Double spaced? What has that got to do with anything? So 400 pages single
spaced would not be recommended. According to this logic, I guess the limit
is 200 pages single spaced?

Hmmm...
--
Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
(e-mail address removed)
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org

 

[Graham Mayor]

Don't believe them MinnieMouse, they're setting up an aunt Sally.

What you have to realize is that both Jezebel and Graham can make
Word sing and dance, and they can recover documents easily. When
you've that ability you can work Word at its limits. For us modest
users, you'll be lucky to get 400 pages double spaced - the size of a
novella.

NONSENSE - without any effort or special skills of any kind Word will allow
you to produce documents of hundreds - even thousands - of pages of text. It
is only the addition of tables, section breaks and graphics that *might*
introduce a hiccup, however none of these are necessary for a novel.

Backups of any document that involve a lot of hard work should be made at
regular intervals.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Misery Guts]

Absolutely not true.

I can see this is going anywhere, so I'm just going to hold my breath
until you admit it's true.

Double spaced? What has that got to do with anything? So 400 pages single
spaced would not be recommended. According to this logic, I guess the limit
is 200 pages single spaced?

Not even! Double space is 1.5 times the normal leading.

I'm saying a raw 400 page manuscript, even before it's formatted, will
push Word over the edge.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As counter-examples:

A book I created in Word 97 on a 200 MHz machine: 270 pages (single-spaced),
highly formatted, including hundreds of photos and tables and a 16-page
index

A book I created in Word 2002: 628 pages (single-spaced), highly formatted
(including three or four different fonts), with placeholders for
photographs, and an index.

Both books were camera-ready copy.

Also, note that 1.5 x the normal leading is not "double spaced" by any
definition.

 

[Jezebel]

I recently created a set of documents that are technical descriptions of
Access databases -- the original document is created by code, listing all
the tables, fields, queries, etc etc; and is then worked on manually for
fine tuning the format. These documents are all minimum 2500 pages each; and
they've never been a problem. I've never had one of them crash. (And I've no
idea what 'recover a document easily' might mean...)