When working with long documents in Microsoft Word, it’s important to consider the file size. Adding multiple images or photos can make your document much larger.
I often work with long documents and include images where needed. If you’ve seen my blog posts, you’ll notice I use screenshots to guide readers and illustrate my points.
Because of this, documents – especially Microsoft 365 files – can become quite large. This can be a problem if you need to email the file, as some email services have size limits. Large files also take up more space on your computer, which can be an issue if you’re running low on storage.
Thankfully, Microsoft Word and other Office apps have a built-in feature to compress images, reducing the overall file size without losing too much quality.
To compress images, follow these steps:
- Open Microsoft Word
- Open an existing document containing some images, or create a simple blank document and insert an image.
- To insert an image, click the Insert tab from the Ribbon and choose Pictures then select This Device.
- You will now see the Insert Picture dialog box which allows you to browse the files on your computers hard drive:
- Locate an image you would like to use, select the photo and click Insert.
- The photo will now be added to the document.
- You will now see a new tab has appeared on the Ribbon, the Picture Format tab:
- From the Adjust group, click the Compress Pictures button:
- The Compress Pictures dialog box will appear:
- You must now select which pictures within your document you will compress and your target output/quality you want the images to maintain. Depending on the resolution of your original image, you will have the options of High Fidelity, HD (330ppi), Print (220ppi), Web (150ppi) or Email (96ppi)
TIP: The term 220ppi refers to “pixels per inch”. Essentially this means that there will be 220 pixels, or dots per inch of the screen giving it a higher quality. The lower the “ppi” the less dots per inch and the lower the quality will be.
- If you only wish to compress the current photograph you have selected, ensure the Apply only to this picture checkbox remains ticked (which is usually is by default).
- To apply compression to ALL pictures within the document untick this box. This will save you A LOT of time if you have multiple pictures within the one document – there is no need to compress each picture individually.
- You will also notice a second checkbox in the Compression options for Delete cropped areas of pictures, if you select this option, which by default is selected, any images or photos you have cropped will be permanently cropped meaning that you can not go back later and undo the cropping, instead you would need to delete the picture from the document and insert it again.
- Now in the Target Output option, select Web (150ppi).
- Click OK.
- The picture(s) in this document will now be compressed. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation on the screen that this has completed so you just have to take my “word” for it – pun intended.. 🙂
If you are working with a long document and need to reduce its file size, make note of the documents file size prior to opening it. Go through the above process and apply the compression to ALL pictures within the document. Save and check the file size has reduced.
You may find some of these additional posts interesting which discuss other aspects of using images within your documents.