(Phd thesis HELP) Open 70MB .doc PhD thesis file without loading images or shrink file size quickly/safely?

[vittoriom]

Hi all, I am VIttorio from Napoli (Italy): this is my first post here…

(libre office writer 6.1.6.3 on windows 10 64 bit both updated) System is a toshiba C50-A-1LQ with 4GB ram, CPU i5 4200M with integrated hd 4600 graphics.

70 MB . doc PhD thesis file was created with the above version of libre office, it has 173 pages and contains 23 png/jpeg images ranging from 23k to 10MB. I have extracted the images by saving as html in order to have an idea of their sizes.

It is extremely difficult to work with document in its present state: for example, automatic saves would take also up to more than a minute. I did not try to fiddle with memory-related settings etc yet.

So, I was wondering about possible workarounds/solutions such as for example loading the file without loading images (for example, by means of placeholders of the same dimensions) or a quick and reliable workflow/extension to (batch?) compress the images, ideally without having to remove and re-insert them (layout seems to be a bit precarious at best ).

Sorry if I am missing something obvious here but I have to submit final version of my thesis as soon as possible so I do not have too much time to research and experiment.

Thanks in advance

Vittorio

[ajlittoz]

A suggestion: to avoid many problems, save your thesis as .odt. This is native format. It also uses compression, so this should reduce the size of the file. If your supervisor requires .doc, save so only at the end of your work (only once) otherwise you won’t benefit of full Writer power due to the conversions on loading and saving (remember traduttore, traditore, you lose formattings during conversion, both ways).

If you need to supply more information, edit your question. To discuss matters about my suggestion, use a comment.

[DeclanMcKerihan]

Big size of your thesis is not a good sign btw

[petermau]

As @ajlittoz commented, you should write and keep your thesis as a normal international standard .odt file. When you submit your thesis will that not be as a formatted PDF file, or will the receivers edit their own copy? In that case save a .doc version only to send it for others to edit.

What you say makes perfect sense. If you are creating a thesis with many images it makes sense to link the images to the source text, not to imbed them. However, you should then create a separate folder with all the images stored in that folder. If you send a source file like that you will need to send the complete folder.

The LibO Writer manual you can download, when you have time, from Writer Guides | LibreOffice Documentation - Your documentation for LibreOffice Chapter 11 Images and Graphics gives lots of useful information relevant to you.
If you imbed all the images as you are doing now, they will be stored expanded in the document and some will be expanded while you view the document, and then removed and reloaded depending on your memory and size of the document. Good luck. My thesis was written a long time ago by hand and typed on a typewriter, I prefer your technique!

[JohnHa]

Tools > Options > LO Writer > View. Untick view Graphics.

Be aware that large documents, especially those with footnotes, can take many minutes to layout and paginate.

LO works well with an 8,000 A4 page, 2.5 million words test file (no images) except it takes LO (Windows) 10 or 20 minutes to paginate the file. While you can edit the file while pagination is taking place scrolling while the file is being paginated can cause LO to stutter and hang for a time. Changing the page to A5 causes LO to work for hours.

Tests with AOO under Linux show that AOO cannot be edited while pagination is taking place = LO may be similar but I cannot test it.