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Archiver > TMG > 2000-06 > 0961417240


From: Luc Matthijs <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Re: Adding Exhibits to Narrative
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 14:20:40 +0200
In-Reply-To: <33.6a50316.267ecaa7@aol.com>


At 19/06/2000 03:00, wrote:
>I hope someone can offer a solution to my problem. I have a narrative that is
>around 22.5 MB in size that I saved in MSWord 7. I thought I could add
>exhibits and balance of text before printing for publication. I have found I
>can only add a maximum of 12 exhibits before MSWORD either shuts me down with
>message (Disk is too full or you have too many files open) or it changes the
>last exhibit to computer jargon that runs many pages and destroys my text!

This topic isn't directly linked with TMG, but I think what follows can be
useful for some TMG users. I supervised the MS Office support in my "firm"
until I retired this year. This problem is similar to the problems we did
have when we wanted to print manuals. And I did have this problem with
UFT/Word95/W95 in 1998.

I assume that you are using Windows 95/98, do have 64 MB of RAM and a color
inkjet printer. And also upgraded the system to the last available version
and updated the drivers.

The problem of MS Word is that it wants to have your complete document in
memory (= memory-based). AmiPro/WordPro is storage based (= file on disk)
and uses less RAM memory (a list of pointers the current active portion of
your document).

Your document occupies 22,5 MB disk storage, but it uses more memory and
will use up to 2 MB for each printed page. Do the following test: close
all running applications, Internet connection, open your printer window and
pause the printer. Wait some time (to clear the cache). Go now to Word and
open the document . You could also open Explorer (with in the right window
the details of the drive list visible).

Rearrange the windows so that you can see them both (or all three) at the
same time. Print only the last page of you document. If this produces an
error, you do have a major memory problem. If you can see the print file in
the printer window, then it's OK. The size isn't really relevant. You can
now print the full document.

Do that . Follow the number of pages printed by MS Word (icon displayed in
the bottom toolbar) and accepted by the printer spooler (progress column of
the printer window). You do have a memory problem, when this is interrupted
by a error. Take note of the number of pages accepted by the spooler and
reduce it with 10%. Retry the whole operation for that reduced number of
pages (= print the file in two or more steps). If needed cut your file in
two or more pieces. Adapt the page number settings !

If the problem remains, review the current version of your packages, fine
tune the document and restart the print procedure.

===

The problem of MS Windows 95/98 is that they do have a limited space for
System, User and GDI (I think 64 KB each). Each object (application, ddl,
exe, button, item in a visible list, item in a cached list, ...) must have
his place in one of these spaces. Each DLL, ... must also have a footprint
of about 4 KB in your physical RAM, when they are started (after that they
can be swapped).

Normally you have a swap file (= Virtual Memory setting) of 160 MB ( 64 MB
RAM x 2,5). More then 250% is useless. You could upgrade your RAM memory to
128 MB (and increase your swap file to 320 MB). Put the swap file on the
most used partition of least used disk . In your case keep the old disk,
use it for some backup files and for your swap file. Make sure that you
have defragmented that drive, before you activate the swap file.

Desactivate the three Office "Enhancers" (Find, Toolbar and Quick
Startup), by dragging them from your Startup folder to a "Disabled Startup"
folder. They will be desactivated at your next reboot.

Desactivate your screen saver, disconnect a background image, limit the
number of icons on your desktop (if needed create one to 3 folders on the
desktop and move those icons in them). Limit the number of colours that you
use for WIndows (especially if you have a AGP Display Adapter), but keep in
mind the setting needed for your images.

For the storage (= "disk memory") you can use the following indicators: at
least 50% free without temporary files and at least 25% free with the
temporary files included (= when your printed file is present in the print
spooler).

It will help for your print activity, that you keep the printer "paused"
until the file is printed by MS Word. Quit MS Word, open Explorer (with in
the right window the details of the drives list visible), wait a minute and
toggle the printer window from paused to active. The printing of your
document will start . Follow how much place is available on disk. you will
see when you do have problems.

You can reduce the output size of your document, if you print it in small
portions.

But a major improvement is to reduce the size, resolution and colors of
your images to what's needed for your printer. MS Word has a tendency to
reserve space for the highest used resolution for the whole file. Consider
to use a "placeholder" for those high-resolution pictures that you want to
print on special paper, and put them in a separate file. Keep also in mind
that each font you use will limit your memory. Try to use only 4 font faces
(Times, Arial, Courier and one special). Limit the use of different fonts
on one page (normal/bold/italic/... are all different fonts for your
system). And also non-standard font high do use memory when MS Word
produces the file for the printer spooler. Try to use the fonts of your
printer driver and/or True Type fonts (other fonts will use a lot of space !).

Summary:
- fine tune the use of memory by your document (images, fonts, links, ...)
- don't use the "virtual" multi-tasking capability of Windows 95/98 and try
to be mono-tasked for this job

I've planned to make a "How to" in Dutch for myself on this topic, but only
in August (OR 6 weeks after TMG 4.0a is available - I'm a UFT'er ). I will
post when it's ready.

At work we have circumvented the whole problem, because we have adapted the
section page numbering, and do use one section for about 5 to 10 printed
pages (with own index/TOC). The main index and TOC are produced when
needed, but refer to the section. Once we could use Windows NT 4.0 (really
multi-tasking as OS/2), we did see at work a net improvement on how much we
could print of a big document. This wasn't a problem with AmiPro & OS/2
Warp in 1995. But the marketing of MS succeeded to impose their monopoly
solution <g>.


Greetings,

Luc Matthijs
Evere (Brussels, Belgium)
mailto:


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