File size of rtf files created in MSWord 2007 very large

There must be a simple explanation for this, but I just can't seem to figure it out. A friend was using Wordperfect 5.1 (DOS) and converted to MSWord 2007. He imported the WP files into Word and saved them.

Occasionally he'll need to use one of those files as a 'template' (he's an attorney) and he'll bring up the Word file, modify it and save it - but if he's emailing the file to another attorney, he saves the file as an RTF.

The RTF files that are created from Word are HUGE - sometimes 4-5mb for a 4-page document. I think I've discovered that the document's fonts are embedded in the RTF file, and some of the fonts are indeed very large. However, the option to embed fonts is UN-checked in the Word Options section.

The really strange thing is that if I take that huge RTF file and save it as a Word97 (docx) file, it's only 25kb or so. But if I then open that newly-created docx file and save it as an RTF, the file size again goes to 4-5mb.

This problem seems to occur only when the original file came from WP5.1 - any ideas?

 

Try copying the contents of the huge rtf file into a new blank document, and then save the new document as an rtf.

 

I took the large RTF, copied and pasted everything into a new document, then saved that file as an RTF, but again that file is 4+ Mb -

 

Well, I finally determined the problem. There were two places in the document where my friend had inserted his signature - a .bmp file that was pretty big, about 500k. Somehow that caused the rtf file to be 4mb (although the .docx file wasn't but about 1mb).

I took the sig from the word document, saved it and converted it to a .jpg (about 25k) and re-inserted it into the document, then saved it as an .rtf - that fixed the problem! The rtf now is about 50k - I saw the binary stuff in the file and assumed that it was a font, I was overlooking the two signature .bmp's -

 

Interesting. I had played around with this a bit and made a small 2 page file of about 20 words and lots of blank lines. Saving as .docx it was 11(kb). Saving as .rtf in Word it was 32(kb).

However, an online converter http://www.convert-doc.com/ was able to encode the .docx to .rtf at only 11(kb). So maybe it is somewhat due to the way Word does the encoding.

I'm curious how the online converter would work with the original docx file containing the BMP. Would it be able to keep the smaller size automatically?