MousePotatoPower

At work, I deal with a lot of e-mail issues.  Today, somebody had trouble sending an e-mail:

• The e-mail was an 8-page newsletter made in MS Word
• the newsletter was 15 MB
• There were only about 8 graphics in it, mostly digital pictures
• The last page was a 1-page scan of a letter from the president
• The e-mail was being sent to 144 employees within the company
• It was also being sent to approximately 100 non-employees outside the company

244 recipients x 15 MB = a whole lot of e-mail

In an effort to reduce the load on our servers, I found this great tutorial on compressing graphics in Word.  It also applies to Powerpoint.  About 6 mouse clicks and Word compressed the 15 MB attachment down to 4.5 MB.  Taking out the 1-page scan dropped the newsletter down to an amazing 450 KB.

In Powerpoint 2007, you’ll need to click on a graphic, select Picture Tools, then find the Compress Pictures button on the new Ribbon interface.