In the world we live in today, the ability to process and manage data It is a crucial tool. It is evident that advances in computing have made practically all of the information that was previously handled pass into digitize. Anyone who regularly uses technologies, mobile devices and computers knows how include images, slides, graphs or other visual elements in their files or presentations, however, most do not know how they can optimize the weight of these elements for the device to work faster, so being efficient when working with files becomes a useful skill to stand out from the majority.
If you find yourself in this group, but want to delve deeper into this path to Learn how to better manage file storage, optimization, and utilization, we are sure that this article can help you get what you are looking for. Without a doubt, we encourage you to continue reading since you will take away very useful tools that you can start using right now to simplify and compress the weight of your files and so, improve your work experience and device performance that you use.
Importance of optimizing files
Before talking about how can we reduce the size of our files, it is important to comment because this simple task is so important for improve the efficiency of our work. Perhaps if you don't usually make presentations, or the files you work with only include text, you won't have a problem working with them. On the contrary, if you include images in your documents, hyperlinks, detailed graphics or other similar visual elements, it is vitally important that you start compressing the files, especially if you use this type of presentation for work or frequently since Your PC's storage and loading speed will be affected.
One of the main reasons is that compress the files makes these smaller size and, consequently, you will have more ease of downloading and transferring them. In addition, their processing will also be much faster.
It is also a useful way to organize folders with a multitude of files. At copress large amounts of files in what is known as "libraries«, the weight of this data decreases considerably. This is something that is used very frequently when downloading files since it is much faster.
Alternatives to compress files in Microsoft Office
Next, we will present different alternatives so you can reduce and optimize the size of your files in the main Office work applications: Word, PowerPoint and Excel, since they are the most frequently used and include heavy elements.
Optimize PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a basic Microsoft tool used to create presentations very visual by integrating slides that usually combine text, images and even videos. Therefore, heThe files usually have considerable weight and it is important to try compress the elements that we insert, especially images and videos, so we will focus on them. You will only have to follow the following steps:
- The first thing you will have to do is Insert the image you want to optimize on the slide. Select this image by clicking on it.
- In superior menu click on the option «Format«. Different options will appear here, among which you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the image, modify its size, include photo frames...
- Choose "Compress images«. Here you can optimize in a simple way, or in an advanced way by clicking on options, where you can choose image quality depending on the use you are going to give it. The lower the quality, the smaller the size. You can also choose if you want to compress all the images in the presentation or just the ones you want. Simply with this action you will simplify the size of the PowerPoint and it will be easier to load and transfer.
Optimize Word
Become surely it is the most used Microsoft Office application and, although initially it was used simply as a text document and its weight was not very high, currently elements of all kinds can be inserted such as images, links, transitions... Here we will give you some basic tips to reduce the size of your documents.
As in PowerPoint, if we include images the weight of the file will increase, but we can compress these images to make it more efficient. To do this we will follow the same steps as in the previous case. We will have to select the image, go to “Format” and click on “Optimize images”.
An important aspect is also the file format we use when saving. It is usually saved defaults to .docx or .doc. But if it is a file that is already finished, we recommend converting to .pdf as compress the file a lot and, furthermore, the presentation is more cleaning.
Another factor that we must take into account is limit or reduce, to the extent possible, visual effects and elements which increase the size of our files. For example, avoid adding page effects, watermarks, theme fonts and colors.
Optimize Excel
Although the documents Excel They are not usually heavy, if we work with large amounts of data and formulas it is possible that our experience is affected. slowed down. With these simple steps you can compress these files easily.
Something that we can start using right now to simplify these spreadsheets is change file format. That is, instead of saving by default in format . Xlsx, we will do it in .xlsb that compresses and optimizes the size and weight.
It is also recommended delete all unnecessary data, and hidden columns that take up space and, above all, avoid using complex formulas to operate with the data, unless strictly necessary. Excel formulas increase file size, so if possible We will try to use simpler ones.
We can work with graphics and images, but it is always advisable to cClick these items to improve performance in the spreadsheet. We can do it in the way we have explained previously.