I opened a document from a previous version (Word 2000, I think) in Word 2003, made a few minor changes, and saved it again. Now, it uses up more than twice the previous size. (The document had ca. 30 pages, most of it in a table. The size grew from ca. 300 KB to ca. 600 MB.)

I have already checked:

That Fast Save is disabled,

That saving multiple versions is disabled.

I also tried, without success with regard to the file size, to disable features after Word 97.

Is there anything else I have to check? Or do I simply have to put up with the fact that Word documents have grown so much larger? The strange thing, even if I save it as RTF, the size is maintained.

I wanted to publish this particular document on the Web. Of course, I can, and will, compress it. But I am still wondering what is going on.

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)