Are your file sizes soaring? Especially if you have files which are used and re-used frequently, you may find that they are getting to a size which is stretching your disk space to its limits.
What happens is that each time you make alterations, PageMaker adds the changes to the end of the file, which means it is quicker to save, but can make it slower to work, and can eat up space until even the largest disk nears capacity.
With older versions the only way out of this was to choose Save as… from the File menu and click on the existing file name, so that you are saving the file under its existing name.
You will receive a message box telling you this file already exists and asking if you want to replace the existing file. To avoid dangers, the No choice will be highlighted.
Go ahead and click on Yes, and your file size will drop, sometimes quite dramatically.
This is still an action to encourage in PageMaker users, especially when a file has reached its final version.
The smaller file will be less liable to corruption, and will be quicker to open.
In the latest version of PageMaker, you also have a choice in the Preferences menu item under the File Menu. In the bottom left hand corner is a choice of buttons for the Save option: Faster or Smaller.
Selecting Smaller achieves the equivalent of a Save as… selection each time you save. However, PageMaker will still do its automatic mini-saves each time you take a dramatic action, such as printing or changing to another page.
Another way of saving on file size is to reduce the setting for storing graphics. This choice is found from the Other button in the Preferences box from the File menu.
Setting the "Alert when storing graphics over:" figure to a lower kilobytes amount will mean that PageMaker accesses the original files for printing instead of storing the whole file within its file.
This will have a special effect if you are using the same graphics in many files.