It's easy to forget that there is a lot going on in a Word .doc that normally isn't being displayed on screen, and perhaps your long post created as a .doc just doesn't suit this forum very well. My suggestion would be to either use a simple text program OR use Word and save what you've written as a TEXT file, not a .doc ...and then copy/paste that text into your post. If it helps, great. If not...sorry.

The same paragraph typed in Word tends to take up more space than one typed in plain text (like Notepad) because of all the extra "stuff" Word adds to the document for formatting, etc.

If you like to compose in Word and want to post here, the easiest solution might be to copy/paste the document into Notepad and from Notepad into the composition box on GardenWeb.

As an aside, I might suggest to keep, especially questions, fairly succinct because people tend to loose interest half way through a long message. ;-(

azinoh & Mike: I forgot to mention that after my attempt to post yesterday, that I copied the Word file into Notepad and even closed/reopened the file with identical word count results & failure. I actually couldn't see the file sizes at the time; I don't move around Win10 as well as I used to with XP.

edit: OK, I just checked file sizes. My Notepad file was 2.73 KB while Word was ~12 KB. I do note that my Notepad file actually opens in word but it is rich text, an rtf file. I just attempted to post the rtf file again. It still fails and I see that gardenweb length count was slightly bigger than yesterday ~16,500 vs ~15,800 chars.

Houzz seems to limit a post to 21,800 characters (at least on the "test" forum).

If you're interested in what that looks like: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4223854/max-post-size-21800-characters

Why don't you just type your post directly here? Why use Word at all?

Jane

Jane; I knew my post would be a little long. Unfortunately, several times I have wiped out my potential posts on GW with some undetermined typing or mouse click. I didn't want to risk that again; And yes, I plan to try exactly that.

Also, thanks for bringing this back to my attention; I had wanted to see chuggerguy's link about viewing the expected size of a maxed out document, but it is a broken link.

Chas, there have been times when I was writing a post and got interrupted and had to leave the post. I always copy it to notepad. When I come back I paste it back into GW. I never use Word. Not necessary as you can change anything directly on Garden web or in Notepad. I've never had a problem no matter how long the post. It's quick and easy.

Jane