Opening docs in Word 2003 very slow

[Guest]

When opening documents, it can take up to 15 seconds to open (and slightly
shorter) to close word documents. The “egg timer†appears for part of this
time (whilst Word is analyzing document appears at the bottom of the screen)
but then disappears. There are several seconds afterwards when the document
is unusable. This only applies to one user on our system. All other users
have same version of word and are using similar documents but they do not
have a problem. This user however does sometimes have Chinese characters in
their documents. The documents are not large – i.e. max 500KB. I have tried
different hardware but the problem still replicates after a few days.

We had the issue in Outlook but it seemed to fix when we stopped Word being
the e-mail editor. Do not particularly want to do this long term however as
many features are lost.

How can I stop this problem on this one computer. It is driving me to
distraction!

 

[Graham Mayor]

Does it do so when Word is started in its safe mode (hold the ctrl key
whilst starting). if not then you probably have a minor corruption in
normal.dot or an add-in template - see
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm
If you are using Norton AV turn off its office plug-in and reinstall the
printer driver on that PC.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Guest]

We have worked through Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 921541. We have also
replaced the Normal.dot with a known good version from another PC with the
same version of Office.

Starting it up in winword safe mode cures the hanging problem. Opening both
local documents and network documents. How ever we have tried a clean boot
and run in safe mode. This exacerbates the problem.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Did you checkout the first of my posted links? That is essential before
trying any troubleshooting tips.
Don't use a 'known good' normal.dot, rename normal.dot to normal.old and
allow Word to create a new one. Then if that works, use the organizer to
copy personalisations from old to new.
Try re-installing the printer driver in that PC.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Guest]

Yes I worked through your links. Still no joy. What is interesting is that I
have renamed normal.dot to normal.old and it has not recreated the .dot file.
I am loathed to use the office installation discs and do a repair as, if it
works, it is only a temporary fix.

Uninstalling the printer driver my prove more difficult. I have the
following installed: hp psc2170 printer & Fax, lexmark 2400 printer & fax MS
office document image writer pdf-xchange 2 de and visage expert PDF. I have
read that PDF creators can cause problems with word. Do you have an opinion

 

[Graham Mayor]

As far as I know it is only the early version of Acrobat 7 that causes
problems by poreventing normal.dot from being saved - see
http://www.gmayor.com/lose_that_adobe_acrobat_toolbar.htm
Word *always* creates a new normal.dot if it doesn't find one present in the
user templates folder. If you don't allow it to save on closing Word then it
is not retained, but a new one is created next time. By default normal.dot
is a hidden file.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Guest]

I have had a good search & there is no Normal.dot on this laptop. I have
checked all profiles. I have turned it off waited then turned it on again
twice.

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you open Word then SHIFT+File > Save All, does that produce a normal.dot
in the folder defined at tools > options > file locations > user templates?
If not, I am baffled.
If it does, you have something (probably an add-in) that is inhibiting
saving. The usual cuplrit is a non-updated copy of Acrobat 7, but I am sure
there will be others.
The fact that it works in Word's safe mode implies that you have a defective
template, add-in, or data key in the registry. Now it's a case of
identifying which.
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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