Hi Bob,
Do you have any mapped/network drives that may not currently be available? If so, disconnecting or refreshing the connections may
help. Word may be waiting for Windows to find all of the 'drives' it's supposed to show when you use the 'Look in' choice in
File=>Open or Insert from file operations' and will eventually time out if Word has been 'stood up' by Windows for too long.
If you have a directory you use frequently add it to the 'Places bar' in the File Open dialog (method can vary by Word and Windows
version) and see if you then get the same delay using the icon there to jump to another directory.
===============
When I try to save a document (or attach one to an email), it often takes
several minutes for the directory to change so that I can specify where I
want to save the document (or retrieve it). This is an ongoing problem in
Word.>>
--
Bob Buckland ?

MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*