Table & Columns Cause EXTREME sluggishness

[JeffC]

I have a 22 page document that has a 2 column structure. It has one table
that extends 21 pages. The table has 3 columns, with ONLY TEXT in the
cells. So, just to be clear, the three column table wraps on each page to
column 2 before proceeding to the next page.

This structure causes EXTREME sluggishness. Is there a problem here? Is
there another way to structure this?

The document is a price sheet.
Thanks.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Word has always been very slow with long tables
(http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/FastTables.htm). Putting the
table into a 2-column layout just makes it worse. (In effect, you have a
table that's 42 pages long but folded in half.)

Two things that might help:

- Break the table into smaller separate tables, maybe by product groups or
some other scheme that makes sense to you.

- Ditch the 2-column layout and "fake it" by making a table with 7 columns,
with the horizontal borders of the center column turned off. That will
require rearranging the data, though, and might not be feasible if the
document is updated a lot.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[JeffC]

Thanks alot.

Word has always been very slow with long tables
(http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/FastTables.htm). Putting the
table into a 2-column layout just makes it worse. (In effect, you have a
table that's 42 pages long but folded in half.)

Two things that might help:

- Break the table into smaller separate tables, maybe by product groups or
some other scheme that makes sense to you.

- Ditch the 2-column layout and "fake it" by making a table with 7 columns,
with the horizontal borders of the center column turned off. That will
require rearranging the data, though, and might not be feasible if the
document is updated a lot.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.