Word 2003 opens slow

  • Thread starter Thread starter Randy Davis
  • Start date Start date
R

Randy Davis

For some reason, Word 2003 has slowed upon opening. It gives me the splash
screen and from there it opens very slowly. I've deleted and reinstalled my
printer, checked my fonts, and can find no reason for it to be opening
slowly. Can someone advise me of what else I mght try?

Randy Davis
 
I've done all of that (renamded normal.dot, deleted data folder from
registry, no entries in startup folder) and I still have slowness when
opening. It appears that it is searching for a document, as in the default
document, but I don't know for sure. I do know that if I open a second
occurrence it loads instantly.

Randy Davis
 
Does this scenario fit the the problem? You are trying to open a document
based on a template that has either moved or no longer exists?

Terry
 
Or is on a network you're not connected to?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
No, I'm tyring to open Word as one would normally, using the normal.dot
template, and I am not on a network. Once it is started I can then open a
second instance of Word on my computer and it is instanteously opened. Also,
if I start it from the command line using the /a switch it starts instantly.

Randy Davis
 
FWIW, it takes an age for Word 2003 to open on my machine. Since I leave it
open all day, I don't know whether it would open more quickly a second time
or not, but it takes 20-30 seconds the first time. There used to be
something called the Office Startup Assistant (OSA) that preloaded some
common components to make Office apps load more quickly. I don't know
whether there's some current equivalent of that or not, but there needs to
be.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
OK, that's about how long my Word is now taking to open. FWIW, OSA.exe is
available on the CD. You can install it to your office11 directory and then
create a shortcut in your startup folder. It will decreas you start time by
half, which means now it will only take it about ten seconds to open.

Randy Davis
 
If starting with the /a switch is OK and creating a new normal.dot does not
help, then this is symptomatic of a third party add-in or
corrupt/unobtainable printer driver screwing up Word. Have you checked to
see what add-ins may be present and tried moving or disabling them? Is the
printer OK and can Word se it correctly?

Terry
 
Terry,

I've uninstalled the printer and reinstalled it, to no avail. It also works
fine with other programs. When I check the add-ins the only thing showing is
under the XML Schema tag. There I have six entries for Microsoft Small
Business Acounting, but none of them are checked. I've also unchecked all
third-party smart tags. So, as far as I know nothing should be running from
the start of Word.

Randy Davis
 
I'm not sure where to go from here. All I can state absolutely is that if it
works with the /a switch - where Word runs in its default install mode
bypassing all macros, templates, add-ins, COM addins, etc. - it proves that
there is nothing wrong with Word but that there is something else on your
computer that is messing it up. The most common causes are third party
add-ins - usually templates installed in Word Startup folder - or the
printer driver.

Terry
 
Well, I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with it opening slowly. I have
seen already where another person claims it taks twenty seconds to open, and
mine will do it in about seventeen, so I guess I'm in good shape.

It's probably a good time to start playing around with Open Office.

Randy Davis
 
As a matter of interest my Word 2000 takes about 4 seconds on a Celeron M
machine with 512K RAM. I have several quite complex macros (if that is
relevant)
 
My machine is fairly old, but I don't think processor speed is really an
issue. I have several add-ins (including Adobe Acrobat, which adds a
toolbar) and hundreds of fonts, and I'm running under Windows 2000. I timed
it this morning, and it was in fact just about 20 seconds.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Mine's slow too - Outlook is even slower and my PC while not the fastest
available is certainly up there - but like you I have a weighty ovehead for
Word to carry. I rarely shut Word or Outlook down and turn the PC off using
its hibernate feature so the problem, if it is a problem, doesn't often
arise.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 
FWIW, my Word 2007 opens in less than 1 second under Vista. This is not a
blisteringly fast new computer either: it is a modestly specified P4 3.0/2,
with a Radeon 1600XT, though it does have a generous 2GB PC533 dual channel
memory. (I have requested Santa brings me a Core 2 DUO e6600 - or better,
for Christmas.) Outlook take around 3 seconds but that takes longer because
I have quite a generous PST file.

Terry
 
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