Documents slow to open from a network folder

[Rick]

Word documents in a specific folder on a network drive take up to a minute to
open up. This appears to be happening with just one user on the network.
Word otherwise opens quickly, other documents on the same network drive (but
in different folders) open just fine, and the normal.dot file does not appear
to be a problem. Any ideas? I'm running out of my own!

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Rick

First, make sure the user has cleaned up after any previous crashes:
What to do when Word crashes
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

And then follow the suggestions here:
Problems opening Word
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm
Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Rick]

Update...I have discovered that files in that specific folder are slow to
open from my computer too, leading me to think it's a problem with the
documents themselves in some way. If I Edit...select all...copy, and then
paste the whole lot into a new document, and then save the new docuement with
the same file name (overwriting the original document), the new document
opens up in a flash. I've looked at the suggestions you mention, and perhaps
it has something to do with the old document looking for a network printer
that doesn't exist any more. What do you think?

BTW...thanks for the help!

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Rick

Your copy > paste experience suggests that there's something wrong with the
document. Word documents don't remember what printer they were printed on,
so missing network printers don't apply. Documents do, however, remember the
template from which they were created, so a missing or re-named server that
held templates can be a problem. See the following for more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830561

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[pmt82]

I have a problem where it is looking for a linked image that is also
used in an old template from a de-activated server. The documents show
the correct path to the new template however they still have a link
path to an old image. Though when you remove the link it still takes a
while to load. I have also tried removing the template and saving but
this does not fix the load times. I have alot of documents on a network
folder which are affected by this, other documents are fine.

Any ideas that can be used to quickly fix alot of documents?

 

[pmt82]

Is it only the template and the link to an image that would slow down
word on opening these older documents we have?