This is a "how long is a piece of string" question
The only published hardware limits are MINIMUMs.
However: We do have some indications....
1) Word is an "idle loop" application (most multi-tasking software is...)
so to gain maximum performance, stop all other applications that could
generate interrupts.
2) Word is a 32-bit application, which means it doesn't really know about
either memory or file sizes beyond 2GB
3) Word is almost entirely single-threaded, which means one document at a
time, and it can thus use only one CPU.
4) Word was originally designed back in the days when 64 kb was a lot of
memory
So it tends to read in small buffers, process them, then write
them out again. It's not designed to load up a gigabyte of data, munch it,
and dump it.
5) Word tends to become I/O bound on a modern machine. On anything more
powerful than a Pentium 90, the CPU will run well ahead of the hard disk.
Taking all that into consideration, there are a several things you can
do....
The first thing I would do is create a RAM disk:
http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/23/create-a-ram-disk-in-mac-os-x/
That will give you a speed boost of about 1,000 times.
You can launch multiple instances of Word:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030711041351836
However: if you're good at scripting, and assuming that all those documents
are .docx, just open them up in grep and fire your replaces using regex.
Now THAT will really keep those CPUs sweating
Cheers
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel
I have 250000+ find−replace applescript strings that run against
multiple word documents simultaneously on a regular basis. I've been able to
cut the processing time by optimizing the scripts yet I wonder if Word
actually uses all the horsepower the OS+hardware offers. So:
1. What is the current hardware limit for Word 2008?
Meaning, what is the largest amount of RAM, number of processors, hard drives,
etc. actually used by Word 2008 under Snow Leopard?
This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!
--
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:
[email protected]