Macro Speeds up Mac Word 2004

[Ron Rhodes]

Many Microsoft Word users have complained that the new version of Word is
slow in making a word BOLD when you select Command-B, or making a word
ITALICIZED when selecting Command-I, or making a word UNDERLINED when
selecting Command-U, or when pasting by selecting Command-V.

I devised a little macro trick to solve this slowness.

I noticed that when you select a word and then select Command-B to make the
word BOLD, it would become immediately bold, with no delay, if you
immediately clicked the mouse button after selecting Command-B.

So, I devised macros that make bolding, italicizing, underlining, and
pasting much, much faster.

Each macro simply adds a mouse click after the command.

The macro for BOLD would be:
Select Bold
Mouse Click

Assign Command-B to this macro.

Following this, your BOLDING will bold much faster when you select
Command-B.

NOTE: After you start up a new Word document, the first time you select
Command-B will take a little longer, only because the macro engine is
kicking in. Once you select Command-B a single time, it will be fast
thereafter.

Use this same trick with italicizing, underlining, pasting, etc.

Hope this helps.

Dr. Ron Rhodes

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I noticed that when you select a word and then select Command-B to make the
word BOLD, it would become immediately bold, with no delay, if you
immediately clicked the mouse button after selecting Command-B.

I don't see this behavior. Cmd-B is pretty immediate for me. However, I'm
pretty sure that the slowness people complain of in Word 2004 (relating to
formatting or deleting text) is caused by something and not inherent to Word
2004, b/c not everybody suffers it. But nobody who complains ever seems to
want to try the regular fixes and see if they make a difference. I don't
understand....

It's very interesting to learn that the mouse click makes a difference, and
perhaps the macro will help some of the people who have complained. Ron, if
you want to make sure there's no corruption on your system slowing Word
down, you can run through the fixes here:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

 

[Ron Rhodes]

I've seen the behavior not just on my G4, but also on brand new G4s and G5s
down at the Apple Store (I went there and test them out).

Ron Rhodes

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Oh, it's clearly a real problem, I just think something is causing it, as
opposed to it being an internal bug in Word's code that we can't do anything
about. I doubt people are doing much Word-focused maintenance on display
hardware at the Apple Store, so that you see it there, I think, bolsters my
claim that it should be fixable.

Will you run through the standard fixes and let us know if anything makes a
difference?

DM

 

[Ron Rhodes]

Yes, some weeks ago I ran the standard fixes at the web site you
recommended. It's a good site, and I followed the instructions. But the
problem persists. That's why I resorted to the macro-fix.

Ron Rhodes

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks very much for the confirmation that it isn't a simple fix. Since not
everyone sees this slowness, who knows if the MacBU can identify what's
causing it, but eliminating the standard corruptions is a good start.

DM