Office 2004

[Emily]

I have recently switched to Office 2004, and have noticed that it seems to
get "backed up" - meaning that after some period of time cuts, pastes and
even typing results in extended delays. Any ideas on why this is happening?
These simple tasks really shouldn't be taxing my system.

Also, the makepdf command jams at about 90% finished. No pdf. What's
going on?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Emily,

My bet is that your computer's real RAM got used up and MacOS started to use
the hard drive as RAM.

Actual physical RAM is very fast. When the actual RAM gets used up MacOS
will use your hard drive so that you can continue working on your program,
but using the hard drive as RAM is very slow especially if you have an older
iMac or a laptop. You will find that you constantly have to wait for the
system to catch up to you with little pauses every few seconds as you work.

The cure is to get more real RAM installed into your computer. Other things
to be mindful of:
Some documents need more memory than others. Lots of graphics, movies, and
embedded stuff eats up RAM.
Close applications you aren't using. They use RAM even if you're not doing
anything with them at the present time.
Re-starting the computer may help. I heard (but don't believe it personally)
that once MacOS starts using the hard drive as RAM it continues to do so
until you restart the computer. If it's true then you should try it, and no
harm done if you do restart. At least re-starting shuts down all the other
open applications.

Yet another possibility is that your computer's hard drive went to sleep
while you were working on your document. If that happens you have a large
pause when the drive spins up again. This can be even more noticeable on a
network drive. You can control sleep behavior in the MacOS energy panel.

Hope this helps!

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Keith Wilson]

I have recently switched to Office 2004, and have noticed that it seems
to
get "backed up" - meaning that after some period of time cuts, pastes
and
even typing results in extended delays. Any ideas on why this is
happening?
These simple tasks really shouldn't be taxing my system.

Also, the makepdf command jams at about 90% finished. No pdf. What's
going on?

I posted on this a few weeks ago and have found no resolution. I have
tried reinstalling, repairing permissions and so on, to no avail. What
I think I may have to do is get more RAM, as it seems that this may be
the problem. Can't believe that Office is so memory hungry (especially
as an ex-RISC OS user, where a very competent DTP application, as good
as M$ Publisher, could run with ease on 4Mb of RAM!).

 

[Gene van Troyer]

Actual physical RAM is very fast. When the actual RAM gets used up MacOS
will use your hard drive so that you can continue working on your program,
but using the hard drive as RAM is very slow especially if you have an older
iMac or a laptop. You will find that you constantly have to wait for the
system to catch up to you with little pauses every few seconds as you work.

I'd recommend a full 1 GB of RAM, but if price is a barrier, 512 MB should
do well enough. In my opinion, iBooks and iMacs come woefully under-equipped
with only 256 MB RAM. I couldn't believe the iMac 20" flatpanel--256 MB.
What a joke!

Gene van Troyer