Office 2008 starts very slow

[DwightSchultz]

* sigh* I know I might have to. Depressing because I like my fancy signatures with HTML. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Is there no one that troubleshooted it's way out of the every increasing textsize bizz?

 

[Diane Ross]

* sigh* I know I might have to. Depressing because I like my fancy signatures
with HTML. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Is there no one that troubleshooted it's way out of the every increasing
textsize bizz?

Yes, you can even participate in helping.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/02/fonts_increasing_in_size_with_each_r
eplymsft_is_listening.html>

 

[CJG]

I had this problem, and it was bugging me. So I set upon to try to figure it out. I have a Mini and a Macbook - both Intel. Starts up horribly slow on the Mini, and snappy on the Macbook.

In my case, bringing up the Activity Viewer had the Word application "Not Responding", due to an out of control FontAgent Pro. Running "Uninstall FontAgent Pro" solved the problem, and now the mini is snappy also - about 2 second every time for all the Office Apps.

 

[John McGhie]

That's useful to know.

Slow startup is usually caused by OS 10.5.2 conflicts, and currently we have
no fix for that.

If you are not yet on OS 10.5.2, don't go there until that issue is fixed,
otherwise you too will get three to five MINUTE startups

Cheers

I had this problem, and it was bugging me. So I set upon to try to figure it
out. I have a Mini and a Macbook - both Intel. Starts up horribly slow on the
Mini, and snappy on the Macbook.

In my case, bringing up the Activity Viewer had the Word application "Not
Responding", due to an out of control FontAgent Pro. Running "Uninstall
FontAgent Pro" solved the problem, and now the mini is snappy also - about 2
second every time for all the Office Apps.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[Rubber_Ducky]

Cleaning out foreign-language fonts seems to largely fix the prob. 54 seconds for Powerpoint to launch after a cold start. Then is immediately available (was taking an additional time - several minutes - to be fully functional). Other Office 2008 apps open rapidly after starting one of them.

 

[aRKay]

Cleaning out foreign-language fonts seems to largely fix the prob.

How did you clean the out? I fear tossing out something that
may be necessary. Too bad there is no guideline on what can
and should not be removed.

 

[DwightSchultz]

@John McGhie: That's not entirely true. I had these problems way before 10.5.2 ever came out. So slow start is not only caused by that.

Cleaning out the language files helped some, but not for me either.

The only fix was the bitter pill of a complete reinstall.

 

[John McGhie]

Well, what I said is "entirely true" -- slow start up *usually* is caused by
a conflict in OS 10.5.2.

What you are saying is that "but OS 10.5.2 is not always the cause". And
that is also entirely true

We hope that many of the issues will be resolved by the Office 2008 Service
Pack 1, which Microsoft tells us is due on March 11th.

@John McGhie: That's not entirely true. I had these problems way before 10.5.2
ever came out. So slow start is not only caused by that.

Cleaning out the language files helped some, but not for me either.

The only fix was the bitter pill of a complete reinstall.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[joelwnelson]

I have 10.5.2 and Office 12.0.1 and am still getting the 15-30 second launch times. My computer is a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM.
Foreign fonts are turned off in Font Book and the only language proofing tools installed are English, French, and Spanish.

 

[John McGhie]

They are still working vigorously on "performance" so expect several more
updates.

Your startup is slower than they mean it to be. They will certainly improve
it.

But you do not have the major problem that some users are getting, of a
startup that takes up to three MINUTES

Hang in there...

I have 10.5.2 and Office 12.0.1 and am still getting the 15-30 second launch
times. My computer is a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM.
Foreign fonts are turned off in Font Book and the only language proofing tools
installed are English, French, and Spanish.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Byron McConnell]

I run OS 10.4.11 and Microsoft Office 2008 (mostly Entourage, Word, and Excel) on my PowerBook G4. Based on some feedback I've read, I've turned off the following in my General preferences to try to speed things up: WYSIWYG font and style menus + Show Project Gallery at startup. No change. After I start up my Mac each day, I start up each of these three applications. Startup on each of them individually is well over three minutes each and sometime more. Never had this type of issue with Office 2004. After the initial startup each day, I keep them on and they run well and are stable. These are the only apps that are slow. Any advice? I'm reluctant to enable upgrades for the rest of my team (7 still on Office 2004) until I can get this issue resolved.

Thanks!

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Byron:

Are you sure the slow machine is running OS 10.4.11? That's what I am
running (on Intel), and Office 2008 is nice and snappy here.

I thought this issue affected only installations on OS 10.5.2 on the PPC.
This is the first time I have seen it on OS 10.4.11.

You may wish to try this:

1) Quit all Microsoft applications.

2) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension.

3) Find and drag the file Normal.dotm to your desktop. Unless you have
moved it, it should be in
/Users/ ~ /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

4) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)

User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist

User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 (the whole folder!)

5) Now re-start Word 2008 and it should be OK.

Be thorough with this, if you leave any of these files behind Word 2008 will
find them and won't replace them. Do it right and Word will construct a
new, clean, set of preferences and everything should now work.

Then you need to re-apply the patch:

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>

The list of fixes is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/948057

There are a lot of fixes in the pipe-line. And this slow startup bug is one
of the highest priority, so we'll get it as soon as it's ready.

Hope this helps

I run OS 10.4.11 and Microsoft Office 2008 (mostly Entourage, Word, and Excel)
on my PowerBook G4. Based on some feedback I've read, I've turned off the
following in my General preferences to try to speed things up: WYSIWYG font
and style menus + Show Project Gallery at startup. No change. After I start up
my Mac each day, I start up each of these three applications. Startup on each
of them individually is well over three minutes each and sometime more. Never
had this type of issue with Office 2004. After the initial startup each day, I
keep them on and they run well and are stable. These are the only apps that
are slow. Any advice? I'm reluctant to enable upgrades for the rest of my team
(7 still on Office 2004) until I can get this issue resolved.

Thanks!

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Matthew Gardiner]

Hi,

Just to step in here; I've found that the Office 2008 is a little slowish to
start up, but with that being said, once you've loaded it once, its faster
the next time. IMHO I think there are greater issue that need addressing,
like better compatibility with Office 2007, and the lack of a cross platform
scripting solution for Office for Mac - I'm confused as to why they removed
VBA when they had no multiplatform alternative in the pipe line.

Matthew

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm confused as to why they removed
VBA when they had no multiplatform alternative in the pipe line.

May help with the confusion, if not the difficulties--
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Just FYI--I'm at launchtimes of about 10 seconds for Word, 8 seconds for
Excel, and 10 seconds for Entourage, with a similar setup--powerbook g4
running 10.4.11 but with 2GB of RAM. With wsyisyg fonts on, 201 fonts
in Font Book, but Project Gallery off. Usually running other apps at
launch (Safari, Dreamweaver)

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello Byron -

Extending on what John posted...

The startup issue is certainly not universal - although I'm not questioning
what you report. However, I'm running 2008 on a G5 PPC, 10.4.11 & none of
the apps take more than 6 seconds to fully launch. If it's taking
significantly longer on your system I'd have to suspect that there are other
factors involved. The first area of concern is the hardware itself.

"Powerbook G4" doesn't disclose much other than that it has a G4
processor. There were numerous models of that system whose processor speeds
ranged from 400 MHz to 1.67 MHz. Depending on which one you have that can
make a big difference. Also, none of the PB G4s shipped with more than 512
MB of 333 MHz RAM, expandable to 2 GB, so again whether you've added memory
& where your Mac falls in that range will make a major difference as well.
Another performance factor - determined by specific model - is graphics
support. Many of the PB G4s have only 32-64 MB graphics support which also
contributes to decreased performance.

Additionally, free disk space will make a considerable difference. If your
HD is more than 75% filled you can expect significant degradation -
especially if the total capacity is less than 80 Gig - many of the PB G4s
had only 60s and were only 4200 rpm.

Next you have to figure in the condition of the HD's file system. You might
try running Disk Utility - Verify Disk [or Disk Warrior, TechTool Pro, etc.]
to see what kind of shape it's in. Repairing Disk Permissions may be in
order as well.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[noibs]

For those who are claiming that Office starts up in 6 or 7 seconds, REBOOT your Mac. Then, open Excel or Word and time how long it takes.

There are two groups of people is this forum who are having problems. The first group (I'm not included) are those who are waiting a very long time (more than a minute) for an Office app to open.

The other group are those who are complaining because the first Office app to open after a reboot takes 30 or 40 seconds to open, which is a very long time for any non-carbon (PPC), or non-Rosetta (Intel) app. After the first Office app is opened, subsequent launches of that app or a different Office app are much faster.

I'm upset because Office 2008 on an Intel 2.16ghz Core 2 duo MacBook doesn't "feel" much faster than Office 2004 did running under Rosetta. I also have to deal with the 40 second launch of the first Office app following a reboot--which is inexcusable given how fast virtually all other apps launch following a reboot.

 

[Matthew Gardiner]

May help with the confusion, if not the difficulties--
http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2006/08/08/saying-goodbye-to-visual-basic/

Yes, it but would be nice that before they do a rip and burn, the come up
with a replacement to VBA - you know, integrating .NET into Office for
Windows and Mac, to ensure that there is a future path where by Macro's can
be shared across platforms.

I understand the complication regarding VBA, but when they do nothing to
replace it, I question whether they're simply going to kill off Office for
Mac in the future given the lack of direction by Microsoft over this issue.

Matthew

 

[CyberTaz]

Since you don't quote the message you're replying to I'm assuming it's aimed
at mine So here's a bit more specific information. First let me make it
clear that the performance speed of 2008 is definitely NOT what it should be
- about that there's no question. That having been said....

On my Macbook Pro, 2.4 GHz, 2 MB running 10.5.0 launch time for Word 2008
*after* a cold start is ~13 seconds, Excel ~10 seconds. Subsequent launches
of either program take ~3-5 seconds.

On my PM G5 Dual 2 GHz, 1.5 MB running 10.4.11 launch time for Word
following a fresh startup is ~10-12 seconds, Excel ~3-4 seconds. Subsequent
launches of Word ~6 seconds, Excel ~2 seconds.

Further, my 2 installations of Office 2008 are from completely separate
packages - one being a Home & Student Edition the other being the Special
Media Edition, so that eliminates the possibility that I "got lucky" with a
copy that is somewhat "higher speed" than what anyone else has. Both
installations have WYSIWYG font menus enabled & have not been modified in
many related respects other than turning off the Project Gallery on startup.

Depending on whether one sees from a "glass-half-full" or a
"glass-half-empty" perspective my circumstances may sound like I'm bragging,
but I don't claim to be a magician or that anything about my setups are
"better" or more well-maintained than those of anyone else... In fact, just
the opposite. However, the facts are the facts. If the performance I'm
experiencing is possible here it should be attainable elsewhere. If it isn't
being realized there must be contributing factors above & beyond the
inherent shortcomings of Office itself.

Perhaps if those who are experiencing intolerable speeds would do a little
introspective analysis and offer some insights based on their findings we
might identify some common causes that would benefit those affected. Simply
joining a choir that exclusively sings the anti-Microsoft anthem is not only
singularly unproductive but also a waste of everyone's time.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

I guess you must have OS 10.5.2.

I am running the same hardware, and launches take about 13 seconds from a
cold boot, subsequent launches 3 to 5 seconds.

If you are not in OS 10.5.2, then post back and we'll see if we can help you
clean it up a bit.

If you are in OS 10.5.2, then yes, there are performance issues, and
Microsoft are working on them.

Cheers

For those who are claiming that Office starts up in 6 or 7 seconds, REBOOT
your Mac. Then, open Excel or Word and time how long it takes.

There are two groups of people is this forum who are having problems. The
first group (I'm not included) are those who are waiting a very long time
(more than a minute) for an Office app to open.

The other group are those who are complaining because the first Office app to
open after a reboot takes 30 or 40 seconds to open, which is a very long time
for any non-carbon (PPC), or non-Rosetta (Intel) app. After the first Office
app is opened, subsequent launches of that app or a different Office app are
much faster.

I'm upset because Office 2008 on an Intel 2.16ghz Core 2 duo MacBook doesn't
"feel" much faster than Office 2004 did running under Rosetta. I also have to
deal with the 40 second launch of the first Office app following a
reboot--which is inexcusable given how fast virtually all other apps launch
following a reboot.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]