Problem with MailMerge and performance

[martin_link75]

I have a .Net application that produces a bunch of Word documents
through MailMerge. Each document is created with the help of a Word
template which in turn is connected to a database view.

When I run the program as an Administrator, I have no problem. The
creation process is pretty fast. But when I switch to a User with
limited rights, the creation process takes about five times longer than
when I ran it as an Administrator. I did exactly the same thing with
both users, and I tried it several times with the same result.

Does any smart person know what the problem might be? Coult it be some
read/write access permission that is needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Martin

 

[Cindy M.]

I have a .Net application that produces a bunch of Word documents

through MailMerge. Each document is created with the help of a Word
template which in turn is connected to a database view.

When I run the program as an Administrator, I have no problem. The
creation process is pretty fast. But when I switch to a User with
limited rights, the creation process takes about five times longer than
when I ran it as an Administrator. I did exactly the same thing with
both users, and I tried it several times with the same result.

Does any smart person know what the problem might be?

Impossible to say without knowing more details. What's the actual data
source? Something like SQL Server? If it's a network server type, I'd
start the investigations there.

You might also do some logging to localize what actions are slowing
things down.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[martin_link75]

Thank you for your reply, Cindy!

I use SQL Server view as the data source and it is a Windows 2K3
server. All the mail merging is done on the client though. I have also
logged the actions, and I've concluded that the Document.Add action is
the one that takes the longest. With administrative rights it takes
approximately one second, and without administrative rights it takes up
to 17 seconds doing the exact same thing. Could there be a
configuration in Word that could cause this? That's the only thing that
I can think of that could be different between the users. Note that the
tests were run on the same client, only with different users.

Any ideas?
Thanks!
Martin


Cindy M. skrev:

 

[martin_link75]

Thank you for your reply, Cindy!

I use SQL Server view as the data source and it is a Windows 2K3
server. All the mail merging is done on the client though. I have also
logged the actions, and I've concluded that the Document.Add action is
the one that takes the longest. With administrative rights it takes
approximately one second, and without administrative rights it takes up
to 17 seconds doing the exact same thing. Could there be a
configuration in Word that could cause this? That's the only thing that
I can think of that could be different between the users. Note that the
tests were run on the same client, only with different users.

Any ideas?
Thanks!
Martin


Cindy M. skrev:

 

[Cindy M.]

I use SQL Server view as the data source and it is a Windows 2K3

server. All the mail merging is done on the client though. I have also
logged the actions, and I've concluded that the Document.Add action is
the one that takes the longest. With administrative rights it takes
approximately one second, and without administrative rights it takes up
to 17 seconds doing the exact same thing. Could there be a
configuration in Word that could cause this? That's the only thing that
I can think of that could be different between the users. Note that the
tests were run on the same client, only with different users.

OK, then we have to consider what kinds of things could be happening when
Word generates a new, mail merge document

1. Is this document template already connected to the SQL Server data
source? If it is, we could still be looking at a problem with the
connection. If you try to log into the same view "manually" through some
interface, first as an admin, then as a "normal user", do you notice any
significant difference in the time it takes to access the view?

2. Does the template contain any VBA macros - AutoNew or DocumentNew -
that cuold be executing?

3. What kind of permissions does the folder where the template is stored
have?

4. Could there be any Add-ins installed in the "normal user" profile that
are capturing the DocumentNew event, perhaps?

5. If your app doesn't start Word, but uses (or can use) an existing
instance, try starting Word in Safe Mode (hold down CTRL) then create the
mail merge. If there is an Add-in or something, you should notice a
significant difference when running in Safe Mode.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail