Slow loading templates list

[Fran]

Word 2003, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP / sp2

We have three users who share templates in Word. I moved the templates
folder to a shared folder on the server so that everyone could create
and share templates. This was working fine and dandy until we upgraded
from Windows 2000 Pro (workstation) and Office XP.

After upgrading the workstations to Windows XP (sp2) and Office 2003
the users have complained that their access to the templates folder is
dismally slow. Indeed I checked this access and what use to be almost
instantaneous now takes between a minute and a minute and a half!!

The ONLY changes we made were upgrading the operating system on the
client side and the version of office. That's it.

Is there something new that MS Word is doing that takes so much longer
to create a list of templates on the shared folder on the server? Is
there possibly some setting in Windows XP that needs to be changed?
Right now my only alternative is to copy all of their templates from
the shared folder on the server BACK to their local PC's. This, of
course, eliminates their ability to create and share files (not the
desired effect).

Can somebody share so light on htis? I'm not a Word guru by any shape
of the imagination and could use some "profound" assistance.

Thanks,

-Fran-

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Don't know the cause. A potential solution with other advantages would be to
incorporate a command in the user login to the network that makes a local
copy of the workgroup folders (still designated as workgroup folders) and
updates it. Otherwise, one user having a document based on a template open
can lock the template from changes made by another user. Under no
circumstances should the user templates folder be shared (the folder that
has normal.dot in it). If you are trying to share normal.dot, take a look at
the alternatives at http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for
step-by-step instructions on moving / sharing / copying / backing-up
customizations including AutoText, AutoCorrect, keyboard assignments,
toolbars, macros, etc.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Fran]

The user templates are in one folder (not shared) but the other
templates (workgroup) are in the shared folder. As I stated earlier
this has been working well under Windows 2000 and Office XP (2002).
The upgrade really made things VERY slow.

I'll look at the links for assistance. If anyone else has experienced
this how did you fix the problem?

-Fran-

 

[Charles Kenyon]

This is almost certainly a matter of the change to Windows 2000 (and
possibly the renaming of your server) rather than the changes in Office.
Again, a workaround is to copy the workgroup folder to each local computer
(and update upon login). That local folder then becomes the workgroup folder
for that computer.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[MKF]

Don't know if you found a solution for this yet but I found your thread after
having the same problem. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=830561
"Documents that have attached templates take a long time to open in Word 2002
and
in Word 2003". This info worked for me. Good luck!