Slow Mac Word 2004 - a possible solution?

[Erik]

I have become annoyed over the application's sluggishnes, my
frustration increasing with each use.

My Mac is an 1 Ghz G4 iMac (17" flatpanel). The sluggishnes did not go
away with a RAM boost from 256 Mb til 712 Mb.

One easy solution is to turn off automatic spell and grammar checking.
Also I have removed ALL toolbars... It´s worked fine so far, as in
that I actually can use the software without getting r e a l l y
annoyed.

Cheers

Erik

 

[mactech]

hi Eric, I am also having this problem with a mac g4 14" ibook with 256
mb and os 10.8. Running really slow in word 2004. Not sure what to do
at this point. Have spent at least 2 hours searching for ways to speed
it up. Have you got any more ideas. Margaret Guthrie mactech

 

[Mark Jaworski]

hi Eric, I am also having this problem with a mac g4 14" ibook with 256
mb and os 10.8. Running really slow in word 2004. Not sure what to do
at this point. Have spent at least 2 hours searching for ways to speed
it up. Have you got any more ideas. Margaret Guthrie mactech

I have the same problem on PB Lombard
MLJ

 

[Beth Rosengard]

hi Eric, I am also having this problem with a mac g4 14" ibook with 256
mb and os 10.8. Running really slow in word 2004. Not sure what to do
at this point. Have spent at least 2 hours searching for ways to speed
it up. Have you got any more ideas. Margaret Guthrie mactech

Below are some previous posts on this issue from various sources. Hope they
help. However, Margaret, you need more RAM: 1 GB if possible, and at least
512 MB.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>



------------------------from Jeffery Weston (MSFT):

Switching to Normal view can be a good start.

Other tips: If your table spans multiple pages, it might be good to break
it up a couple of times. Table cells that span multiple pages can also slow
Word down, so you can try breaking the tables there.

If you're doing a large amount of work in just the table, you can try
copying and pasting the table into a new document and working on it there
until your ready to paste it back to the original.

If you're working with graphics that you don't need to currently view or
modify you can turn the "Image Placeholder" Preference in Word |
Preferences: View. (Only works for Inline graphics.)

Other general tips can just involve turning off the background tasks, (if
they're on), which include Spelling/Grammar, Live Word Count, Track Changes,
etc... Saving and then Quitting and Re-Launching Word occasionally could
also help.

------------------------from L.J. Gould:

I had this problem too. Word slowed right down not just when updating
formatting, but also when typing characters. For all I know this is
just Voodoo - I'm not sure if it's a font problem or a preferences
problem.

But I did manage to solve it:

I checked font book and noticed duplicate fonts. So I quit Word, used
FontBook to remove the duplicates, then trashed the MS Office
preferences except for "Office 11 First Run" and "Office Registration
Cache 11" in ~/library/preferences/Microsoft/

For good measure I logged out / logged back in again. When I started
Word again everything was back to normal speed, though I had to reset
some of my settings.

My guess is that if it really is a font problem, the only file you
need to get rid of in the preferences folder is the "Office Font Cache
(11)" I should have tried this first, but I was on a tight deadline,
and a little too panicky to experiment.

------------------------from the MSKB:

Extensis Suitcase conflict:
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;837066>

------------------------from P. Golden:

I've tracked it down! There were Acrobat plug-in's in the Office/Startup
Items folder (PDFMaker.dot) that were causing the trouble. Once I pulled
them out, Word started up like magic. Thanks for your help!

------------------------End

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

hi Eric, I am also having this problem with a mac g4 14" ibook with 256

I have the same problem on PB Lombard

I had a Lombard, and I didn't try to put OS X on it. According to the
people at MacWorld magazine, 256MB is not enough to happily run OS X, never
mind adding a memory hog like Word to it.

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/02/powerbookram/index.php

(and my personal suspicion is that apple only upped the default memory
because Tiger requires even more than Panther--and I find Panther
occasionally slow even with my 512MB of RAM)

But see also the suggestions Beth posted at the end of her message.

 

[matt neuburg]

I had a Lombard, and I didn't try to put OS X on it. According to the
people at MacWorld magazine, 256MB is not enough to happily run OS X, never
mind adding a memory hog like Word to it.

If the problem is that you don't have enough RAM, my free MemoryStick
application will tell you right away. m.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

If the problem is that you don't have enough RAM, my free MemoryStick

application will tell you right away. m.

Really? I thought it told me something complicated about swapfiles, but
it's not like I've gotten around to downloading and trying it.

Daiya

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

If the problem is that you don't have enough RAM, my free MemoryStick

Daiya, you're *such* a late adopter!!! Actually, it tells you
something very simple about swapfiles, plus it shows you in sight (and
sound, if you like) if you're using memory beyond your computer's
physical means. m.

I'll move it further up my lengthy list of software to install. Actually,
supposedly I have 1 GB of RAM on the way, it would be fun to check before
and after.

Daiya

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Hey Erik,

Could give some specific situations or tasks in which Word is sluggish for
you?

Thanks
--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Pitch]

Regarding the speed of Word 2004, I've done some experimenting. Since I
write every day in Word, speeding it up has been important for me. I am
a stickler for keeping everything updated, so everything mentioned
below is the latest version.

Here's the base of my experiment:
I have a G5 2Ghz, with 2.5 Gigs of Samsung original Mac RAM. I did a
fresh install of 10.3.8, then reinstalled Office 2004, and the update.
I then ran the following diagnostic and maintenance programs:
DiskWarrior
TechTools Pro
Onyx

After running the above, I repaired permissions one more time.

I have no extra fonts installed anywhere on my Mac, other than what
Word installed.
I turned off Spelling, Grammar, all toolbars (*all* toolbars), all
autocorrect features, Status bar, all Nonprinting characters and
everything under the "Show" menu in the Prefs.

I then took a document that I use quite daily (my "Master ToDo" list)
which had 9,600 characters (including spaces). I copied it into text
edit to remove any and all formatting. I then trashed the Normal
template, opened a new Word document, and pasted the nonformatted 9600
characters into this new document.

Then, using the absolute default settings for H1, H2, H3, H4, and
Normal, I set the document to Outline, and formatted this to-do list.

I then quit Word, quit all the programs, ran permissions one more time,
restarted my Mac, and opened up this Word document to test it.

The results? In Outline view, this 10-page document took paused a full
one second in order to scroll down. Scrolling back up was
instantaneous, but scrolling down took a full 1 second each and every
time.
Bolding was a trip. I highlight a word, hit Command-B, and voilà,
another 1 second pause. Italics (Command-I) was a little less of a
pause.

For me, and what I use Word for, that's enough. I don't use a whole lot
of other features. These pauses are enough to drive someone crazy.
Again: look at the machine I'm running. This is a very, very fast
Macintosh. One of the top personal computers in the world. And yet,
with only Word 2004 running, I get these kinds of pauses. All day long.


I've been using Word 2004 since the day it first came out. These pauses
were there back then, and thery're there now.

Others may come up with excuses for why this occurs, but to me, this is
just horrible. I can only hope that Tiger speeds things up somehow.

Now Entourage? that's a whole other program! I love it. Best program on
my computer.

 

[Kenneth Cohen]

From: (e-mail address removed) (matt neuburg)
Organization: TidBITSs
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 01:24:35 GMT
Subject: Re: Slow Mac Word 2004 - a possible solution?



If the problem is that you don't have enough RAM, my free MemoryStick
application will tell you right away. m.

MemoryStick is a neat little program which can have expensive results.
Unfortunately, finding out how bogged down my 512MB Mac was getting led me
to spend a considerable sum on new RAM. The result, however, is well worth
it.

 

[matt neuburg]

MemoryStick is a neat little program which can have expensive results.
Unfortunately, finding out how bogged down my 512MB Mac was getting led me
to spend a considerable sum on new RAM. The result, however, is well worth
it.

Darn. In my next life, I must remember to go into the business of
selling RAM, and *then* write MemoryStick!

 

[matt neuburg]

Regarding the speed of Word 2004, I've done some experimenting. Since I
write every day in Word, speeding it up has been important for me. I am
a stickler for keeping everything updated, so everything mentioned
below is the latest version.

Here's the base of my experiment:
I have a G5 2Ghz, with 2.5 Gigs of Samsung original Mac RAM. I did a
fresh install of 10.3.8, then reinstalled Office 2004, and the update.
I then ran the following diagnostic and maintenance programs:
DiskWarrior
TechTools Pro
Onyx

After running the above, I repaired permissions one more time.

I have no extra fonts installed anywhere on my Mac, other than what
Word installed.
I turned off Spelling, Grammar, all toolbars (*all* toolbars), all
autocorrect features, Status bar, all Nonprinting characters and
everything under the "Show" menu in the Prefs.

I then took a document that I use quite daily (my "Master ToDo" list)
which had 9,600 characters (including spaces). I copied it into text
edit to remove any and all formatting. I then trashed the Normal
template, opened a new Word document, and pasted the nonformatted 9600
characters into this new document.

Then, using the absolute default settings for H1, H2, H3, H4, and
Normal, I set the document to Outline, and formatted this to-do list.

I then quit Word, quit all the programs, ran permissions one more time,
restarted my Mac, and opened up this Word document to test it.

The results? In Outline view, this 10-page document took paused a full
one second in order to scroll down. Scrolling back up was
instantaneous, but scrolling down took a full 1 second each and every
time.
Bolding was a trip. I highlight a word, hit Command-B, and voilà,
another 1 second pause. Italics (Command-I) was a little less of a
pause.

For me, and what I use Word for, that's enough. I don't use a whole lot
of other features. These pauses are enough to drive someone crazy.
Again: look at the machine I'm running. This is a very, very fast
Macintosh. One of the top personal computers in the world. And yet,
with only Word 2004 running, I get these kinds of pauses. All day long.

This is an excellent description of the phenomenon. Can you post this
document somewhere so that we can all perform exactly the same text? m.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Yes! I'd like to try it too, since I rarely experience the slow-downs that
you see, Pitch.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Jeffrey Weston [MSFT]]

Hey Pitch,

Thank you very much for very detailed post. I've personally forwarded your
post to the MacBU Word Developers and PMs, to bring this to their attention.

--
Jeffrey Weston
Mac Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


Regarding the speed of Word 2004, I've done some experimenting. Since I
write every day in Word, speeding it up has been important for me. I am
a stickler for keeping everything updated, so everything mentioned
below is the latest version.

Here's the base of my experiment:
I have a G5 2Ghz, with 2.5 Gigs of Samsung original Mac RAM. I did a
fresh install of 10.3.8, then reinstalled Office 2004, and the update.
I then ran the following diagnostic and maintenance programs:
DiskWarrior
TechTools Pro
Onyx

After running the above, I repaired permissions one more time.

I have no extra fonts installed anywhere on my Mac, other than what
Word installed.
I turned off Spelling, Grammar, all toolbars (*all* toolbars), all
autocorrect features, Status bar, all Nonprinting characters and
everything under the "Show" menu in the Prefs.

I then took a document that I use quite daily (my "Master ToDo" list)
which had 9,600 characters (including spaces). I copied it into text
edit to remove any and all formatting. I then trashed the Normal
template, opened a new Word document, and pasted the nonformatted 9600
characters into this new document.

Then, using the absolute default settings for H1, H2, H3, H4, and
Normal, I set the document to Outline, and formatted this to-do list.

I then quit Word, quit all the programs, ran permissions one more time,
restarted my Mac, and opened up this Word document to test it.

The results? In Outline view, this 10-page document took paused a full
one second in order to scroll down. Scrolling back up was
instantaneous, but scrolling down took a full 1 second each and every
time.
Bolding was a trip. I highlight a word, hit Command-B, and voilà,
another 1 second pause. Italics (Command-I) was a little less of a
pause.

For me, and what I use Word for, that's enough. I don't use a whole lot
of other features. These pauses are enough to drive someone crazy.
Again: look at the machine I'm running. This is a very, very fast
Macintosh. One of the top personal computers in the world. And yet,
with only Word 2004 running, I get these kinds of pauses. All day long.


I've been using Word 2004 since the day it first came out. These pauses
were there back then, and thery're there now.

Others may come up with excuses for why this occurs, but to me, this is
just horrible. I can only hope that Tiger speeds things up somehow.

Now Entourage? that's a whole other program! I love it. Best program on
my computer.

 

[Pitch]

Beth and Matt,

sorry for the pause. I forgot to check back to this post for the past
few days.

I would love to give you this document. If you email me directly, I
will zip it up and send it to you. I'm at PitchBlackCoffee. That's a
GMail address.

 

[Pitch]

PS: I would actually be willing to do a lot more to this cause than
just send the document. I'd be willing to take a QuickTime movie,
competely with sound, of what happens on my screen while I'm using Word
2004. I will also be one who will be upgrading to Tiger the second it
comes out on the 29th. My plan, largely to see if I can speed up Word,
will be to zero one of my G5's drives, and then add ONLY Office 2004.
Then run some speed tests.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Pitch,

I received the document you sent me. For the benefit of others reading
this, it's a simple 17 page document using Headings 1, 2, 3 and Body Text.
It contains no graphics at all, just a couple of hyperlinks. It is set to
Outline View.

I went back to your original post and looked at the results you found after
"sterilizing" a different, 10 page document. You said:

In Outline view, this 10-page document took paused a full
one second in order to scroll down. Scrolling back up was
instantaneous, but scrolling down took a full 1 second each and every
time.
Bolding was a trip. I highlight a word, hit Command-B, and voilà,
another 1 second pause. Italics (Command-I) was a little less of a
pause.

I made a copy of your document for test purposes and tried scrolling and
bolding. There was no delay in either case. I'm on a G5 iMac with 1 GB of
RAM, which is less powerful than your machine.

Here's what I'm forced to conclude: The problems you are experiencing are
not inherent in Word; there is most likely a conflict, however, between
something in your system and Word.

One thing you never mentioned in your first post was whether or not you
considered third-part software as a possible cause of the slowdowns in Word.
There are known conflicts between various versions of Word and Adobe
PDFMaker, EndNote¹s Cite While you Write (CWYW) and WindowShade. There are
undoubtedly others as well.

Try this: Quit Word and open Word¹s Startup folder: /Applications/Microsoft
Office 2004/Office/Startup/Word. Drag the contents to the Desktop. If the
problem disappears, add them back in one by one until you find the culprit.

If that doesn't help, post back and we'll keep working on it.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Pitch,

I did a comparison between using the scroll wheel on your document in Word
(both Outline & Normal views) and in TextEdit. I did find that there is a
slight (less than a second) delay scrolling down in Word (both views) which
is not apparent in TextEdit. Scrolling up is fine in all.

I should note though that the delay in scrolling down is so brief that (if I
used the scroll wheel, which I don't) it wouldn't bother me. But it *is*
there.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Pitch]

Thanks for all the testing, Beth. I'm most grateful.

In the scheme of the Larger Picture, these pauses are minor
inconveniences. I'll live