Slow opening .docx

[ahostmadsen]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have some (relatively) large .doc files. They open quickly, but the moment I save them as .docx files, opening them again takes minutes. I tried the same on my Word 2007 on Vista. Same thing: it takes forever to open the .docx but seconds to open the .doc version. So, it seems not to be a Mac issue.

Is this really true? It takes much longer to open .docx files than .doc files?

 

[John McGhie]

No, it's not really true

What is true is that the internal coding in the two files is different.
There are ways that you could construct either of those files so that Word
has to do a lot of work to open it.

By "open", Word means that it has to sort the information in the document
into its various kinds, then arrange that information in various locations
in memory.

Depending how you have coded and formatted the document, one format or the
other will require more work to do that.

However: This would produce a difference of "seconds", not "minutes". So I
suspect that there is something in those documents that is corrupt.

Try a Maggie on the .doc version, and then convert the file and see if that
makes a difference:

The Maggie:

1. Create a new blank document
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicised the
technique.


Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I have some (relatively) large .doc files. They open quickly, but the moment I
save them as .docx files, opening them again takes minutes. I tried the same
on my Word 2007 on Vista. Same thing: it takes forever to open the .docx but
seconds to open the .doc version. So, it seems not to be a Mac issue.

Is this really true? It takes much longer to open .docx files than .doc files?

--

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, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[ahostmadsen]

Thanks, I tried. Someone else (Michel Bintener) gave that trick in another thread. I did reduce the size of the one .docx file I tried with; however, it's still slow opening. All the files that are slow opening have lots of equations. Maybe that's why. Equations are the old format, not native to .docx, but until MS implements the new equation editor in Mac (and a converter from the old format!) I have to continue to use the old equations.

 

[John McGhie]

If those equations are "complete" and you no longer need to change them, you
can "cut" them, and paste them back in as "pictures". (Edit>Paste
Special>"Picture")

That will speed the document up dramatically.

If you are not quite sure, save copies of the document with editable
equations, so you can go back and tweak one if you need to.

Cheers

Thanks, I tried. Someone else (Michel Bintener) gave that trick in another
thread. I did reduce the size of the one .docx file I tried with; however,
it's still slow opening. All the files that are slow opening have lots of
equations. Maybe that's why. Equations are the old format, not native to
.docx, but until MS implements the new equation editor in Mac (and a converter
from the old format!) I have to continue to use the old equations.

--

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, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]