Typing in all Office Apps is slow

[mrspeakers]

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

PowerPoint, and occasionally Word and Excel, take typing input and go VERY slowly. It's intermittent. Like 10 characters a minute slow. Type a few words and wait slow.

I've deleted preferences. No good.

I've deleted and reinstalled office, and updates. No good.

I have 4G of memory on the latest MBP, so please nobody start by suggesting this is a memory issue...

Ideas?

 

[DerekF via MacKB.com]

Hi there,

I had a similar problem on a long 54-page Powerpoint that had been sent to me
from a colleague using a PC. The Mac version of Powerpoint 2008 went into
super snail mode when trying to edit the document on my Intel Macbook. I
closed all apps, rebooted but when checking the processor usage it was clear
that it was not a memory problem.

I then tried something that I have used on past versions of Powerpoint (even
on OS 8 & 9). Put the Powerpoint into Slide Sorter Mode, (ie showing multiple
pages). At the same time open a new blank Powerpoint file, and copy all
(Apple A, Apple C) and paste into the new file. The new file should open fine
and fast.

I suspect that the problem is a font one, as I noticed that the new version
of the file had different font than the original which was in Arial. I
changed the font back to Arial and it still worked fine.

I have found this trick sometimes speeds up big Powerpoints that are very
heavy with graphics etc.

Generally a useful get-out if you have problems with the program.

One strange thing is that there are a couple of other posts in the last
couple of weeks about this very same problem so perhaps its related to the
latest Microsoft update?? For example:
http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/Mac/microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint/2008-07/msg00099.html


Whatever on the whole the program suite is good but problems like this are
not acceptable in such a mature product. Powerpoint 3 never was like this!
Hope this helps.

Derek