very slow first time i make a cell bold

[C Williams]

I have noticed an odd behaviour with Excel 2003. After opening the
application, the first time I make a single cell or a range of cells
bold (or italic or underlined or "un-bold", etc), the operation takes an
unduly long time--10-15 seconds, during which Excel is unresponsive.

Subsequent "bold" operations in that workbook or newly-opened workbooks
are normal (e.g. instantaneous).

I only experience this on one computer, not on others running Excel
2003. However, I don't know what it is about this machine that might be
causing the problem...

Anyone have any similar experience?

Thanks,

-Casey

 

[Dave Peterson]

Is your printer a local printer or on a network.

I'm guessing that it's on a network and excel/windows has to go out to the
network to get the printer driver info.

Can you switch to a local printer--or even install the printer driver locally to
test it out?

 

[C Williams]

100% right on, Dave. Thanks. Switching my default printer from a
network to a local printer made the difference.

Just out of curiosity, any idea why excel chooses to go get the printer
info at that point? I don't use the other office apps as much, but
word, for instance, does not have the same delay after bolding.

Thanks again,

-Casey

 

[Dave Peterson]

Excel (and most/all(?) windows programs) have to know how to display it on the
screen.

They use a combination of your printer driver and the video driver to try to
make it as WYSIWYG as it can.

 

[C Williams]

That makes sense to me, and was even similar to what I assumed was
happening. It's just odd to me that Excel is the only windows app with
this delayed behaviour. At least that I've noticed. Others such as
Word, OpenOffice, etc. don't have the same delay. Though perhaps they
just shift the delay to some other time (like when the application first
loads) or do a better job with the application threads.

Thanks again.

 

[George Nicholson]

They may simply get more of the printer driver info on their initial load
(Word, for example is probably more dependent on that info than Excel is)