Word 2003 Slow to Start

[Jim]

I'm running a new, very fast system and all my programs, including all MS
Office progs, start very quickly. Word is the only pokey proggy.

I've found that if I set Norton Firewall to block Word's web access Word
starts fast. So there's some kind of weird attempt, I'm assuming, by Word
to access info via my internet connection and ends up slowing Word's load
time significantly.

Any ideas as to what this is about?

Thanks,

jim