Word 2004 is a CPU hog!

[mintymiller]

Why is it that everything on my Powerbook is working just fine until I
open a document in Word 2004? Depending on its size, the first thing I
notice is CPU usage goes up to 100% and the fan on my powerbook cuts in
more frequently than out. Using a scrollwheel is the surest way of
this happening and I've found by experience that scrolling using the
scroll bars is the only practicable way of moving through a document.
The CPU hogging can be limited by frequently clicking anywhere in the
document or by sending Word into the background. My question is, what
is Word doing that it needs all this processing power? I've got grammar
and spell checking switched off and it's just text that's in there;
nothing fancy. Could it be the dynamic word counter (that I don't know
how to switch off), which is causing this? Any solution gratefully
appreciated as I find Word such an abominable programme to use these
days that I only use it when I have to.

The powerbook is running 10.4.6 and all updates have been applied to
Office.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello -

There are any number of reasons for the issues you cite - some of which may
*not* be the fault of Word. However, there are many suggestions which
improve Word's performance at the following web site (and related links);

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/StopAutoFormat.html

You will probably also benefit from information in the "Bend Word to Your
Will" document which you can also download from there.

If you haven't done so recently you may also benefit from running Disk
Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature, avoid synching with an iDisk,
etc.

 

[Kurt]

Hello -

There are any number of reasons for the issues you cite - some of which may
*not* be the fault of Word. However, there are many suggestions which
improve Word's performance at the following web site (and related links);

http://word.mvps.org/Mac/StopAutoFormat.html

You will probably also benefit from information in the "Bend Word to Your
Will" document which you can also download from there.

If you haven't done so recently you may also benefit from running Disk
Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature, avoid synching with an iDisk,
etc.

Too bad that one must undo so much bloat to get a decent text editing
document.
Word 5 was the best.

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 10/5/06 11:50 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Kurt"

Word 5 was the best.

You know, Kurt, you're the second person to say that today (the other is on
microsoft.public.mac.office.word).

At a session I was presenting at my Apple user group last night there were
many people who harked back to the excellent features of Word 5.1.

<deep, wistful, nostalgic sigh>

Without denying your thought at all, I suppose it's only fair to say that
the later versions do allow people with radically different requirements to
configure Word. For example, I can't stand automated features like the
"Don't worry your pretty little head about remembering to hit the Shift key
to upper-case the first word of a new paragraph, Word has done it for you" ­
but I know people who vehemently assert that such features are some of the
best things about Word. Same withy the "clippy" help thingies (see, I've
even repressed my recollection of their name!).

We are strange cattle... ;-)

.... well, some of us.

No, make that all of us.

Cheers,
Clive Huggan
============