Word 2008 is Very Slow

[edj]

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

I have MBP with a 2.16GHz 3GB RAM and I have been using Word 2008 for a few weeks. I bought 2008 to replace 2004 and just assumed it would be faster but after a few weeks I realized that was a wrong assumption. I work on multiple fairly long docs at the same time and the saves take 4 or 5 seconds, same for bringing up a minimized docs, my typing gets ahead of the cursor. I couldn't remember the speed of Word 2004 but I started to use it again today and with the same docs its performance is instantaneous. So I'm done with 2008 unless someone has any wisdom about a fix I haven't heard of.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Well, lots of people are complaining about Word 2008 being slow, but
mostly because it is slow to start up.

There have been a few reports of people out-typing Word, but it seems to
be intermittent, doesn't affect everyone (for instance, I'm a fast
typist and rarely run into it). No one has identified a cause or a fix,
that I know of.

 

[Ed Jerum]

Hi Daiya,

Thanks for your reply. I've gone back to 2004 for a few days now and I'm finished with 2008. 2004 responds quickly, I'm no longer waiting for saves to finish or for docs to maximize and I also make use of macros, which 2008 doesn't have yet. I can't take anymore time to figure out why 2008 is slow on my system, which I think is pretty normal.

Ed

 

[Maedi]

I have the same saving speed issue with word 2008. saves on 10 page documents even for small changes can take up to 10(!!!) seconds. I measured it.
however, i was having issues with office 2004, especially in entourage. is it possible to run entourage 2008 and word 2004? that would be ideal for me. thank you!

 

[edj]

I don't see why it wouldn't work to be running Word 2004 with Entourage 2008. You will still have Word 2008 on your computer in case there is any functionality that Entourage needs. But I don't have any first hand experience since I use Outlook.
Good luck.

 

[Dan Jaffe]

I have the same problems with Word 2008. Like you, I can't find any good info about the cause, let alone the solution. I've gone back to Word 2004. I also have problems with Entourage 2008 and suspect that it is causing other apps to hang up. I want to go back to Entourage 2004, but I can't figure out how to import my database file back to the older version.

Dan

 

[Maedi]

edj- thanks for the advice.hope you're right! I have a worry though that running different versions of the same program may cause trouble... still, will try installing word 2004 and use that instead. i'm going grey waiting for word 2008 to save the tiniest change.

I would just switch to openoffice.org app, but the functionality for multiple languages is not good i gather.

dan-
yes, i do think entourage 2008 makes other applications hang up, including the finder (GRRRR) but there seem to be other culprits to consider. firefox in osx 10.5.3 seems to be one of them. if you have a macbook air, could be the latest firmware update.

converting the entourage 2008 database back to 2004 is probably impossible as MS has the nasty habit of changing the way the databases are structured from version to version. my best guess would be to manually export from entourage 2008 and import into entourage 2004 all your address book entries, folders, notes, signatures, rules and whatever you've been using.

aaaah... why did i ever leave my ever-stable os tiger and office 2004! one should never ever fix unbroken things! :sealed: