Word document very slow to open

[Barry-W]

Hi I have a problem that I can find plenty of solutions for IF I were running
XP, however I have Vista SP1 and Word 2003 SP3

I am "playing around with templates" most of the time all is fine, I work on
the template, save it, double click on it to create a new document based on
the template and the new document opens on less than a second. However every
so often 15-20 saves of the template, when I double click on the template, or
any other .doc file, it takes upwards of 2 minutes to open the document, then
while in the document speed is normal. If I then close out word and double
click on a document to open word, another 2 minute wait! (when it is in this
state double clicking on an .xls file takes just as long to open Excel). My
guess it is the known problem with DDE breaking for word and Excel, but the
fix published only applies to XP.

The only way I have found to fix this is a repair of Office 2003, this is a
pain in the proverbial every hour or so. Does any one know how to fix this
with vista.

I can see no pattern as to what causes this, it appears random. The template
creates and saved before the slow down kicks in usually works fine when the
document opens.

Thanks

Barry

 

[Barry-W]

Well, I'll answer part of my own question, but I still don't know why the
problem occurs :-(

If Word 2003 is slow opening following double-clicking on a .doc or .dot
file, but opens at normal speed when double clicking on the Word 2003 ICON it
is possible that there are problems with DDE. There are many complaints about
this, but all solutions appear to apply only to Windows XP. After much
searching, I found the following solution that works for me:
1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER:
2. Navigate to the following key and backup the key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Word.Document.8 \ shell \ Open \ ddeexec
3. Right-click the ddeexec key and choose Delete. Click Yes to confirm.
4. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Word.Document.8 \ shell \ Open \ command
5. Double-click (default) and set its value data to:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\WINWORD.EXE" /n "%1"
6. Exit the Registry Editor.

 

[John R-MD]

While this solution is fine for one or two applications with this problem, I
have the problem with EVERY application. Even if I click a web link, it takes
up to 3 minutes before the browser opens. I have done the DDE fix for the
standard MS Office file extensions but can't imagine trying to do the same
for all extensions.

Any other suggestions? How about from Microsoft?