Word hangs several seconds in this circumstance...

[wal]

Word 2003
XP SP2

When I open a Word file from Start Menu > Documents (i.e., a file
recently in use), it takes maybe 10 or so seconds before I can start
working with the file. The program basically hangs but eventually
recovers itself. This happens ONLY when another Word document is
already open. Also, it does NOT EVER happen when I open a file by
clicking on the file's own icon in its folder on the desktop. It only
happens when I use a shortcut link in Start Menu Documents. It does
not happen when I use a shortcut link on the Desktop or in a regular
folder.

I press Pause and Break, but nothing happens, so it is apparently not
a macro. In fact, if I disable my Normal.dot and start Word with a
fresh Normal.dot, it still happens.

Any ideas on what causes this? Thanks.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Open Word in Safe Mode and check. From Start | Run, type in

winword /a

and press enter. Try opening and editing from the MRU list now.

 

[wal]

Still happens. (I assume from your instructions that "Word in Safe
Mode" is invoked by running

winword /a

i.e., that they are not two separate, sequential, processes.)

 

[Terry Farrell]

That's correct: winword /a start Word in Safe Mode. This suggests that it
may be your Anti Virus. Some AVs - Norton AV and Kaspersky both have Office
plug-ins that are know to cause this problem, but other As may also cause
this slowdown.

I suggest checking to see if the AV have some form of Office plug-in or
scans documents in Word (sometimes it flashes up a message in the Word
Status bar). Clean out the user temp folder and run the Detect and Repair
option from under the Help menu in Word just to make sure everything is OK.
Then test again.

See http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm for some pointers
on cleaning up after Word.

Terry