Slow Word opening/closing/switching (2002 SP3)

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My copy of word has developed a wierd problem.

When I open it, the “Open a document” pane takes a long time to populate (whilst it is happening the hourglass is there and I cannot use word.

Then, if I switch focus from word, when I give it focus again, the hourglass appears for at least 2 seconds before I can use it again. This is even with a new, empty document.

Finally closing it takes 10 seconds!

I tried renaming my normal.dot but it made no difference at all.

The delay on switching may not seem much, but it makes using it very awkward.

Does anyone have any ideas, what I can try next?

TIA
Regards
Paul

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(Edited by TonyE on 27-Sep-05 12:10. )

Try the options shown in Systematic Approach to Behavioral Problems in Word

Added: MSKB article – How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word 2003 or Word 2002

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Thanks, I’ll try that tonight and post an update.

In the meanwhile I’m using OpenOffice Write.

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OK, here’s what I found.

Running “winword /a” works great.

I deleted all the “*.tmp;~*.do?;~*.wbk” that I possibly could, no improvement 🙁

I had already renamed normal.dot but removed it from the templates directory as instructed, no improvement 🙁

I used the SUPPORT.DOT template to delete the data key, rename Word Startup Folder Addins (none to rename), delete the COM-Addins registry key, delete the Options registry key; no improvement 🙁

The only addins that I can find are revealed by the code snippit and they are “MicrosoftWorks WordAddIN – MicrosoftWorks.WordAddIN.6”

But none of the instructions tell me what to do to fix the problem that seems to be being caused by these addins (assuming that it is indeed these that are the problem)???

What next?

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I do not use Works but I found a reference to the Works add-in including how to remove it at Microsoft Office Assistance

Make sure you have your Works installation CD before removing the add-in in case you decide later that you need its functionality.

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I don’t have the Works CD, but I’m sure I can do without the functionality (not that I have any idea what it actually does!)

I removed it and Word is “cooking with gas” once again.

Thanks for your help Tony.

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Hi Paul:
In additon to the Word startup folder, Office also has a startup folder. Check if there are any add-ins in the Office startup folder.

Also, there are two other things that can slow down Word. NAV (Norton AntiVirus has a plug-in that slows the opening of documents & isn’t necessary. See HansV’s post 467,753 for instructions for disabling the plug-in.

Do you have Outlook journaling turned on? This will slow down Office programs when you go to close them. In older versions of Word, Find Fast was also known to slow down Word, but I haven’t heard much about lately.

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