sluggish dialogs (98 SR2b)

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The searches in the File/Open and File/Save dialogs seems to be taking 10 times as long as they did a month ago, although most other functions of the program seem to be no different and the folder sizes haven’t grown much. The View in which the search result is to be presented doesn’t seem to make any difference to the sluggishness of the searches.

The impression given is either that the folders are no longer being indexed, or that indexes exist but are no longer being searched, or that searches were being saved for redisplay but are no longer being saved.

Have I inadvertently switched an option that controls these searches?

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First, if you could clarify your Word version for us: Word 97/2000 on Windows 98 or Word 98 on MacOS?

Assuming Windows 98, there is an operating system feature known as “fast find” AKA “hard disk busy all the time.” It’s possible that this feature could be used by Office’s search, but actually I’ve never checked. Can you think of anything you might have turned on or off at the system level that would be similar to fast find (or, in later versions of Windows, “indexing service”)?

You also could try to defragment the hard drive, particularly if your search involves actual text inside the files.

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Hi Jefferson:
As far as I know, Fast Find is used by Word’s (& other Office searches). However, it’s interference with all other functions outweighs it’s speed increase. If you’re interested you can look at this article
Cheers,

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Hi Jefferson:
As far as I know, Fast Find is used by Word’s (& other Office searches). However, it’s interference with all other functions outweighs it’s speed increase. If you’re interested you can look at this article
Cheers,

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Thank you – this is Word 97 SR2 on Win98SE.
I have been hunting for an executable with a name resembling FastF* but found nothing: where can FastFind be switched on and off?
I think the sudden onset of this delay shows that fragmentation is not a major contributor to the problem. The hard drive is only half full and was defragged a couple of months ago.

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You can locate FindFast in the Control panel & can shut it off from there. I wouldn’t rule out defragging your hard drive. Once every couple of months is not often enough.
Cheers,

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Many thanks.

I don’t know why I couldn’t find FindFast.exe myself!

Anyway, clearly the problem lay there. With a new FindFast index, Word fills the dialogs with filenames almost as soon as the dialog frame’s drawn.

I found the newest index in FindFast’s log was two months old. Up ’til then it must have been set at default values, and I must have switched it off by eliminating the windows startup sequence in early attempts to solve my unauthorised dial-up problem [Post: 293541 refers]. Although I haven’t created many new files since then, I did shuffle a lot of .DOCs into new subdirectories (folders) about a month ago, compelling Word to search on the fly.

The FindFast utility seems to be very valuable and quite well thought out. You don’t have to keep the hard disk thrashing, Jscher, you can set the update interval to any reasonable number of hours you choose. I’ve now chosen 24 hours.

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Many thanks.

I don’t know why I couldn’t find FindFast.exe myself!

Anyway, clearly the problem lay there. With a new FindFast index, Word fills the dialogs with filenames almost as soon as the dialog frame’s drawn.

I found the newest index in FindFast’s log was two months old. Up ’til then it must have been set at default values, and I must have switched it off by eliminating the windows startup sequence in early attempts to solve my unauthorised dial-up problem [Post: 293541 refers]. Although I haven’t created many new files since then, I did shuffle a lot of .DOCs into new subdirectories (folders) about a month ago, compelling Word to search on the fly.

The FindFast utility seems to be very valuable and quite well thought out. You don’t have to keep the hard disk thrashing, Jscher, you can set the update interval to any reasonable number of hours you choose. I’ve now chosen 24 hours.

Reply | Quote

You can locate FindFast in the Control panel & can shut it off from there. I wouldn’t rule out defragging your hard drive. Once every couple of months is not often enough.
Cheers,

Reply | Quote

Thank you – this is Word 97 SR2 on Win98SE.
I have been hunting for an executable with a name resembling FastF* but found nothing: where can FastFind be switched on and off?
I think the sudden onset of this delay shows that fragmentation is not a major contributor to the problem. The hard drive is only half full and was defragged a couple of months ago.

Reply | Quote

First, if you could clarify your Word version for us: Word 97/2000 on Windows 98 or Word 98 on MacOS?

Assuming Windows 98, there is an operating system feature known as “fast find” AKA “hard disk busy all the time.” It’s possible that this feature could be used by Office’s search, but actually I’ve never checked. Can you think of anything you might have turned on or off at the system level that would be similar to fast find (or, in later versions of Windows, “indexing service”)?

You also could try to defragment the hard drive, particularly if your search involves actual text inside the files.

Reply | Quote