Lurching Circle (new "hourglass") in Microsoft Word 2007

[terryjca]

Just over a week ago, the processing icon (blue circle) started to randomly
flash on and off while in Word. When this happens, the program freezes: while
I continue typing the text doesn't show, but suddenly it appears in about 3
seconds. If I am highlighting text or working with the mouse, the command
doesn't work unless I time it perfectly between "circle lurches." I have
tried three different mice, reinstalled Word, made sure all updates were
installed, eliminated the "Data" file in regedit (just in case this was
related)--all to no avail. This problem is unique to Word--Excel, PowerPoint,
Publisher do not have this problem. This is becoming very frustrating and
cutting into productivity time.
Help?

 

[grammatim]

Maybe you're getting background repagination? This can take a few
seconds if you're in a big, complicated document, and it can happen
very often. You can avoid repaginating by working in Draft View (which
used to be Normal View).

 

[terryjca]

No, that didn't work either I do have the document-save setting at the
earlier version of Word 97-2003 because we have other users that still have
the older version of Word. (I am using Vista 32-bit by the way.) As
mentioned, this was a sudden occurrence about 10 days ago; I wondered
initially if it had anything to do with a recent update?