Word 2008 is s-l-o-w

[Ian]

At first, I thought Office 2008 made a real speed difference on an Intel Mac, but then I realised this is only for opening files. Actually using the prog is different, and Word in particular is painfully slow. I'm not a fast typist, but it can't keep up with me, and back-delete lags incredibly.
Have I got unhelpful configurations or is this typical? What's best configuration to get around this problem?
I'm working on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.4.11 w 2GB RAM.

Thanks.

 

[bob]

Also running Word on a macbook pro and experiencing painfully slow performance, especially for saving.

 

[John McGhie]

I suspect that you have both got unhelpful artefacts in your documents.

In other words, the content of your document has become extremely complex
and Word is struggling to cope.

In Luke's case, I am not quite so sure: these are symptoms that can be
produced by bad preferences or a memory leak.

Both of you try the following:

1) Create a fresh blank document and save it

2) Open your problem document and copy

3) Use Edit>Paste Special to paste as Plain Text only.

4) Save, and close all documents.

Now: Re-open the test document and try it. Any difference?

What this does is discard all the formatting, which may have become corrupt.
If Word is running OK in a document that contains no formatting (or
pictures, tables, comments or whatever...) then we need to find out what is
wrong with the formatting in the document.

If Word is still slow in the test document, then we need to find out what is
wrong with the computer.

Using a 2GHz MacBook here with 2GB of RAM, Word 2008 is quite snappy on a
complex 500-page document. So there is "something" wrong. We just have to
find out what.

Post back with your results and we can begin the process.

Cheers

At first, I thought Office 2008 made a real speed difference on an Intel Mac,
but then I realised this is only for opening files. Actually using the prog is
different, and Word in particular is painfully slow. I'm not a fast typist,
but it can't keep up with me, and back-delete lags incredibly.
Have I got unhelpful configurations or is this typical? What's best
configuration to get around this problem?
I'm working on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.4.11 w 2GB RAM.

Thanks.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[Nash]

I'm also finding the program slow. I'm laying out a small newsletter with a couple of jpg images, and I find working with the images very slow - I wonder if there's some setting I could adjust so that, for instance, dragging them around the document won't seem like going through molasses.

 

[John McGhie]

You haven't told us what you're using, so we can't tell you.

We need your CPU kind, OS version, and Word version.

I'm also finding the program slow. I'm laying out a small newsletter with a
couple of jpg images, and I find working with the images very slow - I wonder
if there's some setting I could adjust so that, for instance, dragging them
around the document won't seem like going through molasses.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Nash -

Adding to John's request:

What about your jpegs? If you've dumped 'em directly from the camera without
processing them to a proper set of print dimensions & resolution it may
explain [a large] part of your problem.

A further suggestion which has nothing to do with version: If you modify
your workflow to get your text content as it needs to be *before* placing
the images you'll have to do less "dragging them around" in the first place.
Use drawn rectangles or textboxes as placeholders rather than the pictures
themselves or use the Image Placeholders setting in Word> Preferences> View
if you feel you *must* have the pictures in the dock while you edit.

Additionally if you need high-resolution images (over 300 ppi) for
commercial output consider Inserting them as Linked rather than Embedded.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Nash]

Thanks for your reply - I'm sorry I neglected the technical specs. I'm using windows 2008 (v. 12.0.0) on two macs; one is an macbook with intel chip, and it seems to run the program fairly well. The other is an eMac with Power PC G4 (3.3). Its running 10.4.11. Sorry, I haven't the details of the macbook to hand.

 

[Nash]

Hi Nash -

 

[Nash]

Hi Bob -
You're right about the jpgs, and I suspect that's a large part of the issue; I've usually been exporting them from iphoto, or re-formatting them on Photoshop. Reducing the size is a big help, but we print the publications so I have to keep the density at 300dpi. Using boxes to mark their places seems like a good idea, and I'll try it on the next flyer.

Thanks for your input -
Nash > Hi Nash -

 

[Nash]

I've now tried pasting plain text into a new document, and I'm afraid it didn't help at all. I guess that means this eMac has some technical glitch in it; or maybe its just getting old. Dear, oh dear.

Thanks for your help with this, though!
Nash> I suspect that you have both got unhelpful artefacts in your documents.

 

[adversary]

I am so frustrated at the lag time. I may be getting some bad artifacts, but that is not the only case.

When I open a new document, & begin typing, it is still very slow, sometimes lagging by as many as 10 characters.

I am running G4 Titanium Powerbook. 1 gig of ram, Mac OS X 10.4.11 & MS Office 2008. Before installing, I ran Tech Tool pro intermediate battery of tests, & did some minor repairs on B-tree (or whatever it is called). Optimized (defragged the hard drive). complete back up & everything.

I installed Office '08, searched & removed (I Hope) previous software.

In compatibility mode, speed & lag are ridiculous. Even in a fresh document, lag time is too much.

Any ideas?

 

[John McGhie]

Well: Word 2008 is slow on PPC processors, and 1 Gig of RAM is very
marginal for Office 2008.

I assume you have applied the update?

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>

The list of fixes is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/948057

Speed will improve if you work in .docx instead of the old file format. If
you Maggie the document, it may speed up a bit:

1) Create a new blank document

2) Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark

3) Copy it.

4) Paste in the new document.

5) Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the Word PC-L mailing list who first publicised the
technique.

But don't expect miracles: Word 2004 will be a lot faster on that machine.

Hope this helps

I am so frustrated at the lag time. I may be getting some bad artifacts, but
that is not the only case.

When I open a new document, & begin typing, it is still very slow, sometimes
lagging by as many as 10 characters.

I am running G4 Titanium Powerbook. 1 gig of ram, Mac OS X 10.4.11 & MS Office
2008. Before installing, I ran Tech Tool pro intermediate battery of tests, &
did some minor repairs on B-tree (or whatever it is called). Optimized
(defragged the hard drive). complete back up & everything.

I installed Office '08, searched & removed (I Hope) previous software.

In compatibility mode, speed & lag are ridiculous. Even in a fresh document,
lag time is too much.

Any ideas?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

If this is an Intel Mac is anyone checking get info to see if its being
run in Rosetta. I understand That slows down anything that runs in it.

I am so frustrated at the lag time. I may be getting some bad artifacts, but that is not the only case.

When I open a new document, & begin typing, it is still very slow, sometimes lagging by as many as 10 characters.

I am running G4 Titanium Powerbook. 1 gig of ram, Mac OS X 10.4.11 & MS Office 2008. Before installing, I ran Tech Tool pro intermediate battery of tests, & did some minor repairs on B-tree (or whatever it is called). Optimized (defragged the hard drive). complete back up & everything.

I installed Office '08, searched & removed (I Hope) previous software.

In compatibility mode, speed & lag are ridiculous. Even in a fresh document, lag time is too much.

Any ideas?

--
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[Phillip Jones]

I use 2008 on a G4-500 that has 1.5 GB of Ram on a external Firewire
Drive and a 17" powerBook with 2GB of RAM (both PPC machines) and 2008
actually opens faster than 2004 for me.

Well: Word 2008 is slow on PPC processors, and 1 Gig of RAM is very
marginal for Office 2008.

I assume you have applied the update?

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx>

The list of fixes is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/948057

Speed will improve if you work in .docx instead of the old file format. If
you Maggie the document, it may speed up a bit:

1) Create a new blank document

2) Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark

3) Copy it.

4) Paste in the new document.

5) Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the Word PC-L mailing list who first publicised the
technique.

But don't expect miracles: Word 2004 will be a lot faster on that machine.

Hope this helps

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phillip:

Word 2008 is a Universal Binary application that WON'T run in Rosetta.

Word 2004 is a PPC application that does run in Rosetta.

Rosetta doesn't slow things down much: Word 2004 is only about ten times
slower than Word 2003. And currently, it's faster than Word 2008

Cheers

If this is an Intel Mac is anyone checking get info to see if its being
run in Rosetta. I understand That slows down anything that runs in it.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Chas4]

At first, I thought Office 2008 made a real speed difference on an Intel Mac, but then I realised this is only for opening files. Actually using the prog is different, and Word in particular is painfully slow. I'm not a fast typist, but it can't keep up with me, and back-delete lags incredibly.

Have I got unhelpful configurations or is this typical? What's best configuration to get around this problem?
I'm working on a MacBook Pro, OS 10.4.11 w 2GB RAM.

Me too. Word 2008 is very slow same computer same RAM

 

[Ken]

I have a 2GB MacBook (Core Duo) and a 4GB iMac (Core 2 Extreme)

Word 2008 is achingly slow to launch. It's go-get-a-cup-of-coffee slow.

I have also noticed something very interesting. I have an 800-page document that contains only text and three styles. It was originally DOC but I saved it as DOC with Word 2008. The DOC version of the document loads almost instantly, but the DOCX version loads very, very slowly. I even get to look at a progress bar.

By way of contrast, both Pages and NeoOffice load the DOCX file much faster than Word 2008.

Is Word 2008 just a Universal Binary recompile of Word 2004 with a file converter? DOCX does not seem to be its default file format.

 

[Ken]

I have a 2GB MacBook (Core Duo) and a 4GB iMac (Core 2 Extreme)

Word 2008 is achingly slow to launch. It's go-get-a-cup-of-coffee slow.

I have also noticed something very interesting. I have an 800-page document that contains only text and three styles. It was originally DOC but I saved it as DOCX with Word 2008. The DOC version of the document loads almost instantly, but the DOCX version loads very, very slowly. I even get to look at a progress bar.

By way of contrast, both Pages and NeoOffice load the DOCX file much faster than Word 2008.

Is Word 2008 just a Universal Binary recompile of Word 2004 with a file converter? DOCX does not seem to be its native file format.

 

[Chas4]

I think it may have to do with apple script. I have noticed when quiting word 08 I see an apple script for a few seconds.

 

[Chas4]

I think it may have to do with apple script. I have noticed when quiting word 08 I see an apple script menu icon for a few seconds.