Microsoft Word takes forever to open & close ?

pennymakespounds

installed microsoft office 2003 onto a laptop with windows 2000 professional.
Powerpoint & Excel work fine but Word takes up to 2 minutes for a page to open and 3 or 4 minutes to close .

Any ideas as to the problem ? ...and the solution !!! .

SONIC_2

How much memory does the laptop have? How much free hard disk space? What the processor in it?

It sounds like the system is struggling to cope with Words requests.

Come back to me with any more info.

SONIC_2

Try this, it's from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280821

Reset the Word Data Key in the Windows Registry

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
If Word is installed on your computer but was once running from the network, and there is a long delay when you open documents when not connected to the network, try the following procedure.

The Word Data key stores information that is specific to the printer that is installed. To remove this printer information from Word, rename or delete the Word Data key in the Windows registry. When you restart Microsoft Word, Word recreates the Word Data key automatically.

Note After you rename or delete the Word Data key, some settings in Microsoft Word are reset to their default settings.

To rename or delete the Word Data key in the Windows registry, follow these steps:

1. Quit all Windows programs.
2. Click Start and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type Regedit and then click OK.
4. Open the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word
5. Under the Word key, click the Data subkey.
6. On the Edit menu, click Rename or Delete.
7. Click Yes if the following message appears:

Are you sure you want to delete this key?
8. On the Registry menu, click Exit.
9. After you rename or delete the Word Data key, click Run on the Windows Start menu.
10. In the Open box, type Winword.exe /R /Y, and then click OK.

pennymakespounds

this sounds a bit too complicated and dangerous for me to attempt !!

Interesting ... i rang pc world to ask if i took the machine into local store would a techy person help ... they said "not their responsibility" and i should ring microsoft ... i did that ... 0870 number .. (can't find any alternatives on our friends site ) .....
microsoft said " nothing to do with us or our product ... speak to your pc supplier.. dell.
Rang dell they said needed customer reference number off underside of laptop ... couldn't believe it ... illegible !!! don't know how /why it's worn off when machine hardly ever moved !!.
Dell say nothing they can do without it.

Snookered !!

Donnie

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;wrd2003

Maybe there is something there.

SONIC_2

this sounds a bit too complicated and dangerous for me to attempt !!

Interesting ... i rang pc world to ask if i took the machine into local store would a techy person help ... they said "not their responsibility" and i should ring microsoft ... i did that ... 0870 number .. (can't find any alternatives on our friends site ) .....
microsoft said " nothing to do with us or our product ... speak to your pc supplier.. dell.
Rang dell they said needed customer reference number off underside of laptop ... couldn't believe it ... illegible !!! don't know how /why it's worn off when machine hardly ever moved !!.
Dell say nothing they can do without it.

Snookered !!

If you follow the instructions carefully , you will be fine. Thats why Microsoft produce them! If what I have described in the previous post is whats wrong, you can have it fixed in 10 minutes! Remember, if you go wrong, you just have to reinstall Office. (Which your already an expert in by now! )
;D

pennymakespounds

sonic .. put all my faith in you !!!.... went through your instructions ... everything fine until no 10) when typing in winword.exe etc got error box saying
"cannot find the file winword...... make sure the path & file name are correct and all the reg libraries are available "
??


help !

thanks,

SONIC_2

Try browsing for the file. It should be in C:\program files\Microsoft office\office10\winword.exe or something very similar (the office10 part may be slightly different depending on your version, but it will always be called winword.exe and there should only be one). Once you have found it, add the /R /Y on to it.

If you can't find it, you will have to reinstall office, but it should be there. Word wouldn't run at all if it wasn't

pennymakespounds

sonic.. started to do as per your 4.48 pm suggestion ... but stuck again ... on your original instructions... as i go through the HKEY.... "ladder" and get to "word" i don't see "data key" as per your 5)
just show 2 more headings ... "customizable alerts" and " lost gallery presets"

??

pennymakespounds

sonic.. started to do as per your 4.48 pm suggestion ... but stuck again ... on your original instructions... as i go through the HKEY.... "ladder" and get to "word" i don't see "data key" as per your 5)
just show 2 more headings ... "customizable alerts" and " lost gallery presets"

SONIC_2

I think maybe you should completely remove office, and reinstall it again from scratch if you tell me that the resitry keys are missing.

Do this, and then see how Word runs, if it's still slow, try follwing the instructions again, and this time you might have the crrect registry keys in it.

If all this fails, you might want to consider wiping the system and starting from scratch again?

Sorry I can't be any more help.