Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 28, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
There are times when opening a document in Word can be slow. For instance, if the document is quite large, or if it contains a lot of complex graphics, if it contains a lot of linked data from other sources, or if you have saved it quite often with Word's Fast Save feature turned on.
There are other times, however, when opening a document can be downright painful—for instance, when it takes four minutes (or longer) to open a document that is only 800 KB in size. In these instances, the reason for the slowness may not be immediately evident. This is where a little bit of detective work comes into play.
The first thing to check is whether the document is on your computer or not. If the document is on a different computer in your network, then the problem could be either the other computer or even the network itself. Sometimes, if the network is configured improperly, communication across the network can slow to a crawl. This type of slowdown should affect other programs on your computer, however, when you need to access remote data from those programs. Thus, if opening remote documents is slow in all of your programs, then you should check your network and the other computer. If you suspect this problem, you will need to chat with your network administrator to see what can be done.
If the problem is evident in all documents on your computer (they are all slow in opening), then you may want to check your virus protection software. It could be that it is slowing down opening files. The only way to determine if this is the case is to disable virus protection—at least for the length of your test—to see if the problem goes away. If it does, then you should either check with the publisher of the virus protection software for an update, or look at getting a different virus protection program.
There are other things to try if the problem is evident in all of the documents you open. When Word is not running, make sure you delete all the temporary files that Word may have left lying around various folders in your system. Look for files that end with the TMP extension, or files that being with the tilde (~) character. If your file folders become very cluttered with these temporary files, it can slow Word down immensely. You can find out more information about Word's temporary files at this Knowledge Base article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211632
Another thing to try is to start Word with the /a switch on the command line. This causes it to load without also loading different startup files such as add-ins and macros. If this fixes the problem, then you can bet that the slowdown is caused by one of those add-ins or macros. You might also rename the Normal.dot (or Normal.dotm) file; if it is corrupted then it can slow down response times. (Renaming the file causes Word to create a clean, fresh, empty one the next time you start the program.)
When the problem is limited to a single document, then there are a couple of things to try. First, is the file stored on some sort of removable media, such as a flash drive or other external drive? Opening a file on some removable media can be excruciatingly slow. This is not only because reading the file is slow, but because Word also tries to create its own temporary files on the removable media. This may quickly fill up the media and cause very slow response times.
Another thing to check is if the file contains lots of links to external resources. For instance, if it contains linked images, linked charts, or linked spreadsheet objects. All the links in a document are refreshed when a document is opened, and the refreshing sequence can be very time consuming. This is particularly true if the source files that need to be opened by Word (the ones containing the images, charts, and spreadsheets) are on a network drive and that network drive is either not available or suffering from slow communication speeds.
You should also open the file and check to see what template file is attached to the document. If the document is trying to use a non-existent template file, or one that is no longer accessible through a network connection, then Word may "stall" as it tries over and over again to find the template.
Finally, if the document still won't open quickly, it could be because the document itself is corrupted. You can check this out by following these general steps:
This should clear up any corruption problems associated with a document. You will be able to tell if it solved your slow opening problem by opening the newly saved document and seeing if it opens quicker than the original one.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1328) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
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2021-01-12 13:26:31
Eron
Solution: Just disable Office sync on OneDrive settings or use Google Drive.
2019-01-26 05:58:28
Antonio Cristian
Thanks for giving a relevant difference. Great Post! Thanks
https://bit.ly/2R0OoAo
2018-04-01 14:18:58
Andrey
Thank you so much! This is what helped me out:
==============================================
"Finally, if the document still won't open quickly, it could be because the document itself is corrupted. You can check this out by following these general steps:
Open the slow document. (Maybe you will need to take a coffee break while it opens.)
Open a new, blank document.
In the slow document, press Ctrl+Home to go to the beginning of the document.
Press Shift+Ctrl+End. This should select everything from the beginning of the document to the end.
Press Shift+Left Arrow. This "deselects" the final paragraph mark in the document.
Press Ctrl+C to copy the selection to the Clipboard.
In the new, blank document, press Ctrl+V. This pastes the copied information to the new document.
Close the old document and save the new document.
This should clear up any corruption problems associated with a document. You will be able to tell if it solved your slow opening problem by opening the newly saved document and seeing if it opens quicker than the original one."
==================================================================
2017-05-30 03:56:27
Gav
+1 for OneDrive. Uninstalling it instantly fixed the lag issue I had with Office 2013. Thanks mike rodent.
2016-11-17 13:59:44
Ravindra K. Banthia
Hi,
I have a strange problem opening (not closing) MS Word 2007 files on Win 7.
The files open readily when I am NOT connected to the internet.
The files open readily when I AM connected to the internet via my USB dongle (with a sim card, mobile internet connection).
The files USED TO open readily when I was connected to the internet using broadband.
I have recently acquired a Wi-Fi Hub (JioFi 3) which has one USB port (for charging and for connecting to the net).
When I use tethering to connect to the internet using the Wi-Fi Hub, even a new, empty file takes almost a minute to open. Larger files take even longer.
When I disconnect the Wi-Fi Hub, the Word files again begin to open normally.
I did not configure the Wi-Fi Hub manually; it installed automatically without any errors (other than a Linux related one).
Also, I did not have to “connect” to the internet; the device connects to the internet as soon as it is powered on or connected to the PC.
There are no other people sharing the Wi-Fi Hub; I am the lone user.
On another PC with Win 7 and Office 2007, I could not replicate the problem.
A friend says to reinstall MS Office and turn off the online help option that comes during the installation. Does that make sense?
Can you help resolve this problem, please?
Best regards,
Ravi
2016-10-02 21:10:44
Thomas
My personal templates screen took a long time to populate. Following your advice, I deleted temp files and a couple of "normal" templates that I do not use. Problem solved. Thanks. :)
2016-04-29 10:03:49
Microsoft Word 2016 is slow. It is slow especially on all larger documents. It is so that large documents are in greater demand because it is more convenient to work with the large documents. However, Word is prohibitively slow. Word is installed on the system with abundance of resources including newest processor and RAM. The only possible explanation is that the Microsoft introduced the slowness intentionally. One reason why Microsoft does it is that as they push everybody in the cloud (not a good thing! Say No! to the cloud) they do not want it to be such shocking contrast the slow Office workings in the cloud when users migrate to the cloud. Another reason could be as proposed by some other they do run some process in background which significantly slows typing, saving, and all other manipulations in the Word. Word is not a good thing. There is something shady about Word working so slowly. There is not viable alternative, however.
2015-07-22 06:43:53
Thank you, the copy/paste trick worked!
2015-04-19 12:30:02
mike rodent
REMOVE M$ ONEDRIVE... this is some typical MS crapware... God knows what it is meant to do... Massive probs with lag, but after I got rid of this things started to operate a bit more sanely.
2015-04-09 13:00:42
IT Architect
> Maria 07 Nov 2014, 13:20
Unfortunately, I believe the Word 2013 software itself is corrupt.<
Correct.
2015-03-02 02:19:05
when i open my Microsoft word 2007 has long time than open again i close the word has long time. please tell, me now i can do
2015-02-27 05:54:30
Krzysztof
Logging out from Office 365 account maked my Word beeing faster.
Unless you must use cloud, log out.
Under File/Account
2014-12-30 03:44:17
Praveen
its realy help me a lot. Thanks
2014-11-18 16:48:51
Dave
Not enough hours in the day to trouble-shoot this problem. I am longing for paper and pen days.
2014-11-10 06:24:38
Ian
I have a file that I open from my desktop and Word sits for a while trying to contact my old Laptop across the network.
Is it possible to remove this "link"?
There's nothing in the document I can see which would cause this.
Thanks for any help (Office 2010 by the way!)
2014-11-07 13:20:37
Maria
Unfortunately, I believe the Word 2013 software itself is corrupt. Never had a problem until I 'upgraded" to Word 2013, in opening files on our network. Small byte files take forever to open and close! Thanks for the fix-it suggestions!
2014-10-31 00:34:24
raadnaji14@hotmail.com
Dear Sir/Madam
How can I check weather certail PC is using word 2007 or 2010?
2014-09-10 23:32:51
Cal Hutch
I have Office 7.
I tried to install an old typing program but Office 3 downloaded with it.
I uninstalled both Office 3 and the typing program.
Now when first opening a document with Office 7 it goes through;
1. Setup
2. Configuration
3. Install
Takes 3 - 4 minutes.
2014-08-14 15:20:25
awyatt
Bob, check out this tip:
http://word.tips.net/T001389
-Allen
2014-08-14 14:50:24
Bob Levin
Could you tell me what has suddenly happened to make my Word 2007 start populating temp files in my document folder; i.e., example "FAP1CB8.tmp".
How can I stop this annoying problem?
Thank you;
Bob
2014-07-26 10:19:58
Dear sir
my microsoft word docoment very slow
kindly solution it
Regards
pradipta jena
2014-06-26 06:08:12
Natalie Kehr
The 8-step procedure should possibly be the first suggestion - the document owner can do that without involving a network administrator.
In the 8 step procedure steps 3 and 4 can be replaced with Ctrl+A.
Please could Alan explain why he deselects the final paragraph mark. It has never occurred to me to do that deletion, though I have created a copy file when a much used file started telling me "An unexpected error has occurred". (The misnamed Microsoft Help has never come up with anything relevant!)
2014-06-25 05:58:45
John Crosland
Thank you! It was only one Word 2010 file that would hang for several minutes as soon as I clicked on any part of it...is is a home made kind of database file, with a lot of links and graphics added using the snipping tool....originally it was one long A-Z file with this not responding problem so I split it into 2 files, A-N and O-Z...the O-Z file works ok so I was guessing the A-N part was corrupted in some way... it looks as if it was because I carried out your procedure 1-8 above and the newly created A-N file works ok ....brilliant! and now at last I can add in all the info I have accumulated for months on scraps of paper because it was so frustrating having to wait for the old A-N file to respond...Thanks again!
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