Document takes a long time to open

[jmt356]

I have some documents I created on a computer running Word 2000. They take a long time to open in another computer running Word 2003. Is this normal? Is there a way around it? Is the slowness due to the documents' being opened in two different versions of Word?

[ChrisGreaves]

They take a long time to open in another computer ...

Hi JMT.
I sometimes run into slow-processing of a document under Word2003, and I put this down to document corruption, since copying the entire document contents (Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C) to a new document seems to resolve the issue; a document tat took 3 minutes to load/process drops right back to 2 seconds.

Are all the documents exhibiting slowness, or only a subset?
Is it always the same documents that are slow, or does it vary from run to run?

[jmt356]

I can't quite figure out the pattern; some but not all of the documents are slow to load. I will try to follow this more closely to see if it is related to the templates on which the documents are based.

[ChrisGreaves]

I can't quite figure out the pattern; some but not all of the documents are slow to load. I will try to follow this more closely to see if it is related to the templates on which the documents are based.

Okey Dokey.
A reproducible error is always a good thing.
Next time a document is slow to load, repeat the process. Is the same document always slow to load?
If so that may well mean a specific problem with that specific document.

One way to do a quick test of this is to do the following (Apologies if you already know this)

• Once the document is loaded,
• Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C to copy the body to the clipboard
• File, New to start a new document
• Ctrl-V to paste in the body of the old document.
• Close the old document.
• Rename the old document
• Save the new document with the name of the old document (you have essentially re-created the original document now).
• Quit Word.
• Load Word and try opening that (newly fabricated) document again.

Still slow to load?

[stuck]

see if it is related to the templates on which the documents are based.

My money is on that as being your problem as when I was using Word 2000 I found certain old docs took forever to open because they were included a path to a template that was on a server that no longer existed.

Having jumped from Word 2000 to 2007 in one step I've found Word 2007 isn't bothered by these old docs and opens them without any anguish.

Ken

[Guessed]

I agree with Ken. The problem is most likely the attached template setting in the documents. Word can open the document itself but is struggling with locating the template which it also needs to open.

In my experience:
You resolve this WHILE the file is struggling to open by pulling out the network connection (temporarily).
You resolve this AFTER opening a document by going to Tools > Templates and Addins and attaching Normal.dot.

A faster/better resolution is to source the template and put it in your user templates directory. If you don't have access to that particular template, create a new template with the same name and put it into the User Templates folder.

[stuck]

If you don't have access to that particular template, create a new template with the same name and put it into the User Templates folder.

of course!, now why didn't I think of that years ago?

Ken

[jmt356]

Hi all.

I experimented with the document, and here is what I found to work. This is a quick summary for those who don't want to read the details below.
Please note this document is based on a template that is found on this computer. The document was created on this computer and the template path is valid to my templates folder on this computer.

Here is what made it opened quickly: open the document; link it to normal.dot; then link it back to the original template (called book_eng.dot). Upon saving and exiting, the document opened quickly every time thereafter.


DETAILED STEPS AND CORRESPONDING RESULTS
Chris: The original, renamed one still takes 5-10 seconds to open, even after having renamed it.

The new document, named and saved to the location of the original and with the contents of the original, takes about a second to open (much less time).

However, the new document is not identical to the original because the original is linked to a different template (the new document is linked to Normal.dot) and therefore does not display all of the styles correctly.

Although I was working on this document at work, it is based on a template created and stored on this computer. The template on which this document is based is stored on this computer's templates folder and the path in the Document's template settings accurately points to the correct location on this computer. Nonetheless, it opens up slowly.

I tried saving the document as a Word 97-3003 file, but it still takes a long time to open, I think even longer than the original document.

I then linked the original document to normal.dot. It took a second to open. However, I don't want to keep it that way. There are times I may change a style and then want to default back to the defaults in the tempalte. If I automatically update to document styles with Normal.dot as the template, all of my styles will get messed up.

I then linked teh original document to the template it was originally linked to. It then opened up very quickly.

I then took another version of the document. It took a very long time to open. I linked it ot the template that it should have been linked to. Note that this template is on this computer's hard drive. The path adn file name are the same as that which was on the document to begin with. When i went through the manual process of reselecting that template, and saving the document, nothing changed when I closed and reopened the document -- it still took a long time to reopen.

However, when I linked it to normal and then back to the original template, saved and closed it, it opened up very quickly the next time I opened it. I don't understand it, but that's what worked.

[HansV]

Thanks for posting this solution (or workaround, if you prefer).

[ChrisGreaves]

DETAILED STEPS AND CORRESPONDING RESULTS

Hi JMT, and my thanks, too, for rendering this tutorial.
It'll probably work for anyone else, and even if it does not, it will serve to eliminate a great many hours of resolution ("No, that didn't work, No, that didn't work, ...")

[Guessed]

JMT

It sounds like you have isolated the problem now and you have posted a good summary of the steps you went through to get there.

In my experience, attaching a template doesn't change the styles in the document UNLESS I choose to also tick the 'Automatically update document styles' box in the same dialog. Did you also try with the original files to see if leaving this option turned off allowed the document to open faster?

[jmt356]

Hello Guessed,

That option was always turned off.