Word 2007 files take forever to open in Vista (was: Will an SSD help?)

[BlouBul]

Hi Jorge,

You didn't answer all my questions.

1. Is your laptop also x64?

2. Is your wife's laptop x64 or x86?

3. What happens if you take the .doc file and save as .docx, does it make a difference?

I was thinking the same as dencorso regarding the x64 - x86 combination (but if your laptop is x86, that confuses the theory)

[BlouBul]

Unfortunately I don't have access to more PCs. My office is at home, so I've tried it on all the computers we have here. )

Hi JorgeA,

I do not know if the documents are confidential, otherwise you can maybe edit the confidential parts out and upload it somewhere, then we can test it on different systems.

(Well, O.K., I tried it on my Windows for Workgroups 3.11 system running MS Word 6.0, but it couldn't read the file at all. )

Well, try saving it as Word 6 file and see what happens http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Microsoft-Office-Word-2007/0040__Editing/Word2007SaveFileFormats.htm The second last one on the list.

Edited October 8, 2010 by BlouBul

[JorgeA]

Hi Jorge,

You didn't answer all my questions.

1. Is your laptop also x64?

2. Is your wife's laptop x64 or x86?

3. What happens if you take the .doc file and save as .docx, does it make a difference?

I was thinking the same as dencorso regarding the x64 - x86 combination (but if your laptop is x86, that confuses the theory)

Hi BlouBul,

Well, you cornered me into researching just what "x86" means. When you first brought it up, my reaction was, "I'm not using an 80486 CPU, let alone an 80386, 80286, or 8086, so this doesn't have anything to do with me." But then you and dencorso kept bringing it up, as if such systems still mattered today -- which led me to wonder why up-to-date folks such as yourselves would even think about "x86." So I had to look into the topic to see what you meant.

If I understand it correctly, "x86" is a reference to 32-bit OS's (so why aren't they simply called "x32" now for consistency?) If I got that right, then I can say that my Vista tower and my wife's Win7 are not x86, they are x64. So is my friend's Vista laptop.

I converted the file to .docx format and opened it in Word on my Vista x64 tower. While the size of the .doc file is 7.0MB, the .docx version is 6.04MB. I ran a trial series of five file loadings. The times were:

2:17

3:56

3:58

4:19

4:19

Doesn't seem to make a great difference whether it's .doc or .docx.

Also, I looked at the box in which my Microsoft Office CD came, and the label says "Win32" in tiny letters. I don't know if a 64-bit version was available when I bought it, at the same time as the computer (December '08), not that I would have understood the difference back then. (I like to think that today I'm a bit more knowledgeable about computers.) My wife's Office 2007 is also Win32, according to her CD box.

What do you think? What effect could there be from the 32/64 bit issue?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Unfortunately I don't have access to more PCs. My office is at home, so I've tried it on all the computers we have here. )

Hi JorgeA,

I do not know if the documents are confidential, otherwise you can maybe edit the confidential parts out and upload it somewhere, then we can test it on different systems.

(Well, O.K., I tried it on my Windows for Workgroups 3.11 system running MS Word 6.0, but it couldn't read the file at all. )

Well, try saving it as Word 6 file and see what happens http://www.java2s.com/Tutorial/Microsoft-Office-Word-2007/0040__Editing/Word2007SaveFileFormats.htm The second last one on the list.

BlouBul,

Thanks for another really useful link! I will try converting the file, and report on the results.

But on the other suggestion, I'm not authorized to upload the big file (or any part of it) for viewing by the general public.

--JorgeA

[BlouBul]

Yes, x86 actually refers to 32 bit and x64 to 64 bit (long story, you can get more info here). I dont think Office 2007 came out in 64 bit. Apparantly the Office 2010 x64 version has some issues (I heard that through the grapevine, maybe dencorso can confirm that). I do not know if there is an issue with the combination, just a guess, as all the computers where it was slow to open were Vista x64 with Office 2007 x86 with Norton. I still won't totally discount Norton though.

http://www.techtalkz...-2007-slow.html

http://forums.pcworl...-windows-vista/

Can you upload any other non-classified doc which is also slow to open for a comparison?

Edited October 8, 2010 by BlouBul

[JorgeA]

BlouBul,

Thanks again for these further links!

I read through both of them. Norton does seem to stay in the picture as a possible suspect.

We should note that the trouble I'm having with Word is with very large files, not with opening the program as such -- that's completed in a few seconds. (In the first link, people were reporting that Word was taking 10 minutes just to launch the program.) The patterns is that the bigger the file, the longer it takes to load.

Which reminds me that I still have to try loading the file with grammar check disabled (assuming there is a way to do that).

Rats -- I just checked, and all of my large files are proprietary or confidential documents from my customers! My own Word documents are small. So I can't help there.

I'll get back to you when I convert the file to Word 6.0, and also test loading the file without grammar check. And I *am* curious as to why the x64/x86 nomenclature -- I will definitely read that, thank you!

--JorgeA

UPDATE: I turned off Word's automatic grammar and spell check, then loaded the file three more times. Surprisingly, didn't seem to make a difference: 3:08, 4:04, 5:13. (I verified that the checks were in fact disabled.) So we can eliminate that as a factor.

UPDATE 2: I don't have an option to save files in Word 6.0 format -- its place in the "other formats" list appears to have been taken by Open Office format. I saved it as an RTF, which looks like it's the only other format (other than text) that my Word 6.0 will read, but the resulting file is 114MB in size so I doubt that any loading time measurements will be comparable. I suppose I could load the RTF file on both computers, but I'm not sure if you or dencorso would consider the results meaningful.

Edited October 8, 2010 by JorgeA

[BlouBul]

I read through both of them. Norton does seem to stay in the picture as a possible suspect.

We should note that the trouble I'm having with Word is with very large files, not with opening the program as such -- that's completed in a few seconds. (In the first link, people were reporting that Word was taking 10 minutes just to launch the program.) The patterns is that the bigger the file, the longer it takes to load.

UPDATE 2: I don't have an option to save files in Word 6.0 format -- its place in the "other formats" list appears to have been taken by Open Office format. I saved it as an RTF, which looks like it's the only other format (other than text) that my Word 6.0 will read, but the resulting file is 114MB in size so I doubt that any loading time measurements will be comparable. I suppose I could load the RTF file on both computers, but I'm not sure if you or dencorso would consider the results meaningful.

Read again in the first link it is actually to open the files

Thanks for the info. I had found another thread that indicated Norton could be the problem. I had thought I had disabled it already, but it turns out there were some services running.

I tried to uninstall, and it took about 15 minutes for the progress bar to get to the end, and then nothing more happened. Had to do a hard stop to get out of it. After rebooting, although it seemed the files were all there, Norton was not running, and Word was working ok (still slow compared with Word 2003, but only taking 10 secs to load a file instead of 10 minutes.

I am not sure that the word 6 will actually give useful info, apart from the "that's interesting" factor.

[JorgeA]

Read again in the first link it is actually to open the files

BlouBul,

All right, it was in the second link that people were complaining that Word was taking 10 minutes just to launch. Fortunately I haven't reached the 10-minute stage launching Word OR opening a file. By now I'd probably have taken a hammer to the PC...

I am not sure that the word 6 will actually give useful info, apart from the "that's interesting" factor.

At least I discovered that my second HDD on the WfW3.11 system was having a problem being written to from the network -- asking for a nonexistent password -- and I delved into the OS's workings to fix the problem. If you hadn't asked about loading that big file on Word 6.0, I wouldn't have either discovered the problem or fixed it. So, thank you!

BTW, have you noticed the "Views" count on this thread??

--JorgeA

Edited October 9, 2010 by JorgeA

[BlouBul]

[All right, it was in the second link that people were complaining that Word was taking 10 minutes just to launch.

Yes the 2nd link was more to confirm that Norton still causes trouble, even if disabled

Yup ! Norton was the culprit. The minute that I uninstall Norton, Word 2007 just fly...I even think it opens faster than the Word 2003 :^0

Thanks folks for all the suggestions and helps.

Considering this ticket closed !

...

You nailed it right on the head w/ your suggestion to uninstall Norton...Good call...Thanks again...

BTW, have you noticed the "Views" count on this thread??

Yes about a 1:10 ratio with replies:views. Over 1400 people viewed this (ok, *maybe* some viewed it more than once ) with only about six people replying over the lifetime of this thread. Either people really don't know or they don't want to help us, or they don't read this. For the record: We do welcome outside input!!! We got more people to reply in the hardware section. No new people replied since we moved.

Edited October 9, 2010 by BlouBul

[dencorso]

Let's say the Office Forum is not quite a very fast turnover forum, like the Hardware Hangout or the Win 9x/ME forum, so you've maybe become used to faster input than is the norm most elswere around MSFN. However, this *is* the right forum for this problem, so here it has to remain...

@JorgeA: Please notice that there is 64-bit hardware and 64-bit software, and the latter requires the former, but not the other way around, as most (though not all) 64-bit hardware is downward compatible and can run 32-bit software. So one can run XP, Vista and Win 7 32-bit versions quite well on 64-bit processors, but not the other way around...

[BlouBul]

Let's say the Office Forum is not quite a very fast turnover forum, like the Hardware Hangout or the Win 9x/ME forum, so you've maybe become used to faster input than is the norm most elswere around MSFN. However, this *is* the right forum for this problem, so here it has to remain...

Yes, I know, it is just that patience is not always my strongest virtue (Mumble, Grumble) but I'm working on it

Anyway, now with that of my chest, I still think we are on the right track. Who needs help anyway?

@JorgeA

Still a few more questions to confirm or deny our suspicions:

Is your laptop Vista 32 bit or 64 bit? Does your wife also have Norton on her laptop?

See how fast your computer opens this file (2.3 mb) http://download.micr...ecification.doc (first download, then open)

My computer (Core2Duo 1.8 GHz with 3GB ram under Win 7 x86 and Office 2010 x86 +NOD32) takes under 5 sec from outside Word.

Another computer (2.4 GHZ Celeron with only 256 MB Ram under WinXP SP3 and Office 2007 + Kaspersky 2010) takes just under 10 sec to open same file from inside Word.

Edited October 9, 2010 by BlouBul

[dencorso]

Good choice for a test file, BlouBul!

Athlon XP-M 2800+ (@2333 MHz) / 3 GiB / XP SP3 / AVG 2011/ Word 97: 2.11 s best, 2.45 s worst, 2.26 s median.

Later Edit: It's seconds, of course. Now that's corrected. Thanks, BlouBul!

[BlouBul]

Good choice for a test file, BlouBul!

Athlon XP-M 2800+ (@2333 MHz) / 3 GiB / XP SP3 / AVG 2011/ Word 97: 2:11 best, 2:45 worst, 2:26 median.

Thanks, not sure if we needed a file with graphics, but thought that would be a good start.

I hope your times is in seconds and not minutes (we do not want JorgA's computer to open files faster than yours!) I just used the second hand on my watch and also get *about* 2 secs with Word already open.

Edited October 9, 2010 by BlouBul

[JorgeA]

BTW, have you noticed the "Views" count on this thread??

Yes about a 1:10 ratio with replies:views. Over 1400 people viewed this (ok, *maybe* some viewed it more than once ) with only about six people replying over the lifetime of this thread. Either people really don't know or they don't want to help us, or they don't read this. For the record: We do welcome outside input!!! We got more people to reply in the hardware section. No new people replied since we moved.

Hi BlouBul,

I'm thinking that maybe there are a lot of people out there with a similar problem, who don't know what to do about it and are looking for solutions in this thread. So our efforts are (hopefully) helping to guide other people.

But you're right -- while the thread does now belong here (since the thrust of it has shifted), no one new to it has jumped in since it was moved.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Let's say the Office Forum is not quite a very fast turnover forum, like the Hardware Hangout or the Win 9x/ME forum, so you've maybe become used to faster input than is the norm most elswere around MSFN. However, this *is* the right forum for this problem, so here it has to remain...

@JorgeA: Please notice that there is 64-bit hardware and 64-bit software, and the latter requires the former, but not the other way around, as most (though not all) 64-bit hardware is downward compatible and can run 32-bit software. So one can run XP, Vista and Win 7 32-bit versions quite well on 64-bit processors, but not the other way around...

dencorso,

Thanks for the explanation. I thought it was something like that, but it's good to have it confirmed.

About the differences in traffic, it's actually pleasing that the section dedicated to a "museum" OS like Win98 would actually get more traffic. Still a lot of fans out there...

--JorgeA