Hello,

I have just loaded a large book MS of mine (76,000 words) into Word 2010. It is a .doc file created in an older version of Word (97?). It is displayed perfectly, but the "wait" hourglass cursor constantly flashes, and so does the "?" on the right-hand side of the bottom bar. When I click on this, "Language Bar Help" is momentarily displayed, but even if I click again, nothing changes.

I have masses of RAM, that's not the problem. The MS contains a very few Spanish words - is that being picked up? What can I do? I can't even save or minimise the page... can anyone please help?

Regards,
Alec.

The behaviour may be due to Word repaginating the document. You can disable that if you switch to Draft view. Documents containing lengthy tables are also prone to slowing down a document.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you, John -

I must certainly remember to do that, when I make changes which affect pagination.

However, I found that the problem seems to come and go, even on shorter documents. However, I think it was in some way connected with the printer connection. At times, when I try to print, the message alternates between "printer ready" and "printer not connected", and the cursor flashes in sympathy. Sometimes jiggling the USB plus helps; I will try replacing the USB printer lead, and re-installing the printer.

Regards,
Alec.

John?

There can be multiple causes of slow opening, in particular of documents that have been created on networks. From my notes:

Performance Issues when Opening Network Documents
Word is slow to start, print, or load documents:
When you start Word, it gathers information to use for document formatting and printing operations. If the files, drivers, or fonts are damaged, missing, or located on a remote server, Word can require more time to connect to the server and gather the information that it needs. If Word starts very slowly, or other operations, such as opening or printing documents, also are very slow, this may be due to any one or more of:
• Microsoft Windows using a printer driver located on a network print server, instead of a local printer driver on your hard disk. When you use a remote printer driver, you may notice that it takes longer to change your default printer setting, and sometimes Word may print documents more slowly than you may expect.
• Word is installed on your computer, but Word was once running from the network. When the computer is not connected to the network, there is a long delay when you are opening documents.
• Fonts that are used in the Word document are damaged or missing from the system, and Word cannot substitute other fonts in the document.
To resolve the issues, see: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=280821

Documents that have attached templates take a long time to open:
When you open a Microsoft Word document when connected to a network, it may take longer than expected to open. This can occur if the document has a template attached or linked and one of the following conditions is true:
• The attached template, its folder, or its share is missing.
• The attached template has been moved.
• The attached template has been renamed.
• A linked file referenced by the document is missing, has been moved or renamed.
When a Word template is missing, Windows will try to locate the missing template multiple times. The process of locating a missing template may cause a Word document to take longer than expected to open.
To resolve the template issues, see: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=830561.

If you're opening the file from a completely different location (e.g. at home instead of at work), simply disconnecting from the internet while opening the file can improve performance.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul,

Many thanks for that comprehensive reply - very helpful.

kind regards,
Alec.