If you’re finding Word documents slow to load this normally occurs when Word is looking for something within a Word Document, eventually it times out and the document loads, but this can take minutes.

Read on for our list of fixes to help speed up word docs.

Is the Word application itself slow to load?
If your finding this then it’s not a problem with Word documents.

The easiest fix that will resolve most problems is to simply delete the Normal Template – for Office 2003 and earlier it’s called Normal.dot and for Office 2007 Normal.dotm

The location for Word 2003 or 2007 using XP is C:\Documents and Settings\user profile\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

Using Vista or Windows 7 the path changes to
C:\Users\user profile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

Note – Make sure your system is set to show all files or you may not be able to find the Templates location.

To set Windows 7 to view all files – Go to Computer – Organize – Folder and Search Options – View tab – under the Files and Folders section – Hidden Files and Folder and make sure Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives is selected.

To view all files with XP – Go to My Computer – Tools – Folder Options – View tab – Files and Folders section – Hidden Files and Folders – Ensure Show Hidden Files and Folders is selected.

Certain Word Documents Slow to Load

If you’re finding only certain Word document slow to load then we need to look at the documents themselves.

It is usually the case that they have some form of links that are trying to access a resource that is no longer available, emailed Word documents are very common for this as they work find on the senders computer, but as soon as an email recipient tries to open them they will of course not be able to find the link or resource.

To rectify this look in the document for links, and check for other Template links and Add-Ins from the Tools menu.

Anything in the Document Template box will probably point to a location that no longer exists and removing it should make a big difference.

Next look for any Global Templates and Add-Ins again if you don’t recognize them the chances are they are causing the problem, but like anything double check they are not needed first.

Could the Document be corrupt?

If the file turns out to be corrupt then the next step is to attempt a repair, Office 2007 and 2007 has a built in repair tool which can be accessed by launching Word – Select the Home Button – Open – Highlight your document – on the Open button select the arrow and choose the repair option as per the graphic.

The last way is to copy the body of the document into a blank document.

Open the problem document – hit the CTRL + A keys to select everything.

Create a New blank document and hit the CTRL + V keys to paste.

There are other options such as repairing Microsoft Word or the complete Office Suite, read more here on repairing and reinstalling office

Got some private or personal files you want to protect? Find out more about protecting your Documents

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