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I came across some strange problem with Office 2007. If I try opening new MS Word or Excel from Start Menu, it takes about 2 to 3 seconds to open. But when I open any Word or Excel document from my desktop it takes upto a minute to open completely. Any guesses why is it taking so much of time to load a document even thought they are very small in size?
I’m not sure but this could have happened because of any other software installed recently. One of my friends has faced exactly the same problem and it started with him when he installed Nokia Data Suite on his system. So if you have had installed something recently, try removing it and see if the problem persists.
I too have recently begun experiencing this. There must be a dozen threads on the topic and none ever list a final resolution, they just seem to die out.
Interesting, because the problem results in a huge time waste and work inefficiency. In hopes of someone finally offering a real solution here are the symptoms I am seeing.
+ XP SP3
+ Not seen on Office XP, but showed up with Office 2007
+ Seemed to coincide with a hard drive upgrade - 120GB to 250GB. Used Acronis to do this. Upgraded to Office 2007 at the same time, so not sure which it might be, but primary suspect is Office.
+ Seen when you double click a Word or Excel file to open. While waiting the app you are in (Explorer, Outlook, etc.) is usless. Shows not responding if you try to close.
+ Will always open if you wait long enough.
+ If you open the app first and open the file from within the app, opens right away.
+ Worse when I am attached to my work network, even if accessed files are not on the network. This seems like a huge hint! I have disconnected all non-accessible mounts. That cleared up a side problem of how quickly you could drill down through directories.
+ Worse when I first power up from a shutdown. Seems to improve as the day goes on. Almost like the problem is related to search paths and it learns or gets smarter as time passes, but shut down and you are back at square one.
+ Off network, cannot say problem totally goes away, but much less frequent.
+ Side issue is that even when Excel sheets open the Excel app, the workbook does not open until the app is minimized and the maximised.
Thats what I know. I hope it clicks with someone and we can identify the cause. THX
I think i found the cause of the problem. I think it was a leftover personal worksheet with macros from Excel XP. It was opening in compatibility mode and taking forever. It also caused the side effect of requiring 2 clicks on the close box to close Excel. The first click looked like it left Excel with nothing open because the macro worksheet was hidden.
Browse to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft
\Excel\XLSTART and get rid of the files there. For Word the folder is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP
I had similar symptoms after upgrading from Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 caused by my old personal.xls:
1. Extremely slow opening files.
2. Required 2 closes (X) to exit completely.
If you don't need your old personal.xls, deleting it is the easy answer for both issues. But if you do need it, the answers to the above issues are (respectively):
1. Open personal.xls, UNHIDE it, and save as personal.xlsb.
2. Go into Excel Options and uncheck the option for showing all open workbooks on the task bar. (Alternatively, one can use the Shift key to close all open workbooks.)