Word files slow to open (All)

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We are having a problem with Word files that we receive from an Indian transcription service. After we download the files and unzip them and try to open them in Word they can take up to 2 minutes to open. They are just straight text files of about 30kb in size. At first I though it was to do with the header in the file. We sent them a header template which they use to create the Word files. Microsoft have 2 knowledge base articles (830561 and 823372) that refer to this problem. I downloaded the hot fix but could not apply it as our WINXP SP2 OS already had the fixes from a previous update. Anyway I got the transcription service to send us the files without the header but we had the same problem. More than half of the files take 2 minutes to open. We tried using various versions of Word – 97, 2000, 2002 & 2003 on WINXP but all had the same problem However, W2K with Office 2000 do not have the slow opening time. Neither does Open Office’s Writer program or Wordpad on WINXP. As we get lots of files from this service it causes us a lot of wasted time waiting for the files to open. Has anyone else come across this problem before?

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After the file opens, check the attached template under Tools > Template and Addins. Remove the attached template, save and close the file and then try opening it again.

If the file opens quickly after this change then that would be a significant indicator of the problem.

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Thanks for the input – I think I have solved the problem. The documents that take too long to open have a certain template location under Tools > Template and Addins which has a UNC name pointing to a server in India I presume (ServerMT on MTTemplatesMicrobiology – LPIDR – KK.dot). The others that open OK point to a local directory on each of the transcribers PC’s (C:Documents and SettingsHCLDesktopHelen3-8-06IDR – IG.dot). I think Word is trying to locate the server then eventually gives up and uses the local normal.dot template. I will give this information to the transcriber service to fix it from their end.

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There are two quick fixes which circumvent the problem for the existing files
1. Pull out the network cable while the file is stuck loading and it will open instantly – then put the cable back in
2. Put a template with the same name into your user templates directory.

I would recommend option 2 but it relies on you knowing in advance what the attached template name is.

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The templates were created here and sent to India so shouldn’t they already be in the templates directory? I have sent the problem through to them to fix up their template location so hopefully they can fix it at their end.

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Just because the template was created locally doesn’t mean that it is stored in a particular directory. Your earlier post said it opened quickly on one of your machines – I would guess that is because that machine has the template located in the User Templates or Workgroup Templates location. The other machines would rely on different directory paths.

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The PC that they will open straight away on is a Windows 2000 PC with Office 2000. The PC’s that have a problem are all XP with all version of Office. I guess the bug/feature comes from XP. I have spoken to India and they are going to move their templates off the server onto their local PC”s. So hopefully that will solve our problem.
Thanks for your help.

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The same behaviour can also occur on Windows2000/Office2000 so it is not unique to Office XP.
Your indian helpers can still have the template on the server just as long as they map the drive rather than relying on the UNC file path. If the attached template was described as being on G:template.dot then you wouldn’t get the same problem locally unless your G: also pointed at the same server location.

Best of luck with it.

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Thanks for the info – I will keep it in mind when they send the next files.

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What happens if, rather than opening the file directly, you insert it into an appropriately formatted blank file (using Insert>File…)? This may strip the headers and footers, but should carry over any direct formatting that might have been applied (e.g., bold, italics).

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Thanks – See reply to other post.

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