Slow opening documents
Playing the waiting game
Many of the systems we write automatically create Microsoft Word documents from templates. Sometimes some of the documents seem to take an age to open, even though it’s only a small document. The status bar says that it’s running a virus scan. It’s not. Well it is, but that’s not likely to be the cause of the slow opening1
When the document finally opens, go to the Tools menu, and choose Templates and Add-Ins. Check the name and path of any template that’s listed there. Chances are it’s pointing to a non-existent file or a network path that no longer exists. When MS Word opens the document it attempts to locate the original template, when this fails it makes repeated attempts to locate the template, to the extent that it may search multiple network directories in its vain game of‘hide & seek’ until it finally admits defeat and opens the document anyway.
All you need to do is delete the path and filename out of there and save the document. Reopen the document and hopefully, Hey Presto! it’s back to almost instant opening.
1 There are some anti-virus products that also have a detrimental effect on opening documents but these can usually be resolved by configuration options in the antivirus software.
image courtesy of EDgAr H.