I am using the latest Word 2013 RC in German. Allthough I am very pleased with the overall performance and features of this new version, I ran into some very annoying problems, that didn't exist with the latest Word 2010. These should be easy to reproduce: Take a long document (*.docx) with at least 100 pages and try to save it. This takes forever - I can see the progress bar filling up slowly. It takes at least 10-20 seconds to save. During that process I cannot do anything within Word - not even scroll smoothly. It slows down to the point of almost freezing up. I didn't have this problem with Word 2010 on the same system. Take that same document (>100 pages) and try to copy&paste some text (for example out of Firefox) and paste it as plain text - this takes at least 1 to 2 seconds. I didn't have any kind of delay with Word 2010. Word 2013 seems to work ok with *.doc files - it's still slower than Word 2010 a lot faster than saving *.docx files. I have no problems whatsoever with short documents. Can anyone confirm these problems with Word 2013 RC?

No, that does not work at all. I disabled hardware acceleration as soon as a switched to Word 2013 due to other bugs, but I have the slow saving problem anyway.

Hi- Another frustrated user here (UK), but I am prepared to try solutions should MS come up with them, so others don't have the same sufferance. No- nothing suggested to date works- so why suggest it when it wasn't fully/ even tested? My Office 2013 WORD document is 400 pages long, on brand new Sony Vaio PC, and save takes 42 seconds to save(!), with same symptoms of almost zero response etc. during this time. Very frustrating. I've spent 22 years testing software for a major bank in London and can't believe the poor 'corrective' response to the problem, as with the other frustrated people here. Maybe MS testers should work first in an environment as I have where insufficient testing could result in the loss of millions of pounds...... Surely your diagnostics should first be run on a known problematical document and the 'correction' tested with automated testing tools run on multiple relevant documents, with stress testing, regression testing, response testing, operability testing, reliability testing, performance testing, etc., etc. Or perhaps MS doesn't have the resources?

I am glad that worked for you. I found several postings which suggested doing it, so it was the first things I tried, but as I mentioned it had no effect at all on my system when saving files and navigating through text. Both operations remain glacially slow. I still saw an hourglass every time I would navigate in the document, even if just moving the caret by a single letter. And I remain a bit skeptical that Word is using the GPU when saving files to disk, but am open to the possibility. Does your document contain macros?

Thx for the suggestion but unfortunately this doesn't work for me at all. It doesn't matter if I deactivate the hardware acceleration. As soon as I save my document in *.docx format, it's slow as ever. Seems I am stuck with *.doc for now.

if you disable the hardware acceleration as I suggested you are able to reach the same performance of Word 2010 with all the file formats (also docx). PROCEDURE: First open any Office 2013 program. For example open Word 2013. It'll open in new Start Screen mode. Click on "Blank document" option. Now click on "File" menu present in the ribbon and then click on "Options" link given at the end of the left-sidebar. It'll open Options window. Click on "Advanced" tab and scroll down a little. Look for the following option in "Display" section: Disable hardware graphics acceleration After that you will be able to use word 2013 and it will be fast and responsive also with docx format. Best regards

Word 2013: Extremely slow saving and pasting plain text in long documents

Anonymous

I am using the latest Word 2013 RC in German. Allthough I am very pleased with the overall performance and features of this new version, I ran into some very annoying problems, that didn't exist with the latest Word 2010. These should be easy to reproduce:

Take a long document (*.docx) with at least 100 pages and try to save it. This takes forever - I can see the progress bar filling up slowly. It takes at least 10-20 seconds to save. During that process I cannot do anything within Word - not even scroll smoothly. It slows down to the point of almost freezing up. I didn't have this problem with Word 2010 on the same system.
Take that same document (>100 pages) and try to copy&paste some text (for example out of Firefox) and paste it as plain text - this takes at least 1 to 2 seconds. I didn't have any kind of delay with Word 2010.
Word 2013 seems to work ok with *.doc files - it's still slower than Word 2010 a lot faster than saving *.docx files.

I have no problems whatsoever with short documents. Can anyone confirm these problems with Word 2013 RC?

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163 answers

Anonymous

2013-04-14T19:44:35+00:00

No, that does not work at all. I disabled hardware acceleration as soon as a switched to Word 2013 due to other bugs, but I have the slow saving problem anyway.
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Anonymous

2013-04-14T19:44:19+00:00

Hi- Another frustrated user here (UK), but I am prepared to try solutions should MS come up with them, so others don't have the same sufferance. No- nothing suggested to date works- so why suggest it when it wasn't fully/ even tested?

My Office 2013 WORD document is 400 pages long, on brand new Sony Vaio PC, and save takes 42 seconds to save(!), with same symptoms of almost zero response etc. during this time. Very frustrating.

I've spent 22 years testing software for a major bank in London and can't believe the poor 'corrective' response to the problem, as with the other frustrated people here. Maybe MS testers should work first in an environment as I have where insufficient testing could result in the loss of millions of pounds......

Surely your diagnostics should first be run on a known problematical document and the 'correction' tested with automated testing tools run on multiple relevant documents, with stress testing, regression testing, response testing, operability testing, reliability testing, performance testing, etc., etc. Or perhaps MS doesn't have the resources?
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Anonymous

2013-04-13T17:10:16+00:00

I am glad that worked for you. I found several postings which suggested doing it, so it was the first things I tried, but as I mentioned it had no effect at all on my system when saving files and navigating through text. Both operations remain glacially slow. I still saw an hourglass every time I would navigate in the document, even if just moving the caret by a single letter. And I remain a bit skeptical that Word is using the GPU when saving files to disk, but am open to the possibility.

Does your document contain macros?
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Anonymous

2013-04-13T16:11:45+00:00

Thx for the suggestion but unfortunately this doesn't work for me at all. It doesn't matter if I deactivate the hardware acceleration. As soon as I save my document in *.docx format, it's slow as ever. Seems I am stuck with *.doc for now.
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Anonymous

2013-04-13T10:54:56+00:00
if you disable the hardware acceleration as I suggested you are able to reach the same performance of Word 2010 with all the file formats (also docx).

PROCEDURE:
1. First open any Office 2013 program. For example open Word 2013. It'll open in new Start Screen mode. Click on "Blank document" option.
2. Now click on "File" menu present in the ribbon and then click on "Options" link given at the end of the left-sidebar.
3. It'll open Options window. Click on "Advanced" tab and scroll down a little. Look for the following option in "Display" section:
Disable hardware graphics acceleration

After that you will be able to use word 2013 and it will be fast and responsive also with docx format.

Best regards
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