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?

I just want to stick my oar in and say that I too am getting this problem. I am astonished that MS has not addressed something as basic as this. Incidentally, I don't think Skydrive has anything to do with it, since I do not use Skydrive and I am getting the same problem that has been described by other posters here. Long documents in Word 2003 (which I was using prior to Word 2013) opened and saved in an instant. Furthermore, if you type fast, then the cursor speed lags so far behind your typing that it makes it almost impossible to work. Like others, I have tried disabling various functions. This helps marginally, but only marginally. And reverting to .doc rather than .docx format helps, but this is not a proper solution either. I still have Word 2003 installed, and have been reduced to using this if I want to work on very long documents.

Someone has found a work-around: Disallow background saves. This works for me and for others in this thread as well, as you can see if you check out earlier posts. Please try it and report back the effect! Shame on MS, who obviously does not care about this disturbing problem despite all the problem reports! P.

I have exactly the same problem. I have a 141 page document with 55,567 words in it. It is 94kb as a docx. It takes about 40 seconds to perform a save. Saving as a doc, seems to be the only way round it, as previously suggested in other posts, until MS actually fix this bug up, which they should have done, before Office 2013 was released to the market. I cannot understand why this problem was not discovered during testing of Office 2013. Surely it must have been occurring during testing. Richard Wihtgar is spot on. What is just ridiculous, is, that when saved as a doc, (as also noted in other posts,) it takes a second to save ,what is then a 504kb document, but under docx it takes 40 seconds to save. It is obviously a "length" problem, as a one page document saves under one second. As also suggested, maybe SkyDrive has something to do with it?! I do like Office 2013, but MS just don't get it. When people go and spend $400 on Office 2013, it should work properly. Fix this problem up MS, or you will start losing loyal customers.

Hi Floresia, if your document is currently being saved in the new .docm format, then you might try doing a Save As, and pick the "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" format. In my experience, that fixed the performance problems and made Word usable again. I still see the inexplicable behavior of an hourglass appearing briefly whenever I navigate using the keyboard (arrow keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn), but otherwise things are nice and fast. Turning on/off background saves, and disabling/enabling hardware graphics acceleration had absolutely no effect. But switching away from the new .docm format did the trick, and keeps me going until Microsoft develops a fix.

Bruce, I have the similar problem and have no solution whatsoever. I used to save (CTRL + S) every time finish a paragraph. And, when doing so, it freezes for 15-20 seconds to save a document, even a short document and i cannot type anything during the moment of saving. It is really really really frustrated and I consider to go back to Word 2010. What a waste of time and money. Hoping MS will have a solution for us.

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?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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163 answers

Anonymous

2013-08-06T12:20:50+00:00

I just want to stick my oar in and say that I too am getting this problem. I am astonished that MS has not addressed something as basic as this.

Incidentally, I don't think Skydrive has anything to do with it, since I do not use Skydrive and I am getting the same problem that has been described by other posters here.

Long documents in Word 2003 (which I was using prior to Word 2013) opened and saved in an instant. Furthermore, if you type fast, then the cursor speed lags so far behind your typing that it makes it almost impossible to work.

Like others, I have tried disabling various functions. This helps marginally, but only marginally. And reverting to .doc rather than .docx format helps, but this is not a proper solution either.

I still have Word 2003 installed, and have been reduced to using this if I want to work on very long documents.
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Anonymous

2013-07-25T07:05:50+00:00

Someone has found a work-around: Disallow background saves. This works for me and for others in this thread as well, as you can see if you check out earlier posts. Please try it and report back the effect!

Shame on MS, who obviously does not care about this disturbing problem despite all the problem reports!

P.
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Anonymous

2013-07-20T15:29:31+00:00

I have exactly the same problem. I have a 141 page document with 55,567 words in it. It is 94kb as a docx.

It takes about 40 seconds to perform a save. Saving as a doc, seems to be the only way round it, as previously suggested in other posts, until MS actually fix this bug up, which they should have done, before Office 2013 was released to the market. I cannot understand why this problem was not discovered during testing of Office 2013. Surely it must have been occurring during testing. Richard Wihtgar is spot on.

What is just ridiculous, is, that when saved as a doc, (as also noted in other posts,) it takes a second to save ,what is then a 504kb document, but under docx it takes 40 seconds to save.

It is obviously a "length" problem, as a one page document saves under one second.

As also suggested, maybe SkyDrive has something to do with it?!

I do like Office 2013, but MS just don't get it. When people go and spend $400 on Office 2013, it should work properly. Fix this problem up MS, or you will start losing loyal customers.
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Anonymous

2013-06-21T15:59:53+00:00

Hi Floresia, if your document is currently being saved in the new .docm format, then you might try doing a Save As, and pick the "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" format.

In my experience, that fixed the performance problems and made Word usable again. I still see the inexplicable behavior of an hourglass appearing briefly whenever I navigate using the keyboard (arrow keys, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn), but otherwise things are nice and fast.

Turning on/off background saves, and disabling/enabling hardware graphics acceleration had absolutely no effect. But switching away from the new .docm format did the trick, and keeps me going until Microsoft develops a fix.
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Anonymous

2013-06-21T04:04:08+00:00

Bruce, I have the similar problem and have no solution whatsoever.

I used to save (CTRL + S) every time finish a paragraph. And, when doing so, it freezes for 15-20 seconds to save a document, even a short document and i cannot type anything during the moment of saving.

It is really really really frustrated and I consider to go back to Word 2010. What a waste of time and money.

Hoping MS will have a solution for us.
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