Word 2016 typing is very slow

Only using 50% of the processor simply indicates you have a CPU that has multiple physical or logical "cores".  If you look in task manager you will see that, most likely, winword.exe is using that 50%.  Everything else is using the other core, so at least your computer is not completely locked up!

Here are some possible fixes/word-arounds:

• web view, draft view
• office slow fixes
• 365 retrograde-upgrade to 2013

All right lets throw the works at it.

Simple "Fix" - Change view"

A simplistic "fix" is to try changing from default "Print Layout" view to "Web Layout" or "Draft" views. 

Print Layout is most CPU intensive. There may be something in your document design that is hard for Word to display ...

General Trouble Shooting - Safe Mode

In general a standard Office trouble shooting mode is starting the application in safe mode to disable all "addins" to see if one of them is guilty of causing the problem

Shortcut to Start Word in Safe Mode or Excel in Safe Mode, Hold <CTL> key when clicking on icon or using the Start menu search window and entering WINWORD.EXE /a or  WINWORD.EXE /safe

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Work-with-Office-safe-modes-dedf944a-5f4b-4afb-a453-528af4f7ac72

If safe mode "fixes" the problem you have to go through the all of the addins (turning them off and on) to find the specific cause of the problem.

If the problem persists, try starting Windows in Safe Mode. The cause MAY be something running in the background in Windows. Google to find how to start safe mode for your specific Windows version.

Office Slow Fixes

When Office 2013 came out a significant number of people had issues with one or the other of the various applications running slowly. Over time they found several fixes that worked in various specific situations.  I'll give you the lot of them, you try which ever ones you can and we'll see if anything works.  You know, like the recipe for testing if spaghetti is cooked ... "throw it at the wall, and see what sticks ... "

Office 2013 Slow - Turn Off Onedrive Sync

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Perhaps uncheck the “use Office to sync files faster...” setting in Onedrive.

Reference: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_home-office\_install/microsoft-office-document-cache-sync-client/6b011698-e0d8-4cc0-b3c2-674ba2565fc3?page=1

I looked at the Settings of the Onedrive desktop application and I saw that the option “Use Office to sync files faster and work on files...” was checked. I unchecked it and everything went normal, my CPU is now under control and there’s no CSISYNCSLIENT.EXE process in the background... Somehow, this started when I used OneNote via Outlook 2013 for the first time.

What this process does is build a very large cache of indexed Office files on your local drive.  For me, the cache was ~5GB, or about equal to the combined size of my Office files.  That would be fine provided I had extra space available on my SSD, but I don’t.     

I discovered that simply turning off this option does not automatically delete the cache and free the space.  To recover the disc space I closed the Onedrive application and then deleted everything in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache.   Keeping the “Use Office” option turned off has resulted in a much smaller cache. 

MS needs to document the cause/effect of this option so people understand the impact it has on their system.

</snip>

Performance and display issues in Office client applications - blurry, flicker, Black or White, Crash, Slow –> Disable Hardware Accel in Office -> OffCat.exe

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2768648

Symptoms

When you use Microsoft Office 2013 programs, you may notice that visual features differ from one computer to another. For example, on one computer, you may see animations in Excel when you scroll through a worksheet on one computer. However, on another computer, you do not see the same animations.

Additionally, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms that reduce the

Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration

http://www.askvg.com/fix-bold-blurry-or-hard-to-read-font-problem-in-windows-8-1/

http://www.askvg.com/disable-hardware-graphics-acceleration-and-fix-blurred-font-and-cursor-hanging-problems-in-microsoft-office-2013/

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_home-word/office-2013-displaying-issues/f425da29-de7a-47b5-b0e9-8c2afd5817a9

Turn off High Contrast on Win8 release preview and check the results. To turn off the high contrast, try the below steps:

• Press Windows Key +R, type in Control Panel and click OK.

O  Click on Ease of Access, Ease of Access Center, and then click on Make the computer easier to see.

O  Uncheck all the options under “High contrast” and click on OK.

You may also disable hardware graphic acceleration and check.

1. .    Click Options.
2. .    Under Display, select the Disable hardware graphics acceleration check box.
3. ry changing the box for “Use subpixel positioning to smooth fonts on screen”
4. .    Click Ok.

functionality of an Office program:

• An Office program is blurry.
• Your screen flickers or flashes.
• An Office program is either mostly all white or all black.
• Text in your document is not displayed well.
• Your Office program crashes.
• The performance of an Office program (other than startup and shut down) is reduced.
• In Microsoft Lync, there may be video delays or slowness when you are on a video call.

Cause

You may experience these symptoms if you have a video configuration on your computer that is incompatible with the Office 2013 feature set that is responsible for displaying the application and for animations in the application.

See the link for details (at the top).

2016 05 29- Word 2016 Slow – Related to KB 3035583 revison!

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_2013\_release-word/word-2013-slow-typing/80b487b5-119b-4a0c-9706-bcf2a413c350?msgId=8cb37b1d-0a43-4cb0-9b42-6d69907945b7&page=5

<snip>

I have the same problem of extremely slow keyboard input with Word 365 (OS W7), but this has only just started happening (May 29 2016), having previously been OK.

This is what I have found:

Opening the same Word 365 docx file using Word 2010 on the same PC & all works fine.

Since this has only just started happening, I looked for the most recent Windows updates. Un-installing KB 3035583 fixed the problem. This is Microsoft's latest attempt to force users to move to Windows 10, but that's a whole new story.

</snip>

2016 02 16- Microsoft's Bumpy February Security Patch - Wipe Custom File Assoc, Word/Outlook Slow CPU 100%

https://mcpmag.com/articles/2016/02/16/bumpy-february-security-patch.aspx

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_365hp-outlook/office-2016-update-slowed-the-smooth-typing/4b9ecdb6-f31f-4f32-9130-69bc70cf4b77

• • Outlook, remove picture from signature line, or disable signature

Slow Word 2013

<snip>

Sluggish response in my office 2013 Word document editing was due to using the navigation pane only. I use navigation pane often since I typically work on large documents. Once I turned off the navigation pane, response is as expected. No other settings or features caused this poor response in Word 2013 because I tried them all! This “fix” proved to work on all my installs and a colleague’s office 2013 install.

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I have found that switching between all page viewing modes: read mode, outline, etc. and going back to print layout fixed the lag problem.

</snip>

<snip>

I experienced a similar issue with slow typing speed in Office 365 Word. I edit a substantial number of Word and Excel documents for work and found the Onedrive storage incredibly beneficial for working remotely.

I realized though that documents which are being edited from Onedrive, not a local copy, experience the slow typing speed issue.

The fix:   From word:  File, Options. Word Options has an advanced tab on the left labeled ‘advanced’. About 3/4 of the way down, a category for ‘Save’ options exists. The default setting has ‘Allow Background Saves’ checked. I uncheck this option and instead check ‘Always create backup copy’ and ‘Copy remotely stored files onto your computer, and update the remote file when saving’.

I assume that if you’re storing the files on Onedrive, or Dropbox, or web, or maybe even some external drive or flash memory this background save could be lagging and result in typing slowness. Either way, I changed the advanced options, and no more problem. Maybe it’ll work for you.

Excel didn’t have the option, and I usually save a local copy anyways due to the working file size.

*I run windows 7 with office 365 and windows surface pro with win 8 and office 365. 4gb memory each.

</snip>

<snip>

word 2013 is typing very slowly again

Answer

I have had the same problem on many computers and tried every solution I found on the web and nothing worked(registry changes, office settings(save display and more)).  As a test I copied the files from my Onedrive folder to the desktop and everything worked well - typing was as fast as office 2010 - the slow typing was a one drive problem.  Wanting both the benefits of Onedrive and the ability to type without lag I did the following:

1.Created a folder outside of Onedrive call Onedrive-Local.

2 Downloaded MS SyncToy to sync Onedrive-Local to the Onedrive folder which uploads to the cloud.

Now I only work out of the Onedrive-Local folder and things are fast.  The files get synced and I have access to them on the cloud.

</snip>

<snip>

I had DisplayFusion installed on my machine. Quitting DisplayFusion immediately resolved my issue.

After quite a bit of experimentation, I found that many of the solutions proposed helped (marginal improvements) with the speed of the text entry in Word (I am using Word 2013 - delivered with Office 365 subscription).

Unfortunately, I thought the issue may be with performance or hardware compatibility related to Windows 10 (I am using a  a preview version of Windows via Bootcamp dual-boot setup on a new Macbook Pro with Office 365 installed). 

In the end, I found that the main problem was change tracking!...I was editing an excerpt of a larger document which had “Track changes” activated. I can only imagine that the tracking of deletions was causing some sort of efficiency issue in the processing.

I have about 80% free RAM and a Quad core i7 system (16Gb of memory of which 80% is free, 100MB reserved for Word, so not a memory usage issue - must just be inefficient code) 

I confirmed the Track Changes setting was main issue by activating all the animation etc (the other fixes proposed). Those factors did not cause the original issue to re-occur.

Interestingly, when my word locks up with this issue, the performance of the remaining applications is relatively unaffected.

</snip>

Hide Track Changes

I found that if I set the tracking drop down to "No Markup", the lag goes away.

This way you can continue to track changes, just not see them in real time.

Windows Performance Options – Turn Off Animation

Some users have found that turning off Animation in Windows helps.

Use the Windows Search to find “Performance Options”. In the Visual Effects tab you have 4 options:

• Let Win choose what’s best for my computer
• Adjust for best appearance
• Adjust for best Performance
• Custom:

The simplest fix is select “Best Performance”. That turns off all of the “fancy” frills that MS think make Windows “look pretty”. Otherwise you can select “Custom”. In there, as a minimum, turn off the “animation” options. You may also want to turn off other effects to speed up the perceived performance of your computer.

PowerPoint Slow - update video driver

<snip>As well as what Steve said. On one PC a new Windows 10 update insisted on installing a "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" driver which caused lots of problems.

I had to download the correct driver manually and install it.</snip>

<snip>

And just to add a few bits to the whole video driver issue, some of the hardware drivers come from the hardware manufacturers, and by the time they make it through incorporation into a shipping version of Windows, may be out of date and not include the latest fixes.  So in addition to disabling hardware accel as a test, it's worth looking to see if newer drivers are available from the manufacturer of your video card.

And, odd though it may seem, PPT wants a reasonable printer driver installed and set as the default printer driver.  You'll want to be sure you've done that, even if it's just the XPS driver that ships with most recent Windows versions.

</snip>

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/find-replace-outdated-windows-drivers/

NVIDIA video card fix

Visio 2013 VERY slow

<snip>

Anyway, this might not apply to everyone, but I saw a few other comments from people who also have Optimus-enabled laptops.

Basically, I’m forcing Visio to be rendered by my Quadro, instead of allowing it to be rendered by the Intel.

Go to the Nvidia Control Panel and open check the “Manage 3D Settings”

Under the “Program Settings” tab

Add a reference to Visio if needed

Set to use the discrete graphics

It’s working way better for me now, no more weird lag when moving the main window, and now more lag during pan/zoom.

</snip>

NVIDIA App

<snip>

When you install GeForce Experience from NVIDIA, you will be notified about updates as well and allows you to update the driver from within the application; http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience

</snip>

Retrograde Upgrade

If you had Office 365 2013 and upgraded to 2016 you have the option of doing a "Retrograde-upgrade" back to 2013. This helps avoid some problems (ie the missing Word 2016 grammar checking tool).

How do I use the Office 365/2016 offline installer? Downgrade to Office 2013 - DownGrade - Down Grade - Back out

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/How-do-I-use-the-Office-2016-offline-installer-f0a85fe7-118f-41cb-a791-d59cef96ad1c Offline installer

Looking for help with a one-time purchase of Office 2013 or Office 2016?: Download the install files for a one-time purchase of Office 2013 or Office 2016

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/wiki/office\_365hp-office\_install/retrograde-upgrade-office-3652016-to-2013-download/fbdf55d9-9b62-4ac0-95af-56a9f848c2b2

• installer options, including downgrade

https://support.office.com/en-US/article/How-do-I-reinstall-Office-2013-after-an-Office-2016-upgrade-a6ca92f4-cbb4-4609-9fdb-f8d3dd6812f3 How do I reinstall Office 2013 after an Office 2016 upgrade?

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/office-365-office-2016downgrade-rights/ Downgrade Office 365/2016 to Office 2013

Typing is so slow in my document, sometimes the screen goes black and I get the spinning blue circle then the screen comes back and then the letters that I typed appear one. by. one. V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. 

I am writing a newsletter full of text boxes, photos, and titling.  I have to use Word because that's what my co-editor has.  But she has 2013 and I wanted to get that but I had to buy the latest one, 2016, I couldn't buy and old one.

YUCK!

And an earlier poster was right, it is only using 50% of the processing power while typing.  this is ridiculous!  Why is there no solution for this?!?

I also have experienced the same "lag" when typing. It is extremely counter-productive, annoying and unacceptable considering I'm running Word on a  very capable system: Windows 10 OS, intel core i5 6600k, 16GB ram should be plenty to type smoothly in a simple text editing software. Seriously  MS, fix your stuff before you loose more customers! I personally don't have free time available to go around reading countless forum  posts and whatnots, leading to complicated solutions and workarounds that may or many not work, consuming several hours of my productivity on a paid product that should simply doesn't work as intended out of the box.  I was actually going to purchase another Office package for my laptop but I'll stick to the FREE AND FLAWLESS Open Office until this mess disappears.

Installed the update quickly; typing is still pretty slow. :-(