Word 2016 Cursor movement slow, jumpy, laggy, erratic, stuttering in some documents

Anonymous
2015-07-13T06:29:26+00:00

It is impossible to edit some documents because of VERY slow, jerky, jumpy, laggy, erratic, stuttering cursor movement (horizontal worse than vertical). I have been forced to go back to using Word 2011. I am a professional novelist and cannot practice my trade with Word 2016!! This is very disappointing.

As a novelist I work with large word count simply formatted documents with a file size of less than 1M. I have not experimented to find a cut off point with regard to word count but documents in the 100K word size or more (less than 1M file size) exhibit this slow, jerky, laggy cursor movement problem. Small documents in the 5K word range do not have this problem on any of my notebooks.

It can take 10 seconds or more to move the cursor from the right to left side of the page (or vice-versa). This slow erratic cursor movement is especially troubling when trying to select a few words (highlighting them) for editing. It is very frustrating. 

I have experimented and found that brand new documents in 2016 file format exhibit this problem. I have created documents with zero text formatting and they have this problem. I removed all formatting in these test documents by copying and pasting ASCII text into the newly created 2016 format doc from original Word 2011 documents.

I have replicated this same problem on three different macbook computers all with SSD and max ram. None of these computers are running with more than 5% CPU utilization (running nothing else except Word 2016). All of these notebook computers edit the same files just fine using Word 2011.

  • Brand new 2015 macbook 12" retina
  • 2013 Macbook Pro 13" retina
  • 2013 Macbook Air

Track changes is not turned on, nor is any other unusual "feature" or function. This problem occurs in all display modes: draft, layout, etc.

**All these notebooks are running the latest version of Yosemite and all with 100% up to date software.

**This is a fatal mission-critical problem for me which has forced me to revert back to using Word 2011. Again, this is very disappointing.**I have been a Word user for something over 25 years (started on MS/PC DOS).

Similar / same problems here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2016-macword/office-2016-mac-very-laggy/e2656073-6f1b-4535-b78e-ee79e0a4fb4c

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2016-macword/word-2016-laggy-ui-and-scrolling-issues/9de4aeb7-9058-4fb0-a331-72076fed72b2

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2016-macword/performance-of-scrolling-in-word-2016-for-mac-is/f04bbc86-5753-4ef5-a2c3-5cfdcb8cb837

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Anonymous
2016-12-14T20:46:25+00:00

I confirm quitting Dropbox solves that ridiculous M$oft lag for me.

But Bill Gates just put 1 billion in SoftBank so all bugs will be gone.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-01T18:08:12+00:00

    Kevin, I'm really glad to hear that! Thank you so much for your feedback!

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-01T04:25:38+00:00

    So far the update 15.12.3 had been a big improvement for me. After working on one of my novels for +16 hours with Word 2016 I can say without a doubt this version is far better and much closer to the smooth responsive operation of Word 2011! Great job MS Development Team! Thank You Derik! 2016 is still not operating as smoothly or responsively as 2011 but definitely well beyond usable for me. As a novelist, Word is my equivalent of a musical instrument to a musician. I spend +8 hours a day, every day using Word to write my novels. As a result I am keenly aware of how Word responds to my fingers or not. I will post a follow up reply in about a week.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-07-31T21:10:17+00:00

    Hi Derrik,

    OK, after the last update today, typing and scrolling are way better.

    Good.

    But...

    Word 2016 still has a big impact on energy. More than 50% on the processor.

    There's still work to be done, as I can't use a software all day that is consuming that much.

    Keep it up!

    What update? For Macs? Was it 15.12.3? No improvement for me...

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-07-31T21:06:32+00:00

    Bless you! I'm happy to help as a "distressed user who is an MS Word whizz..." Thanks.

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