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

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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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
    2016-02-26T17:25:45+00:00

    DISABLE CURSOR ANIMATION: Go to "Computer" or "This PC" , Right click and select "Properties" then select "Advanced System Settings" and click on the "Performance" section. Then uncheck the first listing "Animate controls and elements inside windows" Click Apply and the issue should be resolved.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-01T02:26:58+00:00

    DISABLE CURSOR ANIMATION: Go to "Computer" or "This PC" , Right click and select "Properties" then select "Advanced System Settings" and click on the "Performance" section. Then uncheck the first listing "Animate controls and elements inside windows" Click Apply and the issue should be resolved.

    Robert Bruner's suggestion reduces the problem cosmetically. It does not eliminate it. Even with animation disabled while composing email in Outlook 2016 on a fast Windows 10 desktop, it still takes the cursor up to five seconds to jump to its actual location after hitting the spacebar at the end of a sentence. While writing, the cursor still cannot catch up with keystrokes, lagging between typed characters. Typing characters at one-second intervals, I see that the cursor sticks between letters with every other keystroke. Backspacing to make a correction takes more effort and many more keystrokes since the cursor is not, in reality, where it claims to be on my screen.  

    I had no problems with Office 365 on a fast Windows 10 computer until last week's Outlook update. I have now been given an option for a black theme, and the lagging cursor curse. Swell. 

    I need this version of Office for my work with collaborators, so I'm not about to abandon the program or revert to 2013, but Microsoft has managed to add a dreadful amount of frustration to my workday -- from first word to last. Given the great gaps of time between Office updates, I suspect I'm now doomed to live with this inexcusable software flaw for months. At Microsoft, quality control obviously means nothing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-15T19:01:10+00:00

    Hey Kevin, 

    Not sure if I really found a "solution"for this, but having exactly same problem here. 

    It seems that it happens to me every time i go to full screen mode (gets laggy and freaking annoying to work with). So i just closed the program and opened again (not full screen mode) and it goes fine. I guess this just a bug that Microsoft will figure out soon, but til there I am keeping with my strange strategy to get it bit faster.

    Cheers and good luck

    Wow that fixed it for me. Sucks to have to do this when composing emails, but it does get rid of the lag and jumpiness. Thanks.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-03-15T23:42:39+00:00

    I never run my Outlook, Word or Excel full screen, but they are all lagging in a serious way after the latest round of updates. I even tried removing the updates from Office, but that does not resolve the issue. It is affecting all three of the computers I use on a daily basis. It is very frustrating to be stuck using a product that lags so severely behind. Especially when going back and trying to edit. You are never 100% sure where the doggone cursor is and you end up editing things you didn't want to edit.

    Overall I like the product, and have been using it since release to mainstream. However, if I could trade the nifty black theme for a responsive cursor in the apps, I would. This glitch is turning me into a cuss-er.

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