Word is very laggy when modifying styles

Anonymous
2023-05-29T21:09:42+00:00

I am experiencing a very strange behavior in Word. The app becomes very unstable and slow to respond when I have the styles editing view open. This is the only time that I can tell when this slow behavior occurs. In all other respects, Word appears to be working properly, with no lagging or other issues. I have tried the online repair tool, and even uninstalling and reinstalling Word via Microsoft 365. So far, nothing has solved the problem. This issue only recently started, and I have no idea why or how to fix it. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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Anonymous
2023-06-15T13:34:12+00:00

All,

I have contacted Grammarly and they have come back to me with the news that they have been able to replicate the behavior and have submitted the case to their developers. They have also stated that it might take a little bit of time to get it fixed. In the meantime, for those who cannot live without it, there is a Grammarly application called 'Grammarly for Microsoft Office' that is actually working (I have tested it myself and seems to be working all right). The other temporary action you may take short of uninstalling the app is to disable it by clicking on its logo and selecting the Options button, and then clicking 'Turn off suggestions in...'.

Hope all helps until a permanent fix is available.

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Anonymous
2023-06-14T02:07:37+00:00

Dear All,

Thanks for your updates and sharing the solution here.

I'm glad to hear that you have found the root cause of the issue.

For other members to find the updates here, I'll summarize the issue as follows.

Issue Symptom:

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Word is slow or unable to respond when modifying the styles.

Issue Environment:

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Word

Possible root cause:

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Grammarly may cause the issue.

Possible solution:

==================

Uninstall Grammarly and report to Grammarly and open a support ticket to our related team to check whether there are some updates fixing the issue.

Thanks for your effort and have a nice day!

Sincerely

Cliff | Microsoft Community Moderator

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-07-20T11:51:20+00:00

    It's not Grammarly. I removed it. Actually, I removed all add-ons, but the issue persists. This is something else, really annoying as it makes impossible to task of reformatting a document.

    Do you see this with a particular document or with any document whose styles you try to edit in Word?

    Which version of Word are you running and which operating system?

    This happens on any document, even a blank one. I'm running Microsoft Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2305 Build 16.0.16501.20074) 64-bit on Windows 10 Pro version 22H2 build 19045.3208.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-20T11:34:59+00:00

    I believe I have found the solution.. Someone else in this thread may have already reported this, but upon my cursory review, I did not see it.

    I deleted and Word subsequently created a new (fresh) normal.dotm file. After creating, I restarted Windows (always a step in debugging), opened Word and poof - the dialog doesn't lock up like before.

    Hopefully this tip resolves this annoying issue for you too.

    Moderator's note:

    Deleting the Normal Template is not a good idea. Instead, you can get the same benefit by renaming it with Word closed. This file can contain a plethora of user customizations.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-07-20T09:08:45+00:00

    It's not Grammarly. I removed it. Actually, I removed all add-ons, but the issue persists. This is something else, really annoying as it makes impossible to task of reformatting a document.

    Do you see this with a particular document or with any document whose styles you try to edit in Word?

    Which version of Word are you running and which operating system?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments