Documents created using pre-2003 templates are extremely slow to open

Hi there. Sorry for the cross post but I was sure where to post this:

I recently upgraded a number of my users from Office 2000 & XP to Office
2003 and now certain documents that used to open with no problem are
extremely slow to open, some take up to 40 seconds. Most of the files are 20
or 30K in size. The only similarity between the documents that I noticed is
that they were all created from one of the older fax or memo templates. It
seems that most of the users created personalized templates may years ago in
Word 97 and never bothered to create new ones when we upgraded. They worked
fine in the previous versions of Word but now there is something that's
keeping Word 2003 from opening them in a normal manner.
I have tested the documents both on the network and locally and from
different computers. Computers are running Win2K or XP OS. I checked for
Macros and it doesn't look like any of them have them. I have created new
documents and they open with no issues.

any thoughts would be appreciated

Hi Blaine,

Thanks for your post!

I understand that when opening documents created using Word 97 templates in
Word 2003, it is open slowly, is that correct?

Based on my experience, there are two possible causes for this kind of
issue:

1. The problematic documents created by old template file are corrupted.
Although they can be opened by Office 2000/XP, there may be some minor
errors in the documents which cause the issue in Word 2003.

2. The document has a template attached or linked, and if one of the
following conditions is true:
a) The attached template, its folder, or its share is missing. -or-
b) The attached template has been moved. -or-
c) The attached template has been renamed.

I would suggest you try the following steps:

1. Open Word 2003, select File--Open, select a document.
2. Click the drop down menu on the right side of the Open button and select
"Open and Repair".
3. After opening the document, select Tools--Templates and Add-ins.
4. Change the document template to normal.dot.

Hope it helps. Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Arnold Gao

Microsoft Online Partner Support


Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

================================================== ==
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
================================================== ==
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

Hi Arnold,
Thanks for the info. It seems that the documents are all pointing to
templates that were on an old server. I have now noticed that there are a
significant number of these documents on the network. Do you know of any way
to do a "mass change" of these template locations? Maybe through a 3rd party
app or within Group Policy?

Thanks for the assist!
""Arnold Gao [MSFT]"" wrote in message
...
Hi Blaine,

Thanks for your post!

I understand that when opening documents created using Word 97 templates
in
Word 2003, it is open slowly, is that correct?

Based on my experience, there are two possible causes for this kind of
issue:

1. The problematic documents created by old template file are corrupted.
Although they can be opened by Office 2000/XP, there may be some minor
errors in the documents which cause the issue in Word 2003.

2. The document has a template attached or linked, and if one of the
following conditions is true:
a) The attached template, its folder, or its share is missing. -or-
b) The attached template has been moved. -or-
c) The attached template has been renamed.

I would suggest you try the following steps:

1. Open Word 2003, select File--Open, select a document.
2. Click the drop down menu on the right side of the Open button and
select
"Open and Repair".
3. After opening the document, select Tools--Templates and Add-ins.
4. Change the document template to normal.dot.

Hope it helps. Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Arnold Gao

Microsoft Online Partner Support


Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

================================================== ==
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
================================================== ==
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

Hi Blaine,

Thanks for your update!

If the OS is Windows XP, I would suggest you apply the hotfix in KB
article: 823372 Your Word Documents Take a Long Time to Open When They Have
Attached
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823372

Also, there are several feasible workaround which may help us to resolve
the issue. Please refer tot the KB article: 830561 Documents that have
attached templates take a long time to open in Word
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=830561

We look forward to your progress. Have a nice day!

Sincerely,

Arnold Gao

Microsoft Online Partner Support


Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

================================================== ==
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
================================================== ==
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.