Double-Clicked Documents Slow to Open In Word

I've seen a mysterious problem crop up to many Microsoft Word users: you double-click a Document (or even Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc.), and the computer hangs for a a little bit, and then the document opens. Equally irritating is that opening the document from File > Open inside of Word is usually nice and snappy. Fingers have been pointed at (insert name of Office application here), Windows, networks, printers, and antivirus software.

Well, the short answer is this: they're all suspect. Here's how to try to track down this problem:

Antivirus
This is the most common scapegoat. People think, "that dumb antivirus is stealing my precious time while trying to scan my document." Well, that may or may not be true. Norton has a historically problematic Office antivirus addin (officeav.dll), but that has improved over the last couple of years. Still, you might try disabling your antivirus and then try opening another document. If the problem goes away, then you know who's to blame. Try a reinstall of your AV, or look for a better solution.

Printers
I guess this one makes sense. Word uses the printer to gather information about layout, etc. Some people have noticed this because they say that they document looks different on different computers. This is (usually) because the printer driver is different. So, here's how to fix this problem:

1. Open Control Panel (Start > Control Panel on XP)
2. Open Folder Options
3. Click the View tab
4. In the Advanced Settings list, uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"
5. Click OK
6. Double-click a document

If the problem is gone, then you don't have to go any further. Even if it's not gone, you'll likely see an overall performance increase in Windows with this disabled.

Networks
Well, I'm not a network admin. But, here's some interesting information that I gathered from a help forum the other day.

1. During the long hanging period, the user did this at the command line (Start > run > type cmd and hit enter):

• exec netstat -a
• look for a line with "SYN_SENT"

1. the user found an IP address to an old network share
2. the user did a find in the registry (Start > Run > type regedit and hit enter > Edit > Find) for the IP address. After finding and deleting several keys with that obsolete network share address (and closing the Registry Editor), the problem was gone.

Windows
This was a more obscure problem that I hadn't considered. I read on a support forum that DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) could become corrupted, like most things in Windows. DDE has never been reliable, but has always been relied on in Office. This is a big part of Office's instability. It's used to facilitate interoperability between Office components/applications, and Windows. For example, in Office 97, it was the primary mechanism for connecting mail merge data sources and main documents. Anyway, here's how to disable it for opening Word documents:

1. Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types
2. Find and select Word Documents (DOC)
3. Click the Advanced button
4. Select Open in the Actions section
5. Click the Edit button
6. Uncheck "Use DDE"
7. Put your cursor on the "Application used to perform action:" box
   
   
8. Arrow all the way to the right and put in "%1" (include the quote marks)
9. If there is a /dde remove it
10. Click OK, then OK, then OK
11. Try to open another document

If that works, then you may want to repeat the steps for other Office document types (xls, ppt, docm (if using Office 2007), etc.).



[UPDATE! 08/15/2008]
There have been great comments with little tweaks about how people got this working for them. Thank you all so much for your comments! I'd like to highlight one in particular as it presents a whole new level of troubleshooting. I won't go into detail about the steps, but I think advanced users will want to experiment with this a little bit (I've added a few URLs to help):

It works but with side effect. Doubleclick opens new instance of excel, word ... Better solution is to find out what application causes this delay. I use ddespy.exe that shows all dde messages sent. If there is a problem, the list stops after certain message sent and waits. You can see HWND handle of the window that causes the delay (in dde message). After that you need to find process or application that this window belongs to. I use "Windows Modifier". Then uninstall this application and that's all.
In my case it was Toshiba Bluetooth driver that caused the delay in starting office documents.

If any of these steps fixed the problem, consider yourself lucky and happy. If not, then at least you know what didn't work. If these these steps don't solve the problem, but you do figure out another solution, then post it in the comments!

The Unthinkable

Okay, so I gave in. I violated my #1 rule about software: don't buy it if you don't have to (especially if it's from Microsoft). I've had the luxury of not buying Office, Windows, Visual Studio, etc., because they were either free through an educational agreement, or something that I received from work. I was happy as a clam, until I decided that I "needed" Office 2007. What changed my mind? Why did I put out money for software that I didn't really need (I already had Office 2003 - for that matter, I could use OpenOffice for free!). In short: it cost me $20.00 through an agreement with my employer.

So here's a quick review from a reluctant die-hard user with a lot of experience using the (now) "older" Office products. Hopefully, I don't just rehash what's been said already.

The Ribbon

Now, I love user interfaces, and enjoy making them. Something satisfying about seeing your work come to life. Anyway, the ribbon took a little while to get used to. I didn't hunt and pick every feature down to find out where it had moved, like most people who have decided to hate the ribbon. Instead, I went through each tab (basically, that's all they are) and looked at each of the feature sets. Most made sense, some didn't. But I didn't have any heartburn over anything specific.

Overall, I give the ribbon a thumbs up - but maybe not for the reasons it was intended. First off, I don't miss seeing all of the available features like I thought I would. Really, we had that already: toolbar icons were made available/unavailable based on where your insertion point was in the document. I still had to hunt-and-pick through menus for what I needed, so the ribbon really isn't all that different in that regard.

But, I give it a thumbs down only because I feel like I'm missing something. That's an intangible that you just don't get over with a UI. In the classic interface, you could get to where you wanted to go by a standard 3 ways: 1) Keyboard; 2) Menu; 3) Short-cut ('right-click') menu or seemingly misplaced button on a dialog. Now, it seems like there is one preferred way to get to options and features, and that's through the menus. Many of the dialogs no longer exist or have been simplified (which I think is a good thing), and ribbon items have replaced obscure nested menus.

I'm also glad to see the task pane on its way out. Although, there was a lot I liked about it (such as the quick-change feature for switching which task pane you were looking at), which no longer exists in the UI (although there are a couple of task panes still).

So, for the UI, I give it a thumbs up. I really don't see any changes to the UI that keep me up at night. Although, it is hard to switch between the ribbon and classic menus in other programs. I suppose Microsoft is trying to set a(nother) new standard.

The File Format

Simply put, I'm avoiding the new file format. Why? Because not everyone is using 2007! Those using Office 2003 and previous find a nice large patch to download so they can open the files. Even on broadband (like me), it's a pain. I can't imagine what it's like for users on dialup. So, I'm sticking with the 2003 file format as my default until further notice.

Performance vs. Reliability vs. Features

Performance is a big deal for me. I like my applications snappy, but I also like them full-featured. Office 2007 has some lag. But, clearly Windows is keeping some of the .dll's resident in memory because on second launch, it's pretty zippy. But, Office 2003 and previous did that too. I'd imagine that the new UI and detailed program analysis features are a big part of the slowdown. Like the UI changes, it's nothing I can't live without.

As far as reliability, Office 2007 hasn't crashed on my yet. Of course, that doesn't really mean anything. Office 2003 very rarely crashed on me and I used it for years. So time will tell. One of the biggest reasons for document instability is the pile-on of styles and formatting in a document. I'd really really really prefer to work application errors than formatting issues <> Paragraph styles on top of direct character formatting on top of direct paragraph formatting on top of a linked style, all mixed in with a pinch of the "automatically update styles" feature and you've got: GAAAHHH! Honestly, I haven't delved too deeply into this arena at home, because most of my documents at home are simple.

Once we make the transition at work, I'm sure I'll dig down more and find some problems and solutions to post (if you have any in particular, email me and we'll work them out). Reliability analysis: undetermined.

But there a couple of things that worried me about Office 2007 in terms of features. I was afraid to lose my smart tags (I live and breath by those little guys - one of the things that kept me from an OpenOffice switchover, just in case any of those guys are reading). But, they're there and then some. The formating smart tags are annoying, no doubt about it. But, I can see how that'd be helpful. Most everything else (like the shortcut keys, right-click menus, etc.) are the same or pretty similar. I can live with that. So, features: thumbs up.

Final Word

So, what say me? Well, I'd say if you can get Office 2007 for $20.00, go for it. I don't know that there's anything there to write home about that would justify dropping a bunch of money for it. If it comes bundled at no extra cost, huzzah! If you have a bunch of money lying around that you don't want to send to me, huzzah! If you think you're missing out, but would have to sell a month of plasma just to get the Student and Teacher upgrade, save your plasma and keep using what you have, or get OpenOffice.

Using Tracked Changes in Word

Tracked changes is IMO an underused, over abused feature in Microsoft Word. Essentially unchanged since Word 6.0, it has traditionally been clunky and hard to use. I have also talked with people who have serious I'll-sue-you concerns over privacy with regards to the Tracked Changes feature. However, in Word 2002 and Word 2003, the feature has been enhanced, though still not perfect. Some documents will even become corrupt and unusable if you use tracked changes for too long, without accepting some of the changes (especially if you updated TOCs a lot with tracked changes turned on!).

So, I've included in this article basic and practical information about Tracked Changes, a.k.a. Word's Markup feature.

1. What Does It Do?

Tracked Changes provides the ability for multiple users to review and make in-line changes to a document. The author/owner can then chose to accept or reject the suggested changes. It's as "simple" as that; and that's all it should be used for. I've seen attempts to make this a feature for collaborative creation (as opposed to revision) on a document. While you can do that, there are better ways to create a collaborative document.

2. How Do You Use It?

Tracked Changes can be turned on and off using the Reviewing toolbar:

1. Click View > Toolbars > Reviewing
   Alternatively, you can right-click your menu bars and choose Reviewing
   

To better understand how to use Tracked Changes, you have to understand what each button is for and how to use the Reviewing toolbar to get around.

1. Used to select the level of detail:
   
   
   • Final Showing Markup (default)
     This shows you the end result of the reviewing changes if you accepted all of the changes, along with the in-line changes themselves.
   • Final
     This shows you just the end result of what you'd see if you accepted all of the changes.
   • Original Showing Markup
     This shows you the original text, with the changes in-line.
   • Original
     This shows you just the original text.
     
     
2. Provides you with more control over what you see:
   
   Think of this as the options menu. The most important thing to remember here is that you can see who the reviewers are (Show > Reviewers) and select which Reviewers comments you want to see.
   
   
3. Change navigation buttons:
   
   These allow you you jump from change to change, without having to hunt them down by scrolling through the document.
   
   
4. Accept and reject change buttons:
   
   These are important because they give you the ability to accept the "active" change (where you cursor is), or to do so for all changes in the document. Use the little down-arrow menu for more options.
   
   
5. Comment and highlight buttons:
   
   These give you quick access to the Insert > Comment menu entry and highlighting button on the formatting toolbar.
   
   
6. Tracked Changes button:
   
   This is a toggle button that turns tracked changes on and off for the entire document.
   
   
7. Reviewing Pane button:
   
   This opens the reviewing pane, which is a small scrollable window at the bottom of the document. It's an easy way to see what changes have been made in the document.
   

3. What Can I Do With It?

Tracked changes does a couple of things for you. When you delete text, Word turns it red and strikes it out. This is the market for a deletion. When you insert text, Word turns the inserted text red, but does not strike it out. Word also creates a balloon comment about the change in the margin of the document (if you have that feature enabled in Reviewing Toolbar > Show > Balloons).


4. Accepting and Rejecting Comments

So, when you're reviewing a document for someone, you can make in-line changes like spelling, word insertion/deletion, and sentence rephrasing. You can do whatever you want to the document, and Word will track every change that you make. No special action is required on your part, unless you want to make a comment about a section without making a change. if that's the case, all you have to do is select some text, click the Comment button on the toolbar (), and make your comment in the balloon in the margin.

As an author of a document, when you review the document that includes changes, you have the ability to accept or reject any or all of the changes made by other reviewers. You can accept or reject changes in a variety of ways. I find the easiest is to right-click the change and select 'Accept Change' or 'Reject Change'. That makes the balloon disappear and removes any markup on the text.

5. Problems and Consequences

As mentioned earlier, these markup features can present problems. For example, if you turn on Tracked Changes and update a Table of Contents field, you'll wind up with a ginormous comment containing your new Table of Contents, and your new TOC will show up red-lined as a new addition, and your old TOC will show struck out in the document. I've seen large TOCs and Tracked Changes bring Word to its knees. So, document bloat is a real possibility.

Another increased danger is that of the document becoming damaged. It makes sense: the more you add to something, the more things that can break.

So, the moral of the story, as with most features in Microsoft Word, is that you can't just turn them on and create the document indefinitely, expecting no problems. You must, at some point in the processing of your document, stop and reassess where you are. If you're using tracked changes, occasionally get to the point that you accept (or reject) all changes in the document. A new baseline will save you a lot of headaches.

With those caveats said, Word's reviewing feature can be and is a benefit to many users. There are millions of documents floating around who have benefited from this feature, and the users have probably only lived with minor annoyances as payment. Just be sure that if your meta data is sensitive, take appropriate privacy precautions for your Word documents.

Backward Compatibility for Open XML

So you're not sold on buying Office 2007; that's fine. But you're friends and/or coworkers are. Perhaps a business partner uses it. And now you're getting Office 2007 documents, but you can't open them because they're in Office 2007's new Open XML format. What to do?!

Lucky for you (and me), Microsoft has provided a compatibility pack to make Office XP and Office 2003 compatible with Open XML.

Here's what you do:

1. Make sure Office is up-to-date
   
   The Office compatibility pack requirements are the following:
   
   • Office 2000: Service Pack 3 or better
     
   • Office 2002/XP: Service Pack 3 or better
   • Office 2003: Service Pack 1 or better
   
   To get these packs, you can download them manually (links above, respectively), or you can go to Office Update.
   
   
2. Download and Install the Microsoft Compatibility Pack
   
   You can download it from here. Then, just run the installer.
   
   
3. You're Good to Go
   
   Now you'll find an option to save your documents in the Open XML format in the Save dialog box, along with all of your other options. You can also open Open XML documents the same way you do other documents.

So, now you can "benefit" from using Microsoft's new document format. Wasn't that easy?

A Real Reinstallation of Office

Remember back when you used to be able to uninstall an application and it really was uninstalled? Me neither. So, here’s a good way to make sure that Office is really gone without having to completely destroy your Windows installation.

In days gone by, Microsoft included utilities to uninstall Office completely. As of Office XP, they no longer make these utilities and promise that the uninstaller does a thorough job. Well, since it doesn’t, I came up with a clean way to remove almost all of the actual application’s settings so that you can really reinstall Office.

Step 1: Backup your activation

If you’re using Office XP or 2003, you know that you only get so many activations. Well, since activation’s a hassle, there is a way to backup your activation record so you don’t have to go through the hassle. Here’s what you do:

1. After installing and activating Office XP/2003 for the first time, turn on your “Show all files and folders” option (In Folder Options > View tab)
2. Browse to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Data
1. (This location is for Windows 2000/XP, but varies for 9x versions of Windows).
3. Find the file called Data.dat. It should be about 4KB in size. Copy it to a floppy, a CD, a network drive, or another safe place.
4. After reinstalling Office on the same hardware, restore Data.dat to the location where you found it. Open any Office XP program and voila!

Note: This process does not allow you to transfer your activation to another computer. And you’re not doing anything illegal here, so don’t think that Mafia-soft will come after you for wanting to use an application that you purchased from them.

Step 2: Backup your data

Hey, better safe than sorry. Consider things like your Normal.dot, etc. Come on, it’s just a good excuse to do a backup.

Step 3: Basic removal

Uninstall Office. You know, just the regular way though Add/Remove Programs. If you can't do this, then just move on. It'll be gone soon enough.

Step 4: Heart Surgery

Rename (or delete if you feel comfortable) the following folder (will be called Office 10" for Office 2002/XP, "Office 11" for 2003, etc.):

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office

This contains the actual application of Office, but not the clip gallery or templates.

Step5: Brain Surgery

1. Start > Run
   
2. type regedit and hit enter
3. Rename (or delete) the following registry keys:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office
   

These hold the settings for Word. Bye Bye customizations.

Step 6: Put it back, put it back!

Now, just reinstall Office as you normally would.

Step 7: Remember me?

Restore your activation file (see Step 1 for the location).

Step 8: Updates

It’s a good idea to see if you can install the latest service packs for your version of Office. It might help prevent future problems and/or replace problematic files that are left after the normal uninstall and these steps.

Office 2000 SP1
Office 2000 SP2
Office 2000 SP3

Office XP SP1

Office XP SP2
Office XP SP3

Office 2003 SP1
Office 2003 SP2

These are all easily obtainable through Office Update.

NOTE: Sorry if these links are broken. Microsoft has a nasty habit of rearranging their website. Since you know what you need, just use your new best friend, http://www.google.com, or perhaps blingo.com.