Word 2007 files take forever to open in Vista (was: Will an SSD help?)

[BlouBul]

Let's make sure I am doing this right, or at least the same way everybody else is doing it. In order to turn off grammar and spell check when I open a document, I need to go into Word Options, select Proofing, and then uncheck "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Check grammar with spelling," right? Or is there something else that I need to change?

...The animation that puntoMX described isn't showing (it does when I have those settings selected).

I got the same settings, but no animation in Word 2010.

[JorgeA]

Let's make sure I am doing this right, or at least the same way everybody else is doing it. In order to turn off grammar and spell check when I open a document, I need to go into Word Options, select Proofing, and then uncheck "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Check grammar with spelling," right? Or is there something else that I need to change?

...The animation that puntoMX described isn't showing (it does when I have those settings selected).

I got the same settings, but no animation in Word 2010.

BlouBul,

Do you mean that you're not getting the animation either way, with those settings turned on OR off? If so, then maybe that helps to account for some of the difference in loading time.

--JorgeA

[BlouBul]

Do you mean that you're not getting the animation either way, with those settings turned on OR off? If so, then maybe that helps to account for some of the difference in loading time.

Yes, no animation either way, but I do not think the animation as such makes too much of a difference in the loading time (although the actual checking does)

[BlouBul]

Well, to load the file is just like 3 seconds, but you should not test it that way. When you work in word you see that animation of a pen writing in a book on the left down side, that's the spelling and grammar checker (if you have enabled that one too); When it stops animating there, the whole file has been processed/checked, and that is what I measure. 3 to 4 Seconds to load to file till I see the last page but some 1m04s more to check for spelling and grammar.

Ok, finally found the (in?)famous writing pen. you have to not only check the "check spelling while you type" and "check grammar while you type", but also "Mark grammar errors while you type". My times went to a horrible 1 min 50 sec (1:55, 1:50, 1:42, 1:45) Myth busted!!! Punto's Win7 x64 is much faster than my win7 x86. Still need more evidence to bust the myth for Vista x64 though.

Anyone with a Vista x64 machine that can help us with a test?

Dencorso, what do you get with those settings enabled?

Edit: just to confirm: PuntoMX, do I understand correctly that you had all three those settings enabled?

Edit 2: 1min 30 sec from outside Word (why is it faster?) I did it 3 times and all the same.

Edit 3: On the XP computer with 256 MB Ram, using above settings, I got 3:10 and 2:56 and from outside Word 3:12 - not a great difference there, but still faster than the Vista x64

Edited October 10, 2010 by BlouBul

[dencorso]

I use Word97 (part of Office79) with all those inutilities disabled.

I own 3 licences of Office 2007 Home and Student Edition. One is used by my wife, in her laptop. The other two remain unused. That's what I think of upgrading Office. I did install the 2007 converter on Office97 (it works, but that's undocumented) however, because people keep sending me .docx files... which I always convert and send back in Word97 or Word2 format (and they don't even notice, in most occasions).

[JorgeA]

Ok, finally found the (in?)famous writing pen. you have to not only check the "check spelling while you type" and "check grammar while you type", but also "Mark grammar errors while you type". My times went to a horrible 1 min 50 sec (1:55, 1:50, 1:42, 1:45)

BlouBul,

Interesting. I have "check grammar" and "mark grammar errors" checked off, but not "check spelling." Your new values are much closer to mine now, though they're still a lot better of course.

Myth busted!!! Punto's Win7 x64 is much faster than my win7 x86. Still need more evidence to bust the myth for Vista x64 though.

Anyone with a Vista x64 machine that can help us with a test?

<raising hand> I have a Vista x64!

--JorgeA

[puntoMX]

Let's make sure I am doing this right, or at least the same way everybody else is doing it. In order to turn off grammar and spell check when I open a document, I need to go into Word Options, select Proofing, and then uncheck "Mark grammar errors as you type" and "Check grammar with spelling," right? Or is there something else that I need to change?

...The animation that puntoMX described isn't showing (it does when I have those settings selected).

I got the same settings, but no animation in Word 2010.

Okay, let me attach an example.

The book and the pen.

By the way, didn't see that you were from South Africa, I would have tried to speak Dutch to you (I'm just living in Mexico ).

Ok, finally found the (in?)famous writing pen.

Ow... err... I should hit this topic more I think .

Edit: just to confirm: PuntoMX, do I understand correctly that you had all three those settings enabled?

Yes I have, actually, I believe that Word comes like that as I don't recall turning anything on or off.

[BlouBul]

I use Word97 (part of Office79) with all those inutilities disabled.

Can you please check it with those settings enabled (not sure if they had it in those days ), that will help to make sense of this fruit basket we currently have.

Interesting. I have "check grammar" and "mark grammar errors" checked off, but not "check spelling." Your new values are much closer to mine now, though they're still a lot better of course.

OK, try it with all three off and then all three on. Then we can start to compare apples with apples, oranges with oranges, bananas with bananas and strawberries with strawberries B)

<raising hand> I have a Vista x64!

I meant Anyone, except you! The whole purpose of this exercise was to see of other Vista X64 machines exhibits this same phenomenon. OK, but since we are currently stuck with only your Vista x64 macine, please help (and thanks for the offer)

By the way, didn't see that you were from South Africa, I would have tried to speak Dutch to you (I'm just living in Mexico ).

Ja, asseblief, dan sal ek minder onnosele vrae vra. http://translate.goo...le%20vrae%20vra

Edit: just to confirm: PuntoMX, do I understand correctly that you had all three those settings enabled?

Yes I have, actually, I believe that Word comes like that as I don't recall turning anything on or off.

Ok, now we have at least two apples to compare. It seems like Win7 X64 does not have a problem (at least with Office 2010). Now we are just waiting for a couple more apples, oranges, bananas and strawberries to do a better comparison. (otherwise I will go bananas).

It still worries me that JorgeA got those fast times from outside Word (but we will see now when he has all those settings enabled - he might have to wait a while)

Edited October 11, 2010 by BlouBul

[BlouBul]

Hi all,

See if you agree with the times we have so far.

I took 3 different Spel check settings, first with all 3 settings disabled, then with the one disabled and lastly with all three enabled.

* denotes opening outside Word

Name:			BlouBul		Dencorso	JorgeA		puntoMX		BlouBul2
OS:			Win7 x86	Win XP		Vista x64	Win7 x64	Win XP
Office Version:		2010		97		2007		2010		2007
All 3 off (s)		20 (20*)	14 (13*)	151		?		45
Only 2 on (s)		40		13		253(29*)	?		100(90*)
All 3 on (s)		100 (90*)	-		137?		67(67*)		186(192*)

@puntoMX Thanks for the tip about the use of a Code Box (<> thingy) Although it only works nice with the visual editor turned off!

Edited October 12, 2010 by dencorso

[dencorso]

@ BlouBul: I took the liberty to correct your table (mod's prerogatives )... I actually didn't test on Win 98SE... It's been many days since I last had reason to boot 98SE, and since it's not even an NT-Family OS, I saw no reason to do it (although I can do it if you find it relevant, JorgeA had already done it, though). In any case, great! Thanks for creating a consolidated table of results: it sure helps trying to make sense of the data and also serves as a to-do list.

Later edit: I did the missing measurements and updated the table. I have just "Check spelling as you type", "Check grammar as you type" and "Check grammar with spelling", and I turned on all three for the test, but I don't have anything like "Mark grammar errors while you type", although I have and did not turn on both "Hide spelling errors in this document" and "Hide grammatical errors in this document". So I put my result in the "Only two on" line, but feel free to move it down, if you find it warranted.

[JorgeA]

BlouBul,

Excellent work, putting all this together!! This way we can all get a much clearer idea of what's going on.

I do have an amendment to the data. As far as I can tell, I've never had the setting for "check spelling as you type" turned on. So my values are for having two settings on, and all settings off.

I'll do a run with all three settings turned on, and report.

--JorgeA

UPDATE: The times for the sample file with all three settings turned ON (Vista x64, from inside Word) were, in chronological order: 3:38, 5:14, 3:02, 1:35, 2:16, 2:17, 2:09. Very strange -- they were all over the place. Nothing was running at the start of the series that wasn't also running at the end.

Edited October 12, 2010 by JorgeA

[puntoMX]

Ja, asseblief, dan sal ek minder onnosele vrae vra. http://translate.goo...le%20vrae%20vra

No need for google translate, however, didn't know that "vra" was a short version for "stellen".

And thank you for the tables, now I feel like I have to pass some more numbers .

[BlouBul]

Hi all, you're welcome thanks for the feedback.

@ BlouBul: I took the liberty to correct your table (mod's prerogatives )... I actually didn't test on Win 98SE... It's been many days since I last had reason to boot 98SE, and since it's not even an NT-Family OS, I saw no reason to do it (although I can do it if you find it relevant, JorgeA had already done it, though). In any case, great! Thanks for creating a consolidated table of results: it sure helps trying to make sense of the data and also serves as a to-do list.

Thanks, I don't mind you fixing my tables (saves me the effort ) Sorry about putting you back on the "museum OS" I just looked at your profile OS and assumed it stayed the same over all the years, I didn't read the fine print in your previous post .

Looking at the times I can understand why you stayed with Office'97!!

BlouBul,

Excellent work, putting all this together!! This way we can all get a much clearer idea of what's going on.

I do have an amendment to the data. As far as I can tell, I've never had the setting for "check spelling as you type" turned on. So my values are for having two settings on, and all settings off.

I'll do a run with all three settings turned on, and report.

--JorgeA

UPDATE: The times for the sample file with all three settings turned ON (Vista x64, from inside Word) were, in chronological order: 3:38, 5:14, 3:02, 1:35, 2:16, 2:17, 2:09. Very strange -- they were all over the place. Nothing was running at the start of the series that wasn't also running at the end.

What is even stranger is that both the average and mean of your test with settings "ON" is better than your tests with settings "off" Did you test it from outside Word.

Name:			BlouBul		Dencorso	JorgeA		puntoMX		BlouBul2
OS:			Win7 x86	WinXP		Vista x64	Win7 X64	Win XP
Processor		Core2Duo 1.8	AthlonXP2 2.33	P-dual 2.2	AMDX4 3.8	Celeron 2.4
Memory			3 GB		3 GB		4 GB		8GB		256MB
AntiVirus		Nod32 AV4	AVG 2011	Norton 360	MSE		Kaspersky IS 2010
Office Version:		2010		97		2007		2010		2007

All 3 off (s)		20 (20*)	14(13*)		187		?		45
Only 2 on (s)		40		13		261(28*)	?		100(90*)
All 3 on (s)		100 (90*)	X		173		67(67*)		186(192*)

[dencorso]

@JorgeA: Now I'm confused. Your results make no sense, JorgeA, with all due respect.

Which file are you using for your most recent tests, the one proposed by BlouBul or your original big file?

@BlouBul: Since the median is the central value of the *sorted* series, JorgeA's most recent median value is 2:17 (= 2*60 + 17 = 137 s)... With all due respect, where are you getting JorgeA's values from?

[BlouBul]

@BlouBul: Since the median is the central value of the *sorted* series, JorgeA's most recent median value is 2:17 (= 2*60 + 17 = 137 s)... With all due respect, where are you getting JorgeA's values from?

I just showed the averages 173(on) and 187 (off).

You are right Median is 137 (on) and 151 (Off) Compared to values in post 165.

Edited October 12, 2010 by BlouBul