Mac Forum / Applications / Word / January 2008

Hi Benjamin:

Damn!  We coulda got lucky...  :-)

*  Let me just check: you ALSO deleted Normal.dotm?

*  And you emptied the trash?

*  And you tried this in a brand-new document?

If "Yes" to all of the above, then we need to go on a hunt for Haxies on
your system

Shut down, and do a Shift/Startup to disable all the startup items and bring
the OS up in its most basic mode.

Then try again, just creating a new document, save it in "Microsoft Word
(.docx)" format, and try creating a new table again.  You may get error
messages and such: nothing runs "well" in Safe Mode.  I just want to know
whether the typing speed improves.

If that brings it right, we need to investigate your system further.

Word 2008 does not usually do this.  It doesn't do it on my system.
However:  Typing in tables places a very high power demand on the system and
Word.  Not a problem if the System has plenty of power to spare.  Big
problem if something else is sucking all the power out of the computer
before Word gets to type in its table.

By starting up in Safe Mode, we shut down everything else that could be
sucking power.  If Word then comes right, we need to go on a hunt for the
greedy-guts and shoot it :-)

It may not be CPU demand that is doing it.  Various haxies (e.g. TypeIt For
Me) sit between the keyboard and Word, examining every keystroke that
whistles past.  That can grind Word to a halt if it is trying to suck power
at the time :-)

Hope this helps

On 29/01/08 2:54 AM, in article ee8a45d.7@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Benjamin
Herndon " <> wrote:

Hi Benjamin:

Hmmmm....  Still won't do it here (I have about a thousand words in one
cell...)

Mind you, as I am sure you know perfectly well, we "shouldn't" use paragraph
marks within a table cell :_)

Paragraph marks contain complex formatting, which makes Word work a lot
harder trying to figure out which formatting properties to apply and which
to ignore in a table cell.

However, it shouldn't do what you are seeing.

So now, we need to find out where all the power is going.

Here's a thought:  Produce the problem, then quite Entourage.  Entourage/OS
10.5.1  have a memory leak that hogs up to 100 per cent of the processor and
memory if you leave Entourage running for a few hours with the progress
window displayed.

OK, let's bring up Activity Monitor and see what  the various processes are
doing.

I am particularly interested in the CPU and memory figures for Word, of
course.

Talk tomorrow...

On 30/01/08 5:18 AM, in article ee8a45d.9@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Benjamin
Herndon " <> wrote:

Hi Benjamin:

Damn!  That's what I thought you might see.

OK, that proves definitively that it is Word that is doing this.

Would you please email me a sample of a document that does it, and I will
put this through to the developers for analysis.

I also need to get the exact detail of your system.  Please start the System
Profiler (from the Apple Menu, About this Mac, More Detail....)

On the View profile, set it to Full Profile, then click "Refresh".  Be
prepared to wait, that will take several minutes :-)

Then, on the file menu, click Save As, and give the file a name.

Now, create an Archive of each file separately.  You MUST do this step, or
the files will be too big to make it through my email filter :-)

Then send them to me, in separate emails.  I'll pack them off to Microsoft.

Microsoft will use the output of your System Profiler to replicate your
computer, and thus they will hopefully be able to reproduce (and thus fix!)
the problem :-)

Hope this helps

On 31/01/08 12:29 AM, in article ee8a45d.11@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,