How to speed up Word 2008 launch time (OS X)

by Ross McKillop on June 26, 2008

Mac Office

If you’re using Word 2008, even on a very, very fast Mac, you’ve probably noticed that Word 2008 can take upwards of a minute to open a .doc file. Here are 3 tips to speeding up MS Word 2008’s opening time.

  1. Follow the steps outlined here. The results of this suggestion vary, so be sure to try the next two as well.
  2. Update to the very latest version of Microsoft Word 2008. Version 12.1.1 (080522) included something that caused the launch time to improve significantly. To update, click Help when any of the Office applications are open, and select Check for Updates
  3. Give FontNuke a shot. The installation is very straight forward. Once installed, launch it from your Applications folder.
  4. Click anywhere in the main window

  5. click to enlarge

  6. Click the Nuke Font Caches button.

  7. click to enlarge

  8. Now update the Update Caches List button.

  9. click to enlarge

  10. And your font caches will update..

  11. click to enlarge

  12. FontNuke will notify you of the number of font caches that it found. Click OK

  13. click to enlarge

  14. Now make sure to close down all of your open applications and save any data in the open programs. FontNuke will reboot your system when it’s done, whether you like it or not. Click the Nuke Font Caches button in the bottom right-corner of the screen. When prompted, click Continue.

  15. click to enlarge

  16. Enter your password…
  17. And FontNuke will run, then force your system to reboot after it has cleared the font caches.

  18. click to enlarge

  19. After trying the above 3 suggestions, try opening a Word document. It should load faster now that previously (I went from around a minute to about 7 seconds).
Related Posts:
  • Using the Word Completion feature of OpenOffice.org
  • How to set the Properties of multiple MS Word documents
  • How to customize Ubuntu for your Eee PC
  • How to create filters in Outlook Express 6
  • How fast is your connection?
  • { 0 comments… add one now }

    Leave a Comment

    You can use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>