MS Office Performance

Hello;

Due to business constraints I must run MS office. I am running Office 2011 but a seriously concerned with it's overall performance... I get the "beach ball" wait state many times accessing functions. Noteabley: Recent Document (it can take 15 -20 seconds to show a 10 item list) or any menu dialogue box for first time use (Such as command +1 to call cell format in excel). Is there any way to configure MS office to operate faster.

Platform:

MBP, I-7 2.66Mhz 8 gig Ram, 7200RPM Spindle... That should be enough horses for MS office !

Thanks

Sam

You're correct about the machine, it certainly has enough oomph to run MS Office 2011. I suspect there is something else going on with your machine perhaps not MS Office itself. I run Office 2011 here opening large documents in Word and\or a 60 to 70 slide Powerpoint presentation without any problem or delay whatsoever.

The next time you run Office 2011, open up your Activity Monitor application. Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor.app. Sort by percentage of CPU usage. Let's see what's going on that could possibly be causing the slow downs.

Also make sure you update Office 2011 to SP 1.

Also find Office 2011 really fast and rock steady. Have you updated with SP1? Here is the link to the download. Otherwise uninstall and try again.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2525412

Hello;

Well thanks for the Activity Monitor Reminder... I am a recent switcher from Windows, so all the utilities are not in my "cranial ram" yet...

The villain is the Western Digital Back up Utility.. It loads a process that evaluates the file i/o in real time and at times sucks up 17% or more of the processor time. Upon removal, the MBP is running very quickly and Office Apps seem to run fine...

On another note I am not thrilled with the new menu/task bar arrangements but that is another subject!

Thanks

On another note I am not thrilled with the new menu/task bar arrangements but that is another subject!

Click to expand...

If you're referring to the new ribbon used in Office 2011, just turn it off and use the menus.

Glad you resolved the slow downs. Instead of the WD backup utility, use Time Machine. No slow downs.

Hi...
Well, the Ribbons are ok, just you can't change the around. it is a pain to have to keep selected a particular ribbon to get to functions that should be logically grouped together.

For instance in Word, I use reviewing quite a bit. That in combination with highlighting for a block of text, means I have to keep switching back and forth.. Haven't figured out how to add either highlighting to the reviewing ribbon, or accept/reject button to the Home Ribbon.. There are other examples where items that were on the "top" level of the ribbon that are now burried 1 or 2 levels deep....

Not clear that the UI design team did their homework... or if they did, the focus groups were skewed to new/non-users as opposed to users, like me, that have been using word since OS2!

I have to agree with you about the ribbon design in Office 2011. I also use Office 2010 on our Windows machine and the ribbon is very different and configurable. Maybe MS will get it right in the next version of Office for the Mac.

Hi

Well, due to some corporate issues, I have to use 2010 Outlook, but I use 2011 Office. Also use VM with Windows 7 to support 2010 Outlook. From what I see in 2010 Outlook, the damage is already done. It has the same funky ribbons....

I'm slowly getting re-oriented, but it is painful!