Long Save Times in Word 97

If you are using Microsoft Word as a part of the Office 97 suite, you may have noticed that saving documents can take a bit of time. In fact, save times are noticeably longer than saving under previous versions of Word. Readers of WordTips have suggested several different reasons for this. For instance, one reader thought it might be virus protection software that was adding delays. Another pointed out that if you are saving files to a Windows NT server, delays could be caused by settings on the server itself. (See the Knowledge Base article at www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/Q163/5/25.htm.) Also, some pointed out that if you save in Word 95 format from Word 97, the file is converted to RTF format and saved with a DOC extension. (The file is larger and the conversion takes time.)

One of the biggest potential reason for saving delays, however, is the integration between Word 97 and Outlook. If you installed Outlook when you installed Office 97, every time you save a Word document, it is also entered in the Outlook journal. This adds additional time in saving your document, and can lead to quite lengthy delays as your journal grows larger and larger. To fix this, all you need to do is disable the Outlook journal feature by following these steps:

1. Within Outlook, choose Options from the Tools menu. This displays the Options dialog box.
2. Click on the Journal tab.
3. Make sure the Microsoft Word check box is cleared in the Also Record Files From area of the dialog box.
4. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.

Another potential reason for saving delays is the Fast Save feature of Word. This feature causes Word to save corrections to a file, supposedly increasing the speed at which a file is saved. This is not exactly true, however. According to sources within Microsoft, if you have Fast Save turned on, Word saves both the original text and any changes to the text. The next time you edit the file, the original text is saved, along with the first set of changes and the second set. As you work more and more with the file, the changes section becomes larger and larger. Because of this, you will get better performance by turning the Fast Save feature off. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. This displays the Options dialog box.
2. Click on the Save tab. The Options dialog box now appears. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Make sure the Allow Fast Saves check box is cleared.
4. Click OK to close the Options dialog box.