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mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 02:29 PM

I just installed Office for Mac 2004 (microsoft ew) on my new black macbook (2ghz, 1.25gb RAM) and I'm experiencing a little lag when typing documents in Word and Powerpoint (havent tested the others yet). I read that this is because Office is still based on PPC while macbooks and the like are obviously now running intel. Is there any way to overcome this lag?

my roommate has a macbook pro that is also 2ghz yet only 1gb ram, but he does NOT experience this lag, I tried it out myself last night and was shocked. This computer is only about 1.5 weeks old so it obviously has a fresh copy of OS X installed. I also installed ALL updates as of yesterday for both office and OS X (and all programs for that matter), yet I still experience this slight typing lag. The lag is so annoying that I've now started using Pages and Keynote. Although iWork is awesome, I NEED to use Office at times for both school and work, so i'd love to get this workin better.

any ideaS??

thanks!

CheesePuff · Feb 13, 2007, 02:38 PM

Is this after a fresh restart and opening only MS Word?

It is true, since Office is running under Rosetta emulation that it will be slower, but with your specs you should not experience it like what your describing.

mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 02:53 PM

well haven't tried it immediately after a fresh restart, but I'm only running firefox, ichat, mail, which I always have open... I'll try a fresh restart now but even if that works, I NEED those other programs to be open and I really think it's not asking much to have 3 small apps open + word and be able to type without lag, am i wrong?!

thanks!

any other solutions would be much appreciated!

mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 02:54 PM

ps: my Office mac came with 2 CDs, although I only used 1 to do the complete install...maybe I forgot to install some sort of service that speeds up the function? I doubt it, but possible ?

thanks!

ibook_steve · Feb 13, 2007, 04:22 PM

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office yet?

Steve

mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office yet?

Steve

I have not tried this, but do you really think it will help much being that I just installed a fresh copy from a legit CD on a basically fresh copy of latest OS X?? I'll give it a shot thouh

oh and restarting didnt do anything

ibook_steve · Feb 13, 2007, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by mtbiac

I have not tried this, but do you really think it will help much being that I just installed a fresh copy from a legit CD on a basically fresh copy of latest OS X?? I'll give it a shot thouh

oh and restarting didnt do anything

This is Microsoft we're talking about here. Anything is possible.

Steve

mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

This is Microsoft we're talking about here. Anything is possible.

Steve

whats wierd is that Office Word loads Very quickly (few sec) yet then LAGS WHILE TYPING! WTF?! oooh microsoft

Chaoticjoe · Feb 13, 2007, 05:26 PM

DUDE DUDE. GET NEO OFFICE. Type it in on google. Freeware. I bet it beats Microsoft. It can do everything office can do. Slide shows, templates. All you need is a few hundred MB and OSX.3. GO! GET IT. If you want...

mtbiac · Feb 13, 2007, 05:46 PM

actually I'm using Neooffice right now, its definitely the best besides MS Office as far as compatibility, etc. I just like the look and compatibiliy of MS OOffice better....

Chaoticjoe · Feb 14, 2007, 11:52 AM

I haven't actually seen Neooffice, so I really had no idea what I was saying, honestly.

ghporter · Feb 14, 2007, 02:41 PM

With 1GB of RAM, my 2GHz MBP sometimes shows some lag in Office. Not enough for a touch typist to worry about, but it can be there. It is indeed because it's still PPC code and the Office apps are running through Rosetta. With their "Big Launch of Office 2007" out of the way, I'm expecting MS to get off the stick and start writing some Intel-based Office code for us soon.

In the meantime, go to NeoOffice to download NeoOffice. It's a Mac port of OpenOffice, and it's pretty good. I have a few "learning curve" problems with Neo, but otherwise it does everything you need, it's free, and it's compatible with both old and new Office file formats. Did I mention that it's free?

JMan09 · Feb 14, 2007, 02:47 PM

I am going to need office 2004 for school. But when the new 2008 version comes out will there be an upgrade or will we have to spend $150(student ed) again.

tinkered · Feb 14, 2007, 04:00 PM

I stuck with Office v.X for this reason. After the initial few updates it became a relatively quick program that was not a real RAM hog. This remains true on my C2D. I found that 2004 added functionality I didn't use and is not as optimized for performance. I admit thought, that if you need entourage for work, to take full advantage of exchange, then you are kinda stuck with 2004. I hope that with all the time MacBU it taking to update office it will be clean and optimized again.

nickw311 · Feb 21, 2007, 10:50 AM

have you tried getting all the updates for Office?

Click Help>Check For Updates

kikkoman · Feb 23, 2007, 03:49 PM

Have you checked Activity Monitor to see if there are any background process taking up lots of CPU cycles?

badsey · Feb 28, 2007, 08:34 PM

Have you checked Activity Monitor to see if there are any background process taking up lots of CPU cycles?

/applications/utilities/activity monitor.app

istat nano or istat pro are both dashboard widgets that will do this also. (istat nano is included as a widget in the OS I think)

NeoOffice is also a good idea.

monkeybrain · Feb 28, 2007, 10:20 PM

I use Office v.X rather than 2004 too. My main reason was because I exclusively use the track changes feature, and in Word 2004 I hated the changes they made, and it seemed slower. See if you can get hold of v.X.

ChasingApple · Mar 1, 2007, 05:55 AM

I will 3rd the Office v.X for 100% of my office needs. 2004 I have but I do not like how sluggy it is even on my PPC iMac G4.

analogika · Mar 1, 2007, 06:52 AM

Office 2004 is noticeably faster than v.X.

Make sure you go into the Word preferences and SWITCH OFF automatic grammar check.

It is a function that nobody I've met in 20 years ever needed let alone WANTED (even if it did work right, which it doesn't), but, in true Microsoft attitude, since it exists, it MUST BE SWITCHED ON BY DEFAULT. Right.

Turn it off, and the typing lag becomes much better.