Word 2003 print dialog very slow to open

nosbm · 11-03-2008, 10:52 AM

Could somebody suggest a possible explanation for the Word 2003 print dialog being very slow to open, ie it takes ~40 seconds compared to opening instantly in Excel 2003, Wordpad etc? This happens even when a very small file of a few words is to be printed.

The operating system is Windows XP and the printer involved is a networked Konica Minolta C252.

Best regards,
nosbm

Baez · 11-03-2008, 02:05 PM

Word's default printer might be set to Adobe PDF which is sometimes known to cause slowdowns when trying to print something. Do you have to choose the Konica or is it the default?

nosbm · 11-04-2008, 04:22 AM

Thank you for your response.

The reply to your question is that the Konica is the default printer.

Best regards,
nosbm

nosbm · 11-06-2008, 12:37 PM

As an alternative to suggesting a solution to this problem could somebody give a link to an explanation of the details of what happens when Word 2003 starts to print. For example, does it check for available fonts, look for network connections etc?

Best regards,
nosbm

Mak213 · 11-06-2008, 01:09 PM

IT has nothing to do with that at all. The thing is this. A Printer REquest on the IRQ list is not that high. Among the other things that the system is doing at the time a request sent from your PC to the PRinter is going to be one of the last out.

Now if you are using Word, which admitly is a bit slower to being with, will have to then send the request and wait for a response.

Word is not the fastest software out there. You can click Print and it can take word upto 20 seconds itself to even Process the request and send it. Then another 20 seconds after the reqest is sent do you see the pritn dialog open up.

Have you tried something like OpenOffice and see if it takes their Word Processor that long? I bet if you tried you would see that this is aminly a glitch in Word as it takes about that long for it to precess the request.

Sadly if you dont want to wait you just ahve to remember that not everythign happens when the mouse is clicked. It does take time to process.

nosbm · 11-07-2008, 12:23 PM

Thank you for your response.

On a second PC when I try to print from a range of applications, ie Word, Excel, Wordpad etc, the print dialog appears almost immediately but on the PC mentioned in my original post the time taken for it to appear for Word is significantly longer than for any other application, ie ~40 seconds compared to ~ instantly.

If a print request has a low priority is it the case that each application must wait the same amount of time before printing can begin? Is it possible to change the priority that each application gets?

Best regards,
nosbm

Mak213 · 11-07-2008, 03:12 PM

It could be that the original PC has more services running. It could be that the original PC has more processes running. It could be that the original PC needs some driver updates.

There are so many factors as to why 1 PC will do it instantly compared to another. My PC runs VIsta fine with a P4 yet there are people who complain with a Quad Core CPU. IT cant be explained. It is jsut one of those things.

Unless you eliminate every other factor:

Running Processes, Running Services, Drivers, IRQ conflicts, even such things as the amount of RAM and CPU in use can have a factor. Till everything is ocmpletely equal there can not be a explination as to why one system works instanly compared to another. There are a million and 1 things that it could be. But until everything is tested and the systems at or close to teh same specs nothing we can say or do will ever explain it.

nosbm · 11-10-2008, 08:12 AM

Thank you for your response.

The second PC was used only to find if Word is always slower than the other Office packages, it would seem that is isn't.

The main comparison is between Word and Excel on the same PC. The overall problem being the relative slowness of Word to open the print dialog, when all of the packages involved have access to the same resources.

An explanation of the steps that are gone through in opening the print dialog may help to find the source of the problem.

Best regards,
nosbm

Mak213 · 11-10-2008, 08:32 AM

You would have to contact Microsoft to find out the exact steps taken from the time you click the Print icon to the time the dialog comes up. That lies within the coding of the software and since Office is closed source like Windows is. Only those who have coded it know exactly what the process is.

No one can help you but them. We dont know cause we didnt code it. We just work with it.

nosbm · 11-11-2008, 04:20 AM

Thank you for your interest and your messages.

Best regards,
nosbm

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