MS Word 2003 - performance problems?

[Kidd]

A co-worker has a problem with Word 2003. First, the PC is a newly purchased custom rig for maximum performance in Autodesk products. Core i7, TB HD, 16 GB DDR3, Windows 7 Pro x64, etc.

When opening the program, the cursor switches to the Win7 'thinking' icon- I don't know what to call the little circle, but it has taken the place of the old school 'hourglass'. When opening other programs, it only does it for a second. But in Word 2003 it never goes back to the standard cursor. Also, she occasionally inserts an image, and the image won't stop flashing. Sometimes the same thing happens to text she has inserted. When the flashing starts, it won't stop until you close the document. The flashing looks like the image or text is blinking very fast. I am unsure about what specifically is making it happen, as it doesn't happen in any other programs, including the rest of Office 2003. She has Office 2003 SP3 installed. Up until now, it has been only a small annoyance, but as time goes on it is becoming increasingly annoying. I searched "word 2003 flashing", but that yields results dealing with adobe's flash format. Microsoft's support section makes it appear that Office 2003 is not supported in Win7, and since we're the only two in the company not using XP, the company will not be purchasing Office 2010 any time soon. Anyone have any ideas? Is there a preferred screen resolution she should be using?

[pam123]

This is the Win7 compatibility page : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/com...0Office%202003 and if you scroll down you'll see that Office 2003 with Service Pack 3 is compatible so that's not the problem.

It sounds like your friend needs an Office 2003 repair : http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/of...001140241.aspx

[EzyStvy]

It wouldn't hurt to seek out and delete the hidden file called Normal.dot which is the default Word template. It'll get rebuilt. ** Note that if she has any custom setting for her default template that they'll be lost.