Computer illiterate, needs simple solution

I never did think that may be I could get an answer from this Las Vegas forum until I saw a recent thread. This Free-For-All allows other type of discussions) Anyway, here is my problem.

I had Word 2003 on a Dell Inspiron desk top. Something happened and a word document took about 20 seconds to open. After opening one document and keeping it open, any other document would open in about a second. When closing, it worked in the reverse. All documents close in about a second and the final takes about 20 seconds.

I took it to a repair shop. They uninstalled my Norton 360 (downloaded Avast) and uninstalled my System Mechanic. They told me that was slowing down the opening of Windows. The Word problem remained. I was upset and took it right back. They could not solve the problem.

Then I asked a question and later realized, they were the wrong people to ask. Anyway, I asked if I purchased Word 2010, would the trouble go away. I bought and installed Word 2010 and now all my documents take about 20 seconds to open/close. I was better without it.

My first question is if I uninstall Word 2010, will I revert to back to the 2003 and the original problem? Second, is there something simple that I could try to resolve this problem?

Is it only old files that take so long to open and close, or if you create a new file is it slow as well?

It is all files to include those I just created. Prior to installing Word 2010 and if I planned to work on documents, I would open one file and keep it open until I was ready to end. I forgot to mention that the Dell has windows Vista.

I also have a HP desktop with Windows XP. If I email a document from the Dell to the HP, the document opens in one second. If I do the reverse and mail it to the Dell, the problem still exists. I did not convert the HP to Word 2010, but it was the same before the Dell conversion.

Edited to add: The Microsoft Works documents are okay. I do not know the reason, but if I send it as an attachment, some cannot open the document. I thought works was on every computer, but there must be a reasonable explanation.

1. The problem has nothing to do with WORD itself.
2. Repair shops aren't so smart.
3. How full is your hard drive? Right click on the drive in My Computer and hit properties. You should see a pie chart. Might be a defrag issue but not likely.
4. How much RAM do you have? If you only have 2GB that could be the cause. 4GB is better. I think this is your best bet. Buy the memory online and watch youtube for instructions how to change it. You can do it.
5. My computer at work does the same crap as yours.
6. The issue is that it takes a long time for the WORD program to launch. Once launched WORD 2003 easily loads the second document.
7. WORD 2010 uses more resources to it runs slower on your machine.

I think Snidley nailed the reason/solutions. Office 2010 has twice the minimum processor speed & memory requirements as Office 2003, and the minimum just doesn't cut it, EVER, IMHO.

I'd do a disc cleanup before I did a defrag. Make sure to ground yourself by touching the inside metal of the case to discharge any static charge you may be carrying before you pick up the memory. Static can kill a memory stick.

Also, if you save a document as a Word 2010 file, it will most likely not open in Word 2003. But you can do a "save as" and select Word 2003 document in the drop down box. This may cause Word 2010 to tell you it was created in an older version everytime you either open or save the document (I can't remember which) and ask if you want to now save the file as a Word 2010 formatted document.

Works is not installed on all computers. That is why some of the people can't open those documents. Open the Works file on your computer and see if there's an option to save it as a Word document on the "save as" popup drop down.

Word is a resource hog.

Files saved in Word 2010, will ONLY work with Word 2010 OR some open source programs.

Since you purchased Word 2010, try this.

uninstall Word 2010
I would do a disk cleanup, delete unneeded crap, then run the disk defragmenter.
Max out your memory
download open office from openoffice.org
the lastest version should be able to open Word 2010 documents and older versions of Word.

Thank you for the responses. The hard drive showed Used 221 GB (I have a lot of pictures) and Free 359 GB. The Memory RAM showed 6.00 GB. Snidely, since you mentioned the RAM, I checked the internet to see how I could clear up any information in RAM. I really do not know what is the purpose of RAM except when doing this check, it mentions it is a temporary holding area. I also watched you tube on how to install a board and it looks like I can do it.

After the repair shop, I looked and checked for solutions on the internet. I did a disk cleanup and a defrag. I had also uninstalled my two printers. Am now faced with a second problem. On re-installation, my B&W laser printer now takes about 25 seconds before it starts printing. My color printer starts right away. I will worry about that problem later.

On saving works, it does allow the option of saving it as a word program. I checked it. The works opens/closes fast, but opens/closes slow when it is converted to word. I did not think there was this option. If I do not resolve this problem, I think I will convert those everyday use documents and open the new ones on Works. I will convert only when I need to send it to someone.

I just installed Word 2010 so I had not created any new documents with it. I can slowly open all documents include ones created with 2003.

Chefantwon, your instructions is to uninstall 2010, do a disk defrag and download open office.org. I do not know how to max out my memory. After defrag, should I reload 2010? Was this test intended to speed up the slow opening and closing of word documents?
Edited to add: I downloaded openoffice.org and realized it was another office program. I have not checked it out yet but if I email an openoffice document, will the recipient be able to open the file?

RAM is Random Access Memory and your 6 GB should be fine unless you are running a whole lot of resource hogging programs at the same time. RAM stores data and program information that can be accessed much faster than it can be from the hard drive. I came up with an analogy for RAM a while back and since I've seen similar ones online since then it must not be too far off the mark:

You go to a library to do a research paper and sit down at a 2' x 2' table. The library has very strict rules that prohibit you from placing one book on top of the other, or on the floor around you. You go to the stacks and pick out a book and bring it back to the table and start your paper. Soon you need another book, and you go get that one as well. After a few more books you find your table is now covered with books, and since you need another one you bring one from your table back, and get the new one. Unfortunately, you then find you again need the book you just brought back, so you bring back a different book and get that one again. After a few more times of doing this you say to hell with it and drag over another 2' x 2' table to work on, leaving you more than enough room for all the books you are working from.

The stacks are like your hard drive and the tables represent your RAM. (and some references to this analogy I found also use the CPU Cache, which is very quickly accessible memory and would be like having one book on your lap ready to go at all times).

6 gb of ram is plenty. Don't mess with it. Your harddrive is fine too

Hit cntl-alt-del and open up task manager. Select the Process tab. Sort by memory and list on here Anything suspicious.

Have you run Malwalebytes, Adaware, and antivirus programs?

i currently want to stab my computer in its faaaaaaaaaaace over this.

i uploaded three full memory cards to my computer from my camera.

i am now trying to burn them to a cd so i can bring them to work and post them (dont have internet at home).

the cd wont burn because the memory on my computer was at 97% full.

i deleted a bunch of stuff but the lowest i could get it to was 90%. i tried to defrag and it told me it needed 15%. fine, i deleted stuff i didnt want to delete.

then i defragged. and the burner still says there isnt enough memory.

so fine, i am more than willing to delete pictures and mp3's and stuff BUT only after i can burn them on a backup cd, which i cant because the cd burner wont let me.

so now i am going to buy a flash drive and upload stuff on that, then burn stuff to a cd....and then put the stuff from the flash drive back on my computer....ugh i dont wanna do all this. am i overlooking a simpler solution? like should i just buy another memory card (i dont know if thats the right term) for my pc?