Wierd issue using MS word - it's like my iMac can't keep up

[PaulineS]

Hi all, I've recently migrated to a new iMac (from an older iMac) and I'm having this really weird problem where I type something and only half (or less) of the letters appear. It's like my Mac isn't processing as fast as I type and it is sooo annoying as I write for a living and usually have tight turnaround deadlines. I've also noticed today some other weird things happening, such as the font size in a document suddenly changing or the text colour changing from black to white in the middle of a page.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

A few troubleshooting questions:

• What model and OS X/mac OS version was the old iMac?
• What model and OS X/mac OS version is the new iMac?
• Did you use Migration Assistant to migrate all applications and your data?
• What version of Microsoft Word/Office?
• Does the issue only affect Microsoft Word/Office?
• Do you have any third-party utilities installed like MacKeeper, antivirus, etc.?

C

 

[PaulineS]

Hello and welcome.

A few troubleshooting questions:

• What model and OS X/mac OS version was the old iMac?
• What model and OS X/mac OS version is the new iMac?
• Did you use Migration Assistant to migrate all applications and your data?
• What version of Microsoft Word/Office?
• Does the issue only affect Microsoft Word/Office?
• Do you have any third-party utilities installed like MacKeeper, antivirus, etc.?

C

Hi Cory and thanks for responding. To answer your questions:

1. Old iMac was running Big Sur (or maybe Catalina - it was old I know, I had problems upgrading as kept getting a message saying my disk was corrupted, even when I changed o a new one
2. New iMac is Ventura
3. Yes I used migration assistant
4. MS Office is Office 365
5. Doesn't seem to affect any other apps, only word (although that is the primary MS app that I use
6. No third-party utilities

Any ideas what might be causing this? It's driving me nuts.

 

[TonyAguila]

This could be from memory-storage issues. How much memory does the (new) iMac have, and the size of the SSD?

 

[PaulineS]

Thanks Tony, the new iMac has 8GB and the SSD has 4TB (3.75TB available)

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks Tony, the new iMac has 8GB and the SSD has 4TB (3.75TB available)

That’s more than ample disk space, but the limited amount of memory could be the problem. Try restarting into Safe Mode. That will prevent system extensions and processes from running except the ones required for basic operation. Try using Word in this state.

Make sure there are no other apps running. The idea is to see if Word will run better without competing with other processes to trigger memory swapping.

If yours is a Silicon Mac (M1 or M2), you have to shut down and then press and hold the power key until you get the Options menu. Before clicking on the SSD, hold down the Shift key. It will let you know that it will start in Safe Mode.

If it’s an intel Mac, simply reboot and hold down the Shift key until the progress bar under the  appears and you can let go of the shift key. If it seems to work fine, reboot and try running the same task with Word and see if you notice any difference. Make sure you don’t have other apps running at the same time.

 

[PaulineS]

Thanks Tony, I will do this the next time the issue happens. Thanks so much.

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks Tony, I will do this the next time the issue happens. Thanks so much.

Ventura 13.1 just came out. I suggest updating, making sure you have up-to-date backups. The update could tune up your system and update security. Low RAM is still my #1 suspect source of the slow down. Try as much as possible to quit all other running apps when you need to run MS Word. If i persists I can show you how to use Activity Monitor to pinpoint the problem.