Issues accessing Office for Mac 2011 files and sluggish or no response when in programs after Yosemite installation.

Question

I need to use Excel daily - ever since I upgraded both to Yosemite and updated Office 2011 to the most current version, I have had issues opening documents.  When I go to open a file from Excel (or Word, or PP), the response is unbelievably sluggish - 30 seconds to minutes when moving the cursor down 1 or 2 files to select.  If I am lucky enough to get to the file, the performance within Excel is painfully slow (30 seconds + to move the cursor 1 cell).  I can quickly open files from Finder directly, but still have the same performance issues within Excel.  I have: 1) reinstalled the latest Office Update, 2) uninstalled and reinstalled Office, performed disk repair (using Disk Utility), cleaned the cache.  All to no avail.  I have performed full system virus scans (no issues).  I have a 13" MacBook Pro (purchased July of 2013).  I need help - I am unable to do my job.  Any one else experiencing similar issues?  Found a solution?

Answer 1

Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Download and re-install the 10.10.1 update.
Also see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
                 if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.