Performance issue when opening DOCX Word Doc with Excel Links

Question

Is this a bug or is there a config setting that can prevent Word from needlessly opening Excel repeatedly (upon initial open of a DOCX Word doc) when pre-existing links should NOT be updated. The behavior is good using 2003 formats (DOC & XLS),
but varies significantly (~100:1 range in performance) depending on the test scenario (see below) using DOCX with XLSX.
We can't move our environment to the new XML formats until we can find a fix. We were led to believe Microsoft knew this to be a bug in Office 2007, but it has NOT been corrected in Office 2010. Omitting a detailed explanation for why we need to
do this, here's our test scenarios:
-Currently testing Office 2010 Pro Trial version on WIN XP SP3. (We have found similar results using Office 2007 with Win7 or XP).
-Word Option Deselected/DISABLED: "Update Automatic Links at Open"
-The Word Doc contains 100 linked Excel tables and is 130K in size (DOCX).
-Each link points to the same 10x10 cell range in one Excel Workbook located in same directory as the Word Doc, although other tests using separate directories produced similar results.
-The Excel Links were inserted into Word via Paste Special/Paste Link/MS Excel Worksheet Object.
-The workbook (XLSX) is 15K in size.
-All Links are set for "Manual" update, our testing showed no difference if links are set to "Auto".
-Again, Word is set to NOT update Automatic links when the document is opened.
-Results shown below are for local hard drive test.
-Network response times are slightly greater on 100mb LAN
-Word is completely restarted prior to each test to make sure there's no application caching involved.
LOCAL DRIVE RESPONSE TIMES TO OPEN THE WORD DOC in Docx format:
1. Open the Word Doc from Word with Excel closed - 175 seconds (Excel appears to be opened and closed once per link)
2. Open the Word Doc from Word with Excel open & workbook closed - 33 seconds (Excel appears to be accessed once per link)
3. Open the Word Doc from Word with the linked workbook already open - 7 seconds (Excel appears to be accessed once per link)
4. Rename Excel XLSX workbook so that Word can't find it. Then open Doc the from Word. 1-2 seconds (Excel does not appear to be invoked)
5. Repeat ALL of the above scenarios 1-4 using DOC and XLS files. These files are created with "Save AS" option based on original test files and then re-pasting the links.  1-2 seconds to open the Word Doc (Excel does not appear to be invoked)
Summary
Using DOCX/XLSX, if Word can't find the linked spreadsheet it gives up and performs nicely during file-open. Otherwise, Word performs needless, time-consuming access to Excel, and in the worst case, opens and closes Excel repeatedly in the background.
Testing with DOC/XLS formats gives good performance across all scenarios.

Answer 1

It is a known bug and one for which AFAIK, there has been no fix.  The only way that I could get around it in a particular application was to do something like save the linked information as document variables and then on opening the document recreate
all the information.  My memory on exactly what I did is a bit hazy, but I can go back and check if you are interested.
-- Hope this helps.
Doug Robbins - Word MVP,
dkr[atsymbol]mvps[dot]org
Posted via the Community Bridge
"galmcrantz" wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Is this a bug or is there a config setting that can prevent Word from needlessly opening Excel repeatedly (upon initial open of a DOCX Word doc) when pre-existing links should NOT be updated. The behavior is good using 2003 formats (DOC & XLS), but varies
significantly (~100:1 range in performance) depending on the test scenario (see below) using DOCX with XLSX.
We can't move our environment to the new XML formats until we can find a fix. We were led to believe Microsoft knew this to be a bug in Office 2007, but it has NOT been corrected in Office 2010. Omitting a detailed explanation for why we need to do this,
here's our test scenarios:
-Currently testing Office 2010 Pro Trial version on WIN XP SP3. (We have found similar results using Office 2007 with Win7 or XP).
-Word Option Deselected/DISABLED: "Update Automatic Links at Open"
-The Word Doc contains 100 linked Excel tables and is 130K in size (DOCX).
-Each link points to the same 10x10 cell range in one Excel Workbook located in same directory as the Word Doc, although other tests using separate directories produced similar results.
-The Excel Links were inserted into Word via Paste Special/Paste Link/MS Excel Worksheet Object.
-The workbook (XLSX) is 15K in size.
-All Links are set for "Manual" update, our testing showed no difference if links are set to "Auto".
-Again, Word is set to NOT update Automatic links when the document is opened.
-Results shown below are for local hard drive test.
-Network response times are slightly greater on 100mb LAN
-Word is completely restarted prior to each test to make sure there's no application caching involved.
LOCAL DRIVE RESPONSE TIMES TO OPEN THE WORD DOC in Docx format:
1. Open the Word Doc from Word with Excel closed - 175 seconds (Excel appears to be opened and closed once per link)
2. Open the Word Doc from Word with Excel open & workbook closed - 33 seconds (Excel appears to be accessed once per link)
3. Open the Word Doc from Word with the linked workbook already open - 7 seconds (Excel appears to be accessed once per link)
4. Rename Excel XLSX workbook so that Word can't find it. Then open Doc the from Word. 1-2 seconds (Excel does not appear to be invoked)
5. Repeat ALL of the above scenarios 1-4 using DOC and XLS files. These files are created with "Save AS" option based on original test files and then re-pasting the links.  1-2 seconds to open the Word Doc (Excel does not appear to be invoked)
Summary
Using DOCX/XLSX, if Word can't find the linked spreadsheet it gives up and performs nicely during file-open. Otherwise, Word performs needless, time-consuming access to Excel, and in the worst case, opens and closes Excel repeatedly in the background.
Testing with DOC/XLS formats gives good performance across all scenarios.
Doug Robbins - Word MVP dkr[atsymbol]mvps[dot]org