MacWord 6.0 FastTip: Setup & Performance Optimization

ID: Q119335

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, version 6.0

SUMMARY

This article contains six frequently asked questions about setting up and optimizing Microsoft Word version 6.0 for the Macintosh, followed by the more in-depth "Optimizing the Performance of Word 6.0 for the Macintosh" section.

Q. What is the minimum Macintosh hardware and system configuration I need to run Word 6.0?

A. To run Word 6.0, you need a Macintosh with a 68020 or higher processor and at least 4 megabytes (MB) of RAM. Word 6.0 also requires System 7.0 or later. To run Word 6.0 on a Power Macintosh, you need System 7.1 or later and at least 8 MB of RAM.

The program disks provided in the Word package require a 1.4-MB floppy disk drive. The requirements for available hard disk space and system memory vary, depending on how you choose to install Word and how many applications you want to run simultaneously. The following table provides the minimum requirements for installing and running Word on a Macintosh and a Power Macintosh.
```
          Minimum             68020 or higher
          requirement for     processor             Power Macintosh
       -----------------------------------------------------------------
          Operating system    System 7.0 or later   System 7.1 or later.

          Available hard      At least 5 MB.        At least 8 MB.
          disk space          To install the        To install the
                              complete Word         complete Word
                              package, you need     package, you need
                              at least 25 MB.       at least 27 MB.

          Random-access       At least 4 MB.        At least 8 MB.
          memory (RAM)

          Display or              Any Macintosh-compatible monitor
          monitor

          Printer            Any Macintosh-compatible printer (optional) 
```
NOTE: The following Macintosh models are not compatible with Word 6.0: the 128K and 512K Macintosh, Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE, Macintosh Portable, Macintosh Classic, and Apple(R) PowerBook(TM) 100.

Q. How can I make Word 6.0 run faster on my Macintosh?

A. Word 6.0 is the most powerful word processing software ever developed for the Macintosh platform. To get the best possible performance from Word, you may need to optimize your Macintosh system. This Application Note contains instructions you can use to optimize your Macintosh. To optimize your Macintosh, you may need to make adjustments to your system software (extensions and fonts) or hardware configuration (processor type, speed, amount of memory, and available hard disk space).

For detailed instructions about optimizing Word on your Macintosh system, refer to the "Optimizing the Performance of Word 6.0 for the Macintosh" section, beginning on page 3 of this Application Note.

Q. How do I install Word 6.0 on my network?

A. Setting up Word on network workstations is a two-step process:

First, you perform a network administrator's installation to install Word on a network file server or shared directory or folder. Then, each user runs Word Setup from the administrator's installation (rather than floppy disks) to install Word on a local workstation. You can share a single copy of Word with other users on your network, or you can install a private copy of Word on your workstation. To perform an administrator's installation of Word, use the procedures in Chapter 1, "Installing and Starting Word," in "Microsoft Word Quick Results". For more information about performing an administrator's installation on a network file server or in a shared directory or folder, see Appendix B, "Installing and Using Word on a Network," in the "Microsoft Word User's Guide."

NOTE: Every Word user must have a Microsoft Word license. A license is obtained by buying a retail package or a Microsoft License Pak. For more information about network use restrictions, see your Microsoft Word license agreement.

Q. What components does Setup install on my computer?

A. In addition to the Word 6.0 program, Setup installs online Help, proofing tools (including hyphenation, spelling checker, grammar checker, and thesaurus tools), templates, wizards, sample documents, and the following shared OLE applications: Equation Editor, Microsoft Movie, WordArt, Microsoft Graph, and Voice Annotation. For a complete list of the files that Word Setup installs for each installation option, see Word's online ReadMe Help file.

Q. How do I install Word 6.0 over Word 4.0 or 5.0?

A. If you have enough hard disk space, you can install Word 6.0 in a new location. If you later delete your previous version of Word, be careful not to delete your existing documents, custom dictionaries, or glossary files. If you install Word 6.0 in a different directory or folder and keep the previous version of Word as well, Setup does not change the existing Word files or modify system information related to the previous version of Word.

If you install Word 6.0 in the same location as your previous version of Word, Setup upgrades (replaces) the previous version of Word. Setup keeps all your existing documents, glossary files, custom dictionaries, and address lists so that you can use them in Word 6.0.

For more information about upgrading from an earlier version of Word for the Macintosh, choose Microsoft Word Help from the Help menu, click Reference Information, and then click What's New In Word 6.0.

Q. What is the difference between the Complete, Typical, and Minimum installations of Word 6.0?

A. For a Typical installation, you need 13 MB of available hard disk space (15 MB on a Power Macintosh). For a Typical installation, Setup installs the most common Word components, including the spelling and grammar checkers, the thesaurus, online Help, WordArt, and Microsoft Graph.

For a Complete installation, which installs the entire Word application, you need 25 MB of available hard disk space (27 MB on a Power Macintosh). If you perform a Custom installation, Setup installs only those Word features that you select.

For a Minimum installation, you need 5 MB of available hard disk space (8 MB on a Power Macintosh). A Minimum installation includes only the Word program, spelling checker, and the Word ReadMe Help file. Select this installation option if you don't have much available hard disk space or are installing Word on a laptop.

OPTIMIZING THE PERFORMANCE OF WORD 6.0 FOR THE MACINTOSH

INTRODUCTION

Word 6.0 is larger and more robust than earlier versions of the application, so your computer requires more resources to run it. As a result, the performance of your Macintosh, and therefore Word 6.0, may be slower. This Application Note describes how you can increase the operating speed of Word 6.0 for Macintosh when it is running under Apple System 7.x.

When you optimize the performance of your Macintosh system, you also speed up the performance of Word. Optimizing the system involves both your software (for example, the operating system version, extensions, fonts, and device drivers) and hardware (for example, processor type and speed, amount of memory, and available hard disk space). You can use this Application Note as a checklist to optimize both your software and hardware configurations for Word and other Macintosh- based applications running under System 7.x.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE WORD ON A MACINTOSH WITH 4 TO 6 MB OF RAM

To run Word 6.0, you must have at least 4 MB of RAM. As with most minimum requirements, 4 MB is not the optimal amount of memory to run Word. To run Word 6.0 optimally, we suggest that you either add more RAM to your computer, or optimize your existing RAM. Even with a 4-MB environment, you can almost always improve Word's performance by configuring your Macintosh system to free up additional memory.

Add More Memory

If you regularly work with large documents (50 pages or more) or use many graphics in your documents, adding RAM gives you the most dramatic improvement in Word's operating speed. If your computer has 8 MB of RAM, Word runs faster, and you can also run another large application (such as Microsoft Excel) at the same time and interact with it from Word. On the other hand, if you work primarily with average-sized documents (50 or fewer pages) and don't use many graphics, the suggestions that follow should help increase Word's speed on your 4- to 6-MB computer.

How to Make 4 MB Seem Like More RAM

The key to making Word run faster on a computer with 4 MB of RAM is to free up memory currently used by other operations that have little or no effect on Word's performance. Use the following recommendations to make sure the maximum amount of RAM is available for Word to use. The first recommendations optimize the Macintosh system; the last recommendation specifically optimizes Word.

Increasing Available Memory in System 7.x

This section discusses how you can optimize the Macintosh by configuring the Macintosh system.

Disk Cache/RAM Cache

On a 4-MB computer, it is important to free up as much memory as possible. Although the disk and RAM cache features are designed to increase performance, they reserve memory for their purpose--reducing the amount of overall available memory. Therefore, minimize the Disk Cache setting to 32 kilobytes (K), the smallest setting possible, and set the RAM Cache setting to Off. Both of these options are located in the Memory control panel.

Reduce Background Programs--Extensions, Control Panels, and Drivers

Background tasks are allocated valuable memory on your 4-MB Macintosh. Limiting the number of background applications that load when you start the Macintosh may noticeably increase your Macintosh's available memory. Extensions, control panels, and drivers are examples of background applications that are loaded into memory at startup.

For information about background programs, refer to the "Background Processing - Extensions, Control Panels, and Drivers" section of this Application Note.

Modify Word's Advanced Settings

To increase bitmap-redrawing speed and scrolling speed in Word, you can use the instructions below to add BitMapMemory and CacheSize settings to the "Microsoft Word" category of Word's Advanced Settings. To have access to these settings, add the Advanced Settings command to the Tools menu with the following steps:

From the Tools menu, choose Customize. Click the Menu tab.

Under Categories, select Tools. Under Commands, select ToolsAdvancedSettings.

Click the Add button. Click the Close button.

BitMapMemory

If your documents often contain many graphics, you should skip this section--it could actually make Word run more slowly. Otherwise, by modifying the BitMapMemory setting, you can free up some of the memory (up to 512K) Word reserves to work with bitmapped graphics. The default BitMapMemory size is 1024K (1 MB).

NOTE: This setting has no effect on the speed of accessing or displaying vector graphics such as PICT, EPS, and Windows(TM) metafile graphics that do not contain bitmaps as part of their format.

To add the BitMapMemory setting to Word's Advanced Settings:

From the Tools menu, choose Advanced Settings. If Advanced Settings is not available on the Tools menu, see the "Modify Word's Advanced Settings" section above.

In the Categories box, choose Microsoft Word.

In the Option box, type BitMapMemory.

In the Setting box, type 512. Click Set and then OK.

If Word does not seem to run faster, or if Word runs more slowly, remove the BitMapMemory setting:

From the Tools menu, choose Advanced Settings. If Advanced settings is not available on the Tools menu, see the "Modify Word's Advanced Settings" section above.

In the Categories box, choose Microsoft Word.

In the Options box, click the BitMapMemory setting once, and then click the Delete button. Click OK.

CacheSize

The CacheSize setting defines the size of the internal DocumentText cache in Word. The default CacheSize setting is 64K, which is also the minimum. If you frequently work with large documents, you can increase the CacheSize setting to reduce the frequency with which Word accesses your hard disk to retrieve parts of your document--thereby improving Word's performance. Because of memory constraints on a 4-MB computer, the maximum CacheSize setting you should use is 128K.

To add the CacheSize setting to Word's Advanced Settings:

Repeat steps 1 and 2 in the "BitMapMemory" section of this Application Note to access Word's Advanced Settings.

For Option, type CacheSize.

For Setting, type 128. Click Set and then OK.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE WORD ON A MACINTOSH WITH AT LEAST 6 MB OF RAM

On a computer with at least 6 MB of RAM, Word 6.0 for the Macintosh runs well, even if you make no changes to your Word or Macintosh System configurations. If you have 6 MB or more of RAM, Word can make more use of memory and does not need to access the hard disk as frequently. Even so, you may still be able to improve Word's performance by making the following additional adjustments to your system.

Allocate Memory to Word

When Word is installed, the installer program allocates a certain amount of memory to the Word application, based on the amount of memory on the Macintosh. The following table shows how much memory is allocated to Word when it is installed, based on the total memory on your Macintosh:


   Memory on the Macintosh     Setup will allocate
--------------------------------------------------------------

   0-5999K                     2000K
   6000-7000K                  2500K
   7000K and greater           3000K

2000K-2500K is sufficient for simple tasks and smaller documents. However, if you are working on larger documents (50 pages or more) or documents with many graphics, or if you are performing more memory- intensive tasks (such as grammar checking), allocate more memory to Word if it is available.

For example, if you have 5 MB of memory, Word is allocated 2.5 MB when it is installed. If the system uses 1.5 MB for itself, that leaves 3.5 MB available when no applications are running. You can safely allocate another .5 MB of memory to Word, bringing the total to 3 MB.

To allocate more memory to Word, select the Microsoft Word icon in the Finder. From the File menu, choose Get Info. Increase the Preferred Size, based on how much available memory your Macintosh has. Allocating more memory to Word helps, but generally, unless your documents contain large numbers of graphics (in which case allocating up to 6 MB of memory may improve performance), allocating more than 3- 4 MB of memory to Word does not necessarily increase the speed of Word.

Disk Cache

You can increase the disk cache setting in your Macintosh if you have enough available memory. A larger disk cache can improve the performance of your Macintosh by setting up a portion of memory to store frequently used information that is usually accessed from a hard disk. The disk cache speeds up Macintosh operations such as opening and quitting Word, loading portions of Word (for example, the grammar checker), and switching between active programs. The disk cache option is located in the Macintosh Memory control panel.

ADVANCED SETTINGS

You can increase the BitMapMemory or CacheSize settings in Word's Advanced Settings if you have at least 8 MB of RAM. To modify these settings, use the procedures in the "Modify Word's Advanced Settings" section of this Application Note. That section also contains a description of the BitMapMemory and CacheSize settings.

BitMapMemory

If your documents frequently contain many bitmapped graphics (such as scanned images and screen captures), you can increase the redrawing and scrolling speed of bitmaps by increasing the amount of memory that Word reserves for these operations. On a computer with at least 8 MB of RAM, you can increase the BitMapMemory setting as high as 2048K (2 MB). The following sample entry from Advanced Settings sets the BitMapMemory value at 2048K:


   [Microsoft Word]
   bitmapmemory=2048

CacheSize

If you primarily work with large documents, you can increase the CacheSize setting to enlarge Word's internal Document Text cache. With a larger cache, Word does not need to access the hard disk as frequently, which speeds up performance. Start by changing the CacheSize setting to 256K and then, if necessary, increase it to 1024K (1 MB). The following sample entries from Advanced Settings set these values respectively:


   [Microsoft Word]
   cachesize=256

   [Microsoft Word]
   cachesize=1024

NOTE: You may not need both the BitMapMemory and CacheSize settings, depending on the type of documents you usually create. If you change one of these settings and do not notice any improvement in Word's performance, delete the setting so that Word, System 7.x, and other applications can use the memory for other operations. You may find that Word's default settings already provide optimal performance.

16 MB of RAM or More: Create a RAM Disk

If you have at least 16 MB of RAM, you can create a RAM disk, which can provide an increase in Macintosh performance by reserving memory to emulate a disk. Because memory access is much faster than hard disk access, running Word from a RAM disk may result in a performance increase.

The System 7.x RAM Disk feature is available in the Memory control panel. To run Word from a RAM disk, you must allocate enough memory for Word (at least 4 MB).

ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR IMPROVING WORD FOR THE MACINTOSH PERFORMANCE

General Speed Tips

Background Processing - Extensions, Control Panels, and Drivers

Besides consuming memory on a Macintosh, background tasks force your Macintosh to distribute its processing time instead of concentrating it on your foreground application. Even if they are completely idle, background applications are allocated processor time that could be devoted to simple tasks such as updating windows. Extensions, control panels, and drivers are examples of background applications that are loaded into memory at startup. Limiting the number of background applications that load when you start the Macintosh may noticeably increase performance. To modify your control panel settings, choose Control Panels from the Apple menu. Extensions and drivers are located in the System Folder's Extensions folder.

To determine the performance increase you can obtain by paring down the amount of background processing, try starting your Macintosh without extensions. First, choose About This Macintosh from the Apple menu and write down the Largest Unused Block value. Then start your Macintosh without extensions. (To start without extensions, hold down the SHIFT key when you start the Macintosh. When you see the message "Welcome to Macintosh Extensions Off," you can release the SHIFT key.) Check to see what the Largest Unused Block value is now.

NOTE: Some extensions, control panels, and drivers are necessary for important tasks, such as connecting to the network, printing, accessing a CD-ROM drive, and so forth. Your ability to pare down your extensions, control panels, and drivers depends greatly on how you use your Macintosh.

Use the Right Display Mode for Faster Screen Display

You may not need the millions of colors your Macintosh can support. Monitor settings significantly affect operations on the Macintosh that entail redrawing the screen (for example, screen updates that occur when you scroll or update graphics). If you are writing reports and working with spreadsheets, you may need only 16 to 256 colors. (You can easily switch back to using more colors if no change in performance occurs or if your work requires additional video capabilities.)

In black-and-white mode, a single bit is used to track the color of each pixel on the screen. This figure increases proportionally with 1-bit, 2-bit, 4-bit, on up to 24-bit color mode (millions of colors). Use the table below, which lists the memory "cost" of additional colors, to balance your performance needs with your display needs.


      Colors         Memory cost
   -------------------------------------------------------------------
      16             Base number (lowest cost)
      256            2 times the memory/work of 16 colors
      65K            4 times the memory/work of 16 colors
      16 million     6 times the memory/work of 16 colors

You can set the number of colors or shades of gray your monitor can use by opening the Monitors control panel in Control Panels.

Optimize Hard Disk Access

By optimizing your hard disk periodically, you can improve disk access time. The access speed of a hard disk affects overall Macintosh performance, more so in conditions of significant disk activity (such as reading or writing a file or reading an application or segments of an application). Because Word is a large application, a significant amount of hard disk access occurs when reading parts of the application into memory.

File fragmentation on the hard disk can slow reading and writing. Fragmentation occurs with the ongoing deletion from and insertion of information onto the disk and results in a lack of continuous space to place information. With disk-intensive activities, hard disk fragmentation hinders the performance of your Macintosh.

Optimizing the drive rearranges the contents of a disk so that the files are stored on sectors located next to one another. Optimizing a drive increases the speed of file access. There are several programs available for optimizing drives on the Macintosh.

Virtual Memory

The System 7.x Virtual Memory feature swaps out portions of files and programs from memory to the hard disk. With the Virtual Memory feature turned on, a 4-MB Macintosh can perform tasks that require more than 4 MB of memory. However, because hard disk access time is much slower than memory access time, virtual memory is much slower than random- access memory. Whenever possible, you should not use virtual memory.

How to Print Faster

Many factors affect printing speed. Below is a short checklist of steps you can take that may help increase printing speed:

Use printer-resident fonts instead of their TrueType(R) counterparts. For example, when you print to a PostScript(R) printer, if you normally use New York, use Times instead. These are very similar fonts (although Times is a bit smaller), but a font description for Times already exists in the printer. Therefore, the font definition is not added to the print job sent to the printer. The New York font description, however, does not exist in the printer, so it must be sent with the print job. Font descriptions can dramatically increase the size of a print job, which causes slower printing.

If you print over a network, consult your network documentation to make sure your print server is working optimally.

If you don't need to continue working while Word is printing, turn off the Background Printing option. This option allocates processor time to Word during a print job so that you can continue working; however, this means less processor time is available for printing. To turn off Background Printing, choose Chooser from the Apple menu, click once on your LaserWriter(R) printer on the left side. Under Background Printing in the bottom-right corner, click Off.

Additional query words: speedup.doc winword macword word6

Keywords : kbsetup
Version : MACINTOSH:6.0
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type : kbinfo