Summary: Speed up slow document loads in Microsoft Word 2003 by preventing automatic link updating.
Normally, when you open Microsoft Word 2003 documents, if you have any information linked to other objects or files, these links are updated whenever documents are open. If you have complex documents that link to various other files, this can slow down Microsoft Word 2003 as it has to go out and update all the links. Thus, if you would like to prevent this from happening:
1. Click “Tools” – “Options”.
2. When the “Options” multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the “General” tab.
3. Uncheck “Update automatic links at Open”.
4. Click “OK” to save your settings.