Typing in Word is realllllly slow when Zotero is on!

dp248
Just downloaded 2.0 yesterday and I love it. However, it is like 1/2 my keys don't work when I try to type in the Word document between citations. Sample: As I type 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog', the screen will read The qck rn fox jumed over th lz dog.' The cursor won't even move between different letters at times...just that blinking vertical line that comes when one pauses their typing. Puh-lease help...I've got over 200 pages to format! :-)

BTW:
I've tried restarting everything, restarting firefox/word independently, disabling Java, and screaming in frustration.
  • dstillman
    Platform? Word version?
  • dp248
    Thanks Dan,

    Windows Vista.....Word 2002 xp service pack 3
  • dstillman
    Are you sure this is related to Zotero? If you disable Zotero.dot in Tools -> Templates and Add-ons in Word, does the problem persist?
  • dp248
    It works fine when I'm offline. But when I'm online...(i.e. using firefox with zotero), it is a different story. Also, when I disabled Zotero in Tools, Word worked perfectly...when I enabled it again, well, back to square one. :-(
  • dstillman
    Is Zotero attempting a large sync? What happens if you disable auto-sync in the Sync pane of the Zotero preferences?
  • dstillman
    And if you're not using syncing, generate a Debug ID for 30 seconds or so while you're trying to type (slowly) in Word.
  • dp248
    It shouldn't be syncing anything. However, I don't see that pane anywhere when I pull up preferences....which tab is it under? I've got general/search/export/shortcut/advanced
  • dstillman
    If you don't have a Sync pane, you don't have Zotero 2.0.

    http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/zotero_version
  • dp248
    Dan, thank you...I can't believe I downloaded the wrong version. Will 2.0 transfer my current citations or will I lose them in the switchover?
  • dp248
    Dan, I've upgraded to the new version (on both firefox and word)...here is the debug id:
    D1527874378
  • dstillman
    edited December 29, 2009
    Are you still experiencing the problem? Zotero 1.0 and 2.0 are very different, and I can't think of any reason 1.0 would slow down Word. If you captured that debug output while the problem was occurring, Zotero isn't actually doing anything at the time.

    Are you using the Word plugin? If so, have you installed the 2.0-compatible version?
  • dp248
    Yep...still having trouble...and I ran the debug while typing 'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog' a few times...I have the 2.0 Word plugin installed. For some reason, this only occurs while I'm running Firefox (I have the latest update for that, too 3.5.6)
    :-(
  • dstillman
    So you're saying that having either Zotero 1.0 or Zotero 2.0 enabled in Firefox causes the slowdown in Word, and disabling Zotero fixes the problem? You've reproduced this (disabling, trying, enabling, trying) several times?

    I assume you've restarted your computer?

    To make sure the plugin isn't an issue, uninstall the WinWord Integration plugin from Firefox and remove the Zotero.dot file from the Word startup directory (or at least disable from Templates and Add-ons).
  • dp248
    Hi Dan, I really appreciate your help btw.

    Affirmative...problems with both, and disabling Zotero fixes the problem. I've run a few different permutations of the disabling/enabling/trying scenario and restarted my PC about 5 times now.

    What is the easiest way to uninstall the plugin from Firefox?
  • dstillman
    Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions
  • dstillman
    Report ID?

    Have you tried disabling your other Firefox extensions instead of Zotero?
  • dstillman
    Also, please provide a Debug ID from Firefox startup through typing in Word.
  • dp248
    All extensions are disabled in Firefox. Uninstalled the WinWord Integration plugin from Firefox and disabled Zotero from Templates and Add-ons. The problem persists.
  • dp248
    No report ID btw.
  • dstillman
    Debug ID?
  • dp248
    The Debug ID is D1211456038.
  • dstillman
    That's empty. You need to enable debug output logging from startup in the Advanced pane and then restart Firefox, and then type in Word, and then send in the output.
  • dp248
    The Debug ID is D1177960930
  • dstillman
    That all looks normal.

    Have you checked Task Manager to see what exactly is happening while you're trying to type (and when you're just sitting there with Firefox open, since there's no connection between Word and Firefox if you've disabled the Zotero template)? CPU usage?

    The only thing I can think of that's the same between 1.0 and 2.0 is that both start a mini HTTP server for integration. (2.0 doesn't actually use it, but it's there to serve an upgrade message to old plugin versions.) Perhaps that's conflicting with something else on your system and causing high CPU load. Go to about:config in the Firefox address bar, change extensions.zotero.integration.port to, say, 50788, and restart Firefox completely.

    Do you have firewall software installed? If so, you can also try disabling that.

    I don't really have anything else to suggest other than trying Zotero in a new Firefox profile. As far as I can recall nobody has ever reported anything like this.
  • dstillman
    Actually, if I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the integration server conflicting with a Vista component. There have been reports in the past of Vista using the same port, though no one has mentioned its having a detrimental effect on system usage.
  • bobanello
    I use Word 2007 on Windows XP. I do not know where to look to determine the total number of entries in my database, but I think it contains around 600. My current document has about 300 footnotes. I recently upgraded from Zotero 1.0 to 2.0rc5, including upgrading the plug-ins for Word. I am experiencing a noticeable delay in opening and closing the "insert citation" window, plus other windows, although I don't use the others as often. Any suggestions on improving performance for that window?
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