Microsoft Word Takes a Long Time to Load

While other factors could cause this, it is primarily caused by two things.

• You have Norton Antivirus installed, and the Microsoft Office plugin is running. Here's what Microsoft has to say about it, including instructions on how to shut it off.
• You have a corrupt or nearly corrupt normal.dot file. Read Step 1 here to learn how to fix it.
• You need to defragment your hard drive.