I have a user that is making a newsletter in Publisher. She simply opens the last months newsletter, edits it, and re-saves it for distribution. Between last month and this month, we updated to Office 2013 from Office 2010.

We are seeing that the program is very slow to respond to clicks, to move fields/pictures around, etc. Her original file size was 31MB, but I got her to remove the extra fields and pictures from outside the boundaries and got the file size down to 13MB. The file resides locally on her computer for the testing purposes.

Her computer runs Windows 7 32-bit, Office 32-bit, 2GB RAM, Intel Dual Core 1.8Ghz. When looking in the task manager, CPU is not pegged at 100% and RAM usage is around 45-50%. I have taken all other programs not needed to start off the start up list (now runs about 50-60 processes). We are not running any other program while we are using Publisher. No add-ins are installed for Publisher. SkyDrive is also not setup.

We are early in the deployment and have only about 40 computers switched over to Office 2013, and with only monthly usage at this point for Publisher, I have not heard any other complaints. In fact, I pulled the file and opened it on my machine (Windows 7 64bit, Office 2013 32bit, Intel i7 3.07Ghz, 4Gb Ram) and it acts the same way.

Any ideas of things I could try?

• Edited by C_J_GO Tuesday, April 02, 2013 1:26 PM

My Publisher 2013 32bit is unusable. I am turning to PowerPoint as Publisher cannot handle pictures. It is incredibly slow on a Win7 64bit, I7 with SSD and 8GB RAM. It is not consuming much processor nor memory nor disk bandwith but in consequence it is incredibly slow. Is this a generalized problem that Microsoft will fix or should I ask for my money back?

• Edited by USER125689 Tuesday, April 02, 2013 9:48 AM

I create monthly newsletters through Publisher 2013... and it runs realy slow!!!! It take more then twicw as long to create them. Very frustrating!!!! Is this problem being fixed???

• Merged by Max MengMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Wednesday, April 03, 2013 3:09 AM

Publisher 2013 is very very slow

• Merged by Max MengMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, April 08, 2013 2:16 AM
• Proposed as answer by KC0909 Tuesday, April 09, 2013 10:18 AM
• Unproposed as answer by KC0909 Tuesday, April 09, 2013 10:19 AM

Hello All,

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by Publisher 2013. I had a chance to test this issue and was able to reproduce it from scratch. I have documented and reported this issue to our product group for further investigation.

I observed that performance of Publisher 2013 improves considerably if "Use legacy drag preview" option under File > Options > Advanced is enabled. Please try and explore whether enabling this option can be used as an potential interim workaround in your workflow.

Thanks,
Sekar

• Edited by Sekar R - Microsoft SupportMicrosoft employee Thursday, April 11, 2013 3:03 PM

I'm having exactly the same problem and have tried all the suggestions listed, including 'disabling hardware graphics acceleration' to no avail. This is fundamental flaw in the product and renders it completely unusable. I have the Office 365 University subscription and depend on this to complete projects. How can Microsoft even think about selling a program without putting it through proper testing? All I can say is it's a good job I kept Office 2010 on my old laptop! I expect a solution from Microsoft soon as it would appear that it's not just a few users that are experiencing this problem. 

If it's of any use my system specs are:

Windows Server 2012 Standard (Converted into a workstation)

AMD Athlon II X4 640 (3.0ghz)

8.00 GB Corsair DDR3 Ram

Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3 Motherboard

1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series (XFX) Graphics Card

80 GB Western Digital SATA Drive - In deseperate need of an upgrade I know!

• Edited by Kieren Perry Sunday, April 21, 2013 12:29 PM Spec update

For years I championed Publisher over other programs. For this reason I have invested heavily in making sure I have the latest versions and now hundreds of graphics-rich documents I've published were created with the program. Now MP 2013 is running so incredible slow--with jerky movements and freezing whenever I move a photo or change text. THIS IS A PUBLISHER ISSUE! Please do not suggest absurd steps that only waste more of my time. You must fix this program. You sold it to us, we bought it and now most people cannot even get it to function. And still Microsoft barely responds. The program does not work properly! Do not ask me what my computer specs are. There's nothing wrong with my computer. It is a high end system that runs other productivity suites flawlessly.  MICROSOFT, FIX YOUR BROKEN PROGRAM!

• Merged by Max MengMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, April 30, 2013 1:17 AM

Its been 3 weeks since MS suggested anything. Any new news MS? I cannot keep backdating Office for users as that gets ridiculous.

We are still having this problem. Just tried installing the update on another machine; same result.

Wish I had seen this thread prior to "upgrading" from Office 2010 to 2013.  Publisher 2013 unusable (64 bit, 15.0.4517.1505) with pubs I created earlier this week on 2010 on this system.   I tried recreating and adding pictures 1 and a time, using "legacy" drag helps but not nearly to a semblance of acceptable performance.

Is it too much to hope for a fix before I chuck this version and look around for other applications?  I do not have KB #2768349 installed as some helpful threads suggest removing.

System spec: Windows 7 64-bit, C2D 6850 CPU @ 3.00 Ghz, 4  GB RAM, plenty of space on SSD (15 GB)

I am also still having this issue. I have installed all updates from Microsoft, including the KB2810014 suggested by Debbie. The version in Programs and Features remains the same as the version screen shotted above.

Has anyone heard updates on this matter? It is quite frustrating to our teachers, and I cannot seem to find a fix.

I gave up.  Re-installed 2010 and I'm productive once more.

I'm sorry I ever installed 2013, loss of Outlook contacts has been brutal.

This is occurring for me too.  Still no fix?

Guess I will be using the install Publisher 2010 "Fix".   (And MS wonders why it is loosing market share.)

I just backdated another machine yesterday due to this Publisher issue. It's getting old...Wish Microsoft would at least chime in every so often and keep us informed.

Thank goodness. So heartened to hear the issue has been reported. But... this was over 2 years ago. Still nothing?

Thanks for the legacy drag tip - that has helped considerably in managing (albeit not fixing) the problem.