From: richparsey on
I am going to try this old solution .. think it is the same problem .. so
maybe it will work

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/830561/en-us?spid=2530&sid=49


"Sambuccus" wrote:

> When we open a document with a template \\servername\folder and the server
> does not exist i e when opening a document attached in an email it takes
> about 5 minutes to open the document.
>
> The problem occours when working in a net work. If we replace the template
> path with normal.dot the document opens fast. But there are thounsands of
> documents.
>
> If I open the same document in Vista or in Server 2008 R2 I can press ESC to
> stop Word looking after the template. But it does not work in Windows 7.