very slow to open docs

Microsoft has listed as a bug fix "ACC2000: Slow Response Opening a Form in Design View". Even though this bug is mentioned as being related to Access, perhaps it's related to your problem in Word as well. (Microsoft article Q269869)

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q276257

It recommended installing Service Pack 2 to resolve the problem.

See this link for details on the Service Release and download information.

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=kb;en-us;Q276367

(REMOVE SPACES from the pasted URLs.)

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Office 97 has a documented problem with slow opening Word documents. The suggested fix is to oen Outlook (even though initially it may not make sense), and uncheckthe automatic journal entries for:
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office Binder
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word

I've not seen any similar articles for Word 2000, but it's another possibility.

Good luck,

Maxwell