I've tried several things that have been suggested - turning off spell check as you type did nothing. Seems the problem is related to opening existing files - don't have this slowness issue when I open PPT and start a new presentation.

• Moved by David Wolters Tuesday, July 13, 2010 3:44 AM Wrong Forum (From:Office 2010 Beta (Archive))

I have a same problem with powerpoint... the problem appears only when you edit an exisitng file...new files work smooth 

• Proposed as answer by Hassaanishere Friday, July 18, 2014 10:06 PM

The problem is POOR coding by the Microsoft Office Developers.

I know the exact issue here and why some have no problems on new presentations but later they are bad. This is not a printer driver issue. This is not because you are editing existing files. This is not a backgrounds issue - this is an issue with the preview thumbnail pane.

I don't know what it is actually called but it is the little pane on the left side that shows you the thumbnail view of all of your slides. If you close this pane then you will have slow keyboard response. If you have it open then everything works fine. This was not a problem in previous versions of PowerPoint so this is clearly some stupid enhancement the idiot developers caused in the new version.

Again, open and keep open the preview/thumbnail view of slides and you will be able to type fast, without a delay. If you hide it, then you will have slow performance. This is why people don't see the problem on new presentations because that typically opens with the thumbnail pane open and so it looks like you are typing fine. But then when people use existing presentations where most people hide that thumbnail panel, it looks like you have slow performance.

I can't find anywhere on Micro$ucks site on how to tell them to fix this so this is the only place I can post. They are total idiots that don't every check their products before they roll them out so I'm not surprised by this. The quality control is awful. Try making a graphics slide that has a bunch of lines/text/shapes/etc and then do a select all and group it and then try to copy/paste that selection to another slide and you will sometimes see the text all messed up, or lines out-of-place. This was not an issue in previous PowerPoints but 2010 screwed up a lot of stuff and stuff that should have easily been checked by beta testers because they are fundamental to the product. PATHETIC.

• Proposed as answer by rdalmau Wednesday, March 12, 2014 1:44 PM
• Unproposed as answer by rdalmau Wednesday, March 12, 2014 1:44 PM

Z-Night might be right, but it only worked for me if I made the left pane Outline View, not Slides view.

This is a very strange problem. It seems like a combination of turning the slide preview panel on, using slides or outline, and changing the default printer will improve the problem with slow typing. Sometimes I just need to do one of the above, sometimes I have to do multiple actions to get it to go away. There is definitely some kind of software bug related to the preview panel and the printer driver.

Microsoft needs to do an update to fix this problem.

The outline view worked for me, too. Slide view, however, did not. What an increase in speed. Microsoft, please update and fix this!!!

I just was able to resolve this type of issue for my case. I was able to keep almost my entire background.

Issue:
Powerpoint 2010 cannot display typed characters at normal typing speed. (up to 1 second delay)
Slide transitions take about 0.5 to 1 second.

Cause: Slide Master contained a small graphic that caused slow response.

Resolution:View Menu -> Slide master
From slide 1, delete graphic.
View Menu -> Normal

System: Windows 7 64-bit (issue did not occur with Powerpoint 2010 on Windows XP, same file)

You may have to try deleting a few different items before finding the culprit.

I found that just hiding the background will work, in case you want to keep the background graphic (i.e., a corporate template) but also stay sane while preparing the presentation.

In Slide Master view, select all slides except the overall master.  Then tick the box "Hide Background Graphics".  After you have finished preparing the presentation, go back to the Master view, select the same slides again, and un-tick the same box.  Voila, your background is still there and you didn't have to shoot your computer during the process.

BTW, the background causing my problem is a gradient graphic.  Going to outline view in the left pane also worked for me instead.  I did not try the printer driver solution.

Let me add one more thing...some people suggest it is not necessarily having "Slide View" open but instead having the "Outline View" left side panel open...actually you may be correct and you may be not. I've done some more testing and it seems to me that there is a sweet spot for how WIDE that side panel must be. The outline view typically opens wider than a slide view and so that is why you may have seen better performance that using the slide view tab...in either case, just open it wide enough, say at least an inch or two and then the typing performance will be fixed within the main edit window.

The sad thing is that we shouldn't have to do this...PowerPoint was such a good product but now they've done such shabby coding that I'm surprised there aren't more complaints. The slow typing is one thing but the fact that copy/paste doesn't work correctly anymore or that trying to draw lines now forces the line to try to attach itself to other items in the view!!!! Micro$uck, get your butt in gear and fix this crap.

• Edited by Z-Knight Tuesday, August 05, 2014 2:43 PM poor wording.

PowerPoint program is responding but the text entry is very slow, then here is what you can do.

1.  Go to the Tools option
2.  Click the Spelling and Style tab
3.  Remove the checkmark next to Check spelling as you type
4.  Click OK, quit and then restart PowerPoint

• Proposed as answer by Nency Willims Thursday, November 27, 2014 6:05 AM
• Unproposed as answer by Nency Willims Thursday, November 27, 2014 6:05 AM

I had the same problem,

Tried all the above suggestions with no avail.

I happened to have behind the master slide image a background a gradient fill .

Removed it and Power point typing was back to normal.

Hope this helps