In an attempt to make typing appear smoother in Office 2013, the Microsoft dev team included a default typing animation. If you’re a slow typist, then you probably won’t notice it. However if you type at a rapid pace in the upwards of 80+ Words per minute, then the animation can be really distracting. Instead of smoothing typing at a rapid pace, the animation causes the cursor to lag behind letters as they are typed. Check out this video below for an example.
To disable the typing animation in Office 2013, it requires a registry fix. You can apply the pre-made fix in the download below, or manually create your own.
The quick way
Download the pre-made disable registry fix, extract it, and apply it. Restart all of Office 2013 for changes to take effect. Some users may have to restart their PC to see changes.
To re-enable the animation, apply this pre-made enable registry fix.
The manual way
On the computer you have Office 2013 installed on, open registry editor. In Windows 7 or 8 this is done by searching for regedit in the Start Menu.
Browse to the following registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common
Right-click on the Common directory and then select New >> Key.
Name the new key: Graphics
Select the key Graphics directory and then right-click it or the blank area to the right and select New >> DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name the new DWORD: DisableAnimation
And then double-click it and set its value to 1, hexadecimal.
Once you have that set you wan exit out of registry editor. You may have to restart Office 2013 and/or your computer to see the changes take effect. If you want to re-enable the animation later on just change the value of the DisableAnimation DWORD to 0.
Austin, you just need to buy a faster computer! I love the animation in Office 2013. One of my fav features!
Hey, it’s not just me. I’ll admit Microsoft has improved it in a recent update, but I still notice it. My computer is plenty fast too!
Here’s another person experiencing the laggy cursor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck9Puso8crQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Yeah yeah yeah….
I refuse to watch the propaganda from Youtube! (just kidding).
-S
Any word on whether this is fixed in RTM, anyone? I’m finding it a lot faster in the most recent preview (right before RTM) but maybe I’m just not typing fast enough to see it. In addition, in my preview the File menu lags on opening every time…on a quad core i7 x64 machine. Is that fixed in RTM as well?
No idea what RTM means.
RTM = Release To Manufacturer
Manufacturer = Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc..
It’s the first version released to the public on a massive pre-deployed scale.
I type 100+wpm and when I type my usual essays, this becomes a very annoying part of life. I don’t want to disable the animations, though. I guess I’ll just live with the lag.
HI @Kelvin — are you finding it to really slow you down with the animations?
Still notice it and my computer almost hits the wall on WEI.
8-Core and dual GPU
Just tried Word 2013. I tried typing randomly as fast as I could, and the cursor kept up just fine…
I actually really like this new animation feature.
So do I
One of my favorite feature of Office 2013 so far hehehe
you’re KIDDING, it has to be a registry fix? oh well, at least it’s fixable, sheesh!
@mrgroove:disqus – I am using this on a maxxed out retina macbok pro with 16GB ram and top i7 cpu and windows 8 x64 and office x64. i noticed it immedietaly. the cursor while typing is not too bad (though i still don’t like it), but it’s the cursor jumping when arrowing up and down through lines that gets me. especially if the cursor jumps from beginning of line in one line, to somewhere else in the other line (like 10 characters in). it REALLY lags and makes it seem slower! maybe it actually is slower. i’ve ALWAYS (in the end) hated fancy windows animations and always turned them off. i just want to get stuff done in windows (or anywhere), i get more pleasure from it instantly popping up rather than going ‘wee, shadow/transparency effect/computer animation’
anyway thanks for the great article and fix.
Yeah you bet. Those new MB Pro’s are a sweet system. Why you running Windows on it?
I’ve got a MB Air and I personally only run Windows on it (via Citrix) in order to get the Windows Version of Office on it. Just cant stand Office 2011 for MAC. Can’t wait until the Office team brings feature parity to both platforms.
Well all my life I’ve been a windows junkie (you know, the lifehacker tweaks-craving, registry-modifying, windows explorer-organizing, taskbar ui-hacking type), and a heavy user of much specialized windows-only software, in certain fields, so I’m still attached to it and used to it, but recently weaned myself off outlook and moved to all-google apps for my email and calender/tasks life (since having upgraded to android from windows mobile, the convenience of synced gmail is just too good and it’s now powerful enough for me if you enable all those lab features), and I might consider going to the mac eventually (which is saying a lot for someone like me), but might wait to see what MS do with Windows 9 first. And yes word is my main word processor, and I really like word, so I’ll just have to see in time what is most superior for me when I weigh up the pros and cons
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Note: In Office 2013 RTM the key needs to be “DisableAnimations” (plural)
You need to change the registry DWORD key to be “DisableAnimations” NOT “DisableAnimation”
Thanks, Jonathan. I’d wondered why it made no difference the first time around!
I’m so pleased to get rid of the typing animation. I touch type, and so watching the cursor so out of sync with my typing was actually making me feel ill and headachy. OK, so maybe I’m an oversensitive soul, but I don’t want my work to make me ill.
Thanks. Just one of the many annoyances that destroy usability in Windows 8 and Office 2013. When I first noticed this animation I got the urge to bang my head against a wall. I might be great for the average slow user, but I find it extremely distracting when the program can’t keep up with my typing. What was Microsoft even thinking?
Thank you a God lot!
You don’t need to hack the registry:
http://blog.jussipalo.com/2012/08/office-2013-disable-cursor-animation.html
Great fix, thanks!
I am a freelance editor paid by the word. This was costing me MONEY.
I do not understand how the animation could be such a tax on my system though (ntel i7, 12 Gb ram, Sli-linked video cards for gaming). No other programs show any performance problems.
Thanks again.
Thanks!
I couldn’t believe this when I installed 2013! …. Totally nuts