Why is scrolling so laggy in Word?

Laggy scrolling is usually caused by complex page layouts, many images, hardware graphics acceleration issues, or the document being in Print Layout view which renders everything at print quality.

Fix: Laggy Scrolling in Microsoft Word

Fixing Laggy Scrolling

Smooth scrolling makes a big difference in your editing experience. Here’s how to fix it when it becomes choppy or unresponsive.

Step-by-Step Fix

Step 1: Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration

This is the most common fix:

Go to File > Options > Advanced
Scroll to Display
Check Disable hardware graphics acceleration
Click OK and restart Word

Step 2: Switch to Draft View

Go to View > Draft
Scrolling should be immediately smoother
Images show as placeholders, reducing rendering load

Go to View and uncheck Navigation Pane
The navigation pane continuously processes the document structure

Step 4: Disable Subpixel Positioning

Go to File > Options > Advanced
Scroll to Display
Uncheck Use subpixel positioning to smooth fonts on screen

Step 5: Update Graphics Drivers

Open Device Manager
Expand Display adapters
Right-click your graphics card > Update driver
Select Search automatically

For Multi-Monitor Users

If laggy on a secondary monitor, the issue is often the graphics driver handling different DPI displays. Try running Word on your primary monitor or matching display scaling settings across monitors.