Easy Q, I think;

2.6 GHz, 512 RAM, 7200rpm drives, WinXP Pro SP2+ Word 2002 both
updated to current fixes.

As my document reached about 200 pages, it began to slow down
response-wise. No problem, not a big surprise since I have a lot
of graphics, although they are sized for presentation in a
document and most used without having to resize. A very few are
displayed landscape as whole-page docs.

When speed began to bug me, thanks to this group, I separated the
doc into two, then three, etc., and now have it in 5 logical
pieces; easy to work on.
Periodically I archive and then put it all together as one doc
to check the TOC and Outline sensibility and go from there.
About all I've done in Outline View is promot/demote a couple of
headings here and there; not much moving around as I started from
the Outline. Most work was done in Print Layout View.

One of the 5 parts is heavy with JPEG graphics, so I turned on
Picture Placeholders to speed things up a bit. At first it
didn't seem to work, but then I noticed it was sort of working -
some pics were placeholders and others were not. There's no
relation to insert time or version etc. that I can tell. Most
graphics simply are still there.
This seems to be a permanent situation and not file
dependent.
Also, after each time things do slow down, the loss of speed
remains after I close Word. I have to actually do a Restart to
get things back to "normal".

I was wondering if, in those of you who have experienced anything
like this, whether it boils down to:
- page file (1 Gig, on separate physical drive)
- Word corruption
- OS corruption
- ???

So far I've tired a Word Detect and Repair but only just now
thought about the page file.
Where else would you think would make sense to check?

TIA,

PopS