The window that appears when you wish to open or save a document on Word is
running very slowly on my computer. Specifically, when I click on the pull
down list with all my files and folders it pauses for about 30 seconds before
responding. Furthermore, every time I click to open another folder, it pauses
again for about the same amount of time.
Restarting the computer did not solve the problem and the problem does seem
to affect other word processors like wordpad.
Does anyone know how to fix this?

Slight correction:

The problem does NOT seem to affect other word processors like wordpad

Right-click on the My Computer icon on the Windows desktop,
left-click on Disconnect Network Drive, and disconnect any mapped
drives that are not currently available.

JD wrote:
The window that appears when you wish to open or save a document on Word is
running very slowly on my computer. Specifically, when I click on the pull
down list with all my files and folders it pauses for about 30 seconds before
responding. Furthermore, every time I click to open another folder, it pauses
again for about the same amount of time.
Restarting the computer did not solve the problem and the problem does seem
to affect other word processors like wordpad.
Does anyone know how to fix this?