If you have a PC, chances are that one of the programs you run most frequently is Microsoft Office. This is the suite of common workplace applications, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, that are used by many businesses. But, if your Microsoft Office is running slower than usual, your documents aren't opening correctly or it's crashing unexpectedly (most later versions will save your work automatically, but it's still disrupting), there may be a couple of at-home solutions you can try out before seeking professional computer repair.

• Turn off automatic calculations in Excel. Doing so should speed up your actions within the program significantly, particularly if you have lengthy, complicated spreadsheets, according to PCWorld. But remember that after you switch to manual, you'll have to hit save before the program calculations the latest solutions. To turn off automatic calculations, click File and then Options. Within the Options tab, click on Formulas and change the Workbook Calculations to Manual.

• Use an older version of PowerPoint. If you have a newer version of Office, your PowerPoint presentations will automatically save as .pptx, but if other computers don't have that version, it won't open. This happens occasionally with a Microsoft .docx word document, as well. It may be a good idea to just save them all as .ppt, so click File, then Options and select Save. Under "Save files in this format," select the 97-2003 version.

• Try out MS Diagnostics. If you have Microsoft Office 2007 or later, MS Diagnostics is a helpful tool that scans the program to detect and diagnose the problem for itself. Simply click Microsoft Office Tools, then select MS Diagnostics. A new screen will pop up, so follow the prompts until the scan is finished, and it will display the results for you. If the issue is too complicated for you to fix yourself, you might just want to contact a local Maryland computer repair service.