Hello,
The files contained in your project file can be stored externally via "Home" > "External Files" > "Store Documents in Folder for External Files" under MAXQDA 2022. If you click this button, all of the documents that you have imported into your project file will be moved to the folder that is designated to store your external data, by default that is Documents/MAXQDA_Externals. Do you see this button?
If you are experiencing performance issues with a Word document, please make sure to install the latest update of MAXQDA as recent updates contain many improvements regarding the processing of Word documents. In case you are still experiencing issues, please try the following: open the Word file in MS Word and save it as an .rtf file. Using the .rtf files you should not be experiencing performance issues.
We hope this helps!
All the best on behalf of the MAXQDA team
Alex