Have you run all the available updates?

Found in the meny Help > Updates

Don't Know what the tech guy has tried. Will mention it to him. But seriously, right out of the box that crunchy?

Yeas, that seems strange. We had no such experiences when updating to InDesign CS2 some time ago.

You don‘t need no tech guy to do the updates, they are automatically done from InDesign, and these updates are always good to do, sometimes it helps a lot, since it could be small bug fixes etc.

When I think of it, I always do these updates right away, maybe that’s why I didnt experience any problems...?

Everything is updated as far as I can tell. it's on version 4.0.4. Now were having books and files disappear.

More information needed: which OS X-version? How much memory on the machines? Networked? Off at night or not?

In general: after installing progs one should run Apples Disk Utility:First Aid (resetting privileges).
Regelar maintanace is built in, providing the machines are on at night; otherwise run a tool like Onyx, at least once a week.

Common way to test whether the slugginess is user– or machinerelated, is to set up a new user and try InDesign under that account.

Eric, I've had good success with using the Adobe Forums (Indesign) before. I am using an old G4 tower and InDesign CS2 had no problems here.