Cannot quit Word -- must Force Quit!

[greggsewell]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I've just updated in hope of 12.1.2 fixing my problem, but, alas, it did not.

I open Word 2008.

Work on files or not.

When I quit, this dialog appears.

A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Norma.dotm)

Clicking OK results in a Save dialog.

In the Save As field there is this text:

Normal.dotm

in the Format dropdown menu: Word Macro-Enabled Template (.dotm)

I have:

1. Saved a file named Normal.dotm in these places:

a. User > Library > Application Support >
Microsoft > User Templates > My templates

b. User > Documents > Microsoft User Data

c. Hard Drive > Applications > Microsoft Office 2008

d. Hard Drive > Applications > Microsoft Office 2008 >
Office

2. I have changed the Format to Word Template (.dotx) and saved the file named Normal.dotx in all four of the above places.

3. I have searched my hard drive for anything named Normal.dot, Normal.dotm, and Normal.dotx and renamed them all with the prefix OLD on the filename.

a. I restarted Word.

b. Word creates a new Normal template.

4. Quitting yields the same error message above.

Any help will of course be appreciated.

Btw, if you're a newbie and reading this, the guys and gals on this forum are superb. (And they know a heck-of-a-lot about Word, too! ^__^)

Gregg

 

[greggsewell]

Two more things to add:

My hard drive has a formatted capacity of 279 GB.

177 GB are free.

I am not on a network. This is my home computer -- the only one in the house.

Hooked to this computer are:

Keyboard
Mouse
MIDI connector > MIDI keyboard
Speakers
Inkjet printer
USB hub
Cable modem

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Gregg -

When's the last time you repaired permissions?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Greg:

There's your problem!! Right there

There needs to be only ONE instance of Normal.dotm on your system. And it
needs to be in the location indicated by Word>Preferences>File
Locations>User Templates. (In other words, it can be anywhere on any disk,
provided it is where "User Templates" says it is, because the file at that
location is the one that Word will use.)

If you had a file in that location, AND a file of the same name in "Hard
Drive > Applications > Microsoft Office 2008", you could create a deadlock,
which would result in exactly this problem.

You need to check that location to make sure that you can delete the
Normal.dotm that is in there. That file may have corrupted, in which case,
Word can't write to it, which is what it is complaining about. Word must be
quit when you do that, otherwise it will simply write the bad one back to
disk from memory when it quits.

You should also search your machine for files named "normal.dot" and remove
them all. Because if there are any, Word will find them, and attempt to
import settings from them when it creates the new Normal.dotm. Those
settings may be the cause of this problem.

That should sort it: come back if it doesn't.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I've just updated in hope of 12.1.2 fixing my problem, but, alas, it did not.

I open Word 2008.

Work on files or not.

When I quit, this dialog appears.

A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the
disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Norma.dotm)

Clicking OK results in a Save dialog.

In the Save As field there is this text:

Normal.dotm

in the Format dropdown menu: Word Macro-Enabled Template (.dotm)

I have:

1. Saved a file named Normal.dotm in these places:

a. User > Library > Application Support >
Microsoft > User Templates > My templates

b. User > Documents > Microsoft User Data

c. Hard Drive > Applications > Microsoft Office 2008

d. Hard Drive > Applications > Microsoft Office 2008 >
Office

2. I have changed the Format to Word Template (.dotx) and saved the file named
Normal.dotx in all four of the above places.

3. I have searched my hard drive for anything named Normal.dot, Normal.dotm,
and Normal.dotx and renamed them all with the prefix OLD on the filename.

a. I restarted Word.

b. Word creates a new Normal template.

4. Quitting yields the same error message above.

Any help will of course be appreciated.

Btw, if you're a newbie and reading this, the guys and gals on this forum are
superb. (And they know a heck-of-a-lot about Word, too! ^__^)

Gregg

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[greggsewell]

Bob:

Permissions were repaired about a month ago, but that was in response to this problem. When that didn't improve the situation, I moved on.

John:

The last thing I did yesterday was to search for files named Normal.xxx and trash them all.

A reboot of Word resulted in a new Normal template, but the problem was still there when I quit.

Odd, isn't it?

 

[CyberTaz]

Try running Word from a different user account... It's sounding to me as
though there is something about your account permissions or permissions for
that folder that are preventing Word from writing to the file.

As for repairing permissions: That's a procedure that needs to be done any &
every time you update OS X or any of your applications or install new
software. If you haven't repaired permissions since applying the 12.1.2
update I'd suggest you do that first, then restart your Mac.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[John McGhie]

Yes, my thought is the same as Bob's.

If the test Bob recommends brings it right, do this:

1) Quit all Microsoft applications.

2) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension.

3) Find and drag the file Normal.dotm to your desktop. Unless you have
moved it, it should be in
/Users/ ~ /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

4) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)

User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist

User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 (the whole folder!)

5) Now re-start Word 2008 and it should be OK.

Yes, you DO have to trash Normal again, because if the Prefs were bad, the
bad information has now been stored in Normal.

Be thorough with this, if you leave any of these files behind Word 2008 will
find them and won't replace them. Do it right and Word will construct a
new, clean, set of preferences and everything should now work.


Hope this helps

Try running Word from a different user account... It's sounding to me as
though there is something about your account permissions or permissions for
that folder that are preventing Word from writing to the file.

As for repairing permissions: That's a procedure that needs to be done any &
every time you update OS X or any of your applications or install new
software. If you haven't repaired permissions since applying the 12.1.2
update I'd suggest you do that first, then restart your Mac.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[greggsewell]

Thank you Bob and John (Bob and Ray?*). I'll take your advice and let you know what happens.

* Am I the only one who remembers these guys? (Suddenly has a desire for some Monongahela steel ingots....)

 

[John McGhie]

Yes Who were they?

Thank you Bob and John (Bob and Ray?*). I'll take your advice and let you know
what happens.

* Am I the only one who remembers these guys? (Suddenly has a desire for some
Monongahela steel ingots....)

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

If you don't live in the souther US you might not.

In the Central Atlantic States on South the are two Radio personalties
that do comedy while playing various tunes on the radio. The do there
routines between songs. Many Radio Stations Pop and Country Contract
with the providers. They are on usually in mornings and for about a
two-three hour period. There Style is reminiscent of Martin and Lewis,
or Abbott and Costello.

Yes Who were they?

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[John McGhie]

Thank you Phillip:

Um, "no" I do not live in the Southern USA

"Most" of the members of this group live in countries where they speak
English. But not all: there are several Americans here...

Cheers

If you don't live in the souther US you might not.

In the Central Atlantic States on South the are two Radio personalties
that do comedy while playing various tunes on the radio. The do there
routines between songs. Many Radio Stations Pop and Country Contract
with the providers. They are on usually in mornings and for about a
two-three hour period. There Style is reminiscent of Martin and Lewis,
or Abbott and Costello.

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Phillip Jones]

Harr, Harr! (a type of laugh). :-D

Thank you Phillip:

Um, "no" I do not live in the Southern USA

"Most" of the members of this group live in countries where they speak
English. But not all: there are several Americans here...

Cheers

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillip M. Jones, CET |LIFE MEMBER: VPEA ETA-I, NESDA, ISCET, Sterling
616 Liberty Street |Who's Who. PHONE:276-632-5045, FAX:276-632-0868
Martinsville Va 24112 |[email protected], ICQ11269732, AIM pjonescet
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it's "fixed", don't "break it"!

mailto[email protected]

<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/90th_Birthday/index.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Fulcher/default.html>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Harris/default.htm>
<http://www.kimbanet.com/~pjones/Jones/default.htm>

<http://www.vpea.org>

 

[greggsewell]

Bob and John, I apologize for taking so long to get back around to this problem, but your suggestions worked.

Thank you so much for your patience.

And as to Bob and Ray, here's a link to a streaming feed that will open in iTunes (it's for Macs).

<http://rf1.streamguys.net/content/br_nts.m3u>

The Windows version is here:

<http://rf1.streamguys.net/content/br_nts.wma>

It's a four-minute clip from one of their live shows -- quite representative of the humor that was uproarious in the 1950s, but not so much today.

 

[John McGhie]

Why thank you Greg

Bob and John, I apologize for taking so long to get back around to this
problem, but your suggestions worked.

Thank you so much for your patience.

And as to Bob and Ray, here's a link to a streaming feed that will open in
iTunes (it's for Macs).

<http://rf1.streamguys.net/content/br_nts.m3u>

The Windows version is here:

<http://rf1.streamguys.net/content/br_nts.wma>

It's a four-minute clip from one of their live shows -- quite representative
of the humor that was uproarious in the 1950s, but not so much today.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[greggsewell]

Clive,

Sorry you've been under the weather, but glad this cheered you a bit. Bob and Ray were quite a fixture in the Southeastern U. S. in days gone by....

The Thurber Letters -- yes, quite fun to read.

gregg