Can't start word 2008!

[Daan]

Hi there,
I have a big big problem with word. It simply cannot open.
It gives me the following messages:
1. "you are working without a word work file and memory is nearly full. Save your work"
2. In the background there's another box which says "opening document elements.dotx"

If I click on 'ok' in message box 1. then the last message appears, saying: "word cannot open this document template document elements.dotx"
After that word hangs and I have to 'force/quit' it.

The odd thing is that no normal.dotm file is created in de ~/lbrary/application support/microsoft/office/ folder

The following things I already tried:
- throw away the templates in the application support folder
- throw away the ....word.plist file
- repaired permissions several times
- restarted the computer
- removed office 2008 and by hand removed every file which were left (library files, user data, etc)
- reinstalled office 2008

My system is 10.5.2 and I'm on a macbook pro 2.0 ghz early 2006 edition

I don't know anything more to do. This is my last resort after which I'm afraid I would have to throw out this piece of software. Bit expensive though, ain't it?

Many thanks in advance.
Daan van Dooren

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Daan -

The message you refer to in #1 suggests you may be low on free disk space &
perhaps RAM as well... Leopard & Office 2008 consume a lot of both. If your
HD isn't at least 20% free (assuming you still have the original 100 GB
drive that shipped with that model) that may be the problem. Also, the stock
1 GB RAM "should" be enough - but just barely - as long as you don't have
any other processes/applications active when you attempt to launch.

BTW: The background message )#2) is normal - that's a file that Word
accesses to populate the new Elements Gallery. It sounds like you may be too
short on system resources for that file to load effectively.

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

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Daan:

Bob's correct, Word is right out of memory. However, I think that is
because it can't write to some of the folders it needs to, and so is
clagging up in RAM.

The first thing I would suggest is to create a folder on the desktop and
drag ALL of the contents of the Microsoft User Data folder to it, then start
Entourage.

All things being well, Entourage will create a new database.

This error can result if Word cannot read the Microsoft Database properly
because it has been damaged.

If that does not fix the problem, the following article may help:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106712

Cheers

Hi there,
I have a big big problem with word. It simply cannot open.
It gives me the following messages:
1. "you are working without a word work file and memory is nearly full. Save
your work"
2. In the background there's another box which says "opening document
elements.dotx"

If I click on 'ok' in message box 1. then the last message appears, saying:
"word cannot open this document template document elements.dotx"
After that word hangs and I have to 'force/quit' it.

The odd thing is that no normal.dotm file is created in de
~/lbrary/application support/microsoft/office/ folder

The following things I already tried:
- throw away the templates in the application support folder
- throw away the ....word.plist file
- repaired permissions several times
- restarted the computer
- removed office 2008 and by hand removed every file which were left (library
files, user data, etc)
- reinstalled office 2008

My system is 10.5.2 and I'm on a macbook pro 2.0 ghz early 2006 edition

I don't know anything more to do. This is my last resort after which I'm
afraid I would have to throw out this piece of software. Bit expensive though,
ain't it?

Many thanks in advance.
Daan van Dooren

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

FYI: In other posts quoting the EXACT SAME error messsages, newsgroup
posters have reported that Repairing Permissions solved the problem. Use
the system Disk Utility program. Another person reported here that using
the utility AppleJack in single user moder for a more extensive system
repair solved it.
http://www.officeformac.com/ProductForums/Word/777

But your Word 2008 seems to have other problems than just these error
messages, so it may not fix your issue.

 

[Daan]

Thanks for all for your reactions. It remains unsolved.
The strange thing remains that under another account Word does work....

@CyberTaz: I do have enough diskspace (90 GB left) and have 2 gigs of ram. Nothing running further. So that shouldn't be the problem.

@ John: I tried this solution. moved the files and folders you suggested. Started entourage. Configured it and afterwards closed and started word. No improvement.

@Daiya: Yes, I was aware of that post. But Applejack doesn't work with 10.5 Lepoard. So.... And as I stated earlier on I did repair my disk permissions with disk utility, I tried the whole thing with cocktail, etc.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dan:

OK. The error comes because the installer has set the wrong Unix ID
(usually, 502) on one or more of the folders, and you are no longer logged
in as 502.

You could cruise the Apple forums for more hints: this is all we have here.
The problem is: Word can't write to disk, normally due to a permissions
error. The Entourage database tip was a long-shot :-(

Cheers

Thanks for all for your reactions. It remains unsolved.
The strange thing remains that under another account Word does work....

@CyberTaz: I do have enough diskspace (90 GB left) and have 2 gigs of ram.
Nothing running further. So that shouldn't be the problem.

@ John: I tried this solution. moved the files and folders you suggested.
Started entourage. Configured it and afterwards closed and started word. No
improvement.

@Daiya: Yes, I was aware of that post. But Applejack doesn't work with 10.5
Lepoard. So.... And as I stated earlier on I did repair my disk permissions
with disk utility, I tried the whole thing with cocktail, etc.

--
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, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia

 

[mintymiller]

I have the same problem here and like one of the poster's above,
configuring a new account and launching Word while logged into that
account completely solves it. I'm pretty sure that this is indeed a
local user's permissions problem, but not one that's fixed by Disk
Utility! Looks like the simplest way to solve it will be an archive
and reinstall of OSX, but without keeping user preferences. I'm going
to try this and will report back.

 

[mintymiller]

OK, so I archived and reinstalled 10.5 using the save my personal
settings preference as I didn't fancy spending hours reconfiguring
software just because Word 2008 won't start. I then updated to 10.5.2
and fixed permissions again. The I launched and to my delight, the
stupid 'out of memory and other resources' has gone and Word starts up
normally. However, when I quit, I get the 'normal.dotm' error that my
disc isn't installed properly or is otherwise faulty, which it isn't.
MS then politely takes over the task for me and crashes before asking
if I want to send a report to MS who by now must have hundreds of such
reports, so I spare them yet another. A Spotlight search fails to find
a 'normal.dotm' file anywhere for me to trash, so presumably Word
still can't write one. So I use the uninstall utility to trash Office,
then reinstall it and update it to 12.0.1 and try again. No change.

So I now have a working installation of Office (all other applications
function as they should) but although I can use Word, it falls over
when I quit (although it still saves the file) because of a
'normal.dotm' problem. I have no clue how to fix that.

 

[John McGhie]

If you keep replying to other's posts instead of starting your own, we do
not get the software and system version information we need to answer the
question.

Simplistically, the problems you have have nothing to do with the Office
2008 software. They are all due to the "settings" that it runs with.

By choosing to save and restore your personal settings, you saved and
restored your bugs

For other people reading along: stay away from Archive and Install unless
you know you need it. It's very destructive: you can lose a whole day
putting things back together, and it is almost never "needed" to solve a
Microsoft Office problem.

This procedure is normally all you need: Do this now, and with luck it
should come right (although your system is in a slightly uncertain state
currently, so we may have to go to plan B). Do this: it's the best way to
find out...

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.

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

OK, so I archived and reinstalled 10.5 using the save my personal
settings preference as I didn't fancy spending hours reconfiguring
software just because Word 2008 won't start. I then updated to 10.5.2
and fixed permissions again. The I launched and to my delight, the
stupid 'out of memory and other resources' has gone and Word starts up
normally. However, when I quit, I get the 'normal.dotm' error that my
disc isn't installed properly or is otherwise faulty, which it isn't.
MS then politely takes over the task for me and crashes before asking
if I want to send a report to MS who by now must have hundreds of such
reports, so I spare them yet another. A Spotlight search fails to find
a 'normal.dotm' file anywhere for me to trash, so presumably Word
still can't write one. So I use the uninstall utility to trash Office,
then reinstall it and update it to 12.0.1 and try again. No change.

So I now have a working installation of Office (all other applications
function as they should) but although I can use Word, it falls over
when I quit (although it still saves the file) because of a
'normal.dotm' problem. I have no clue how to fix that.

--
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]