"Corrupt" fonts in Word

[Carol R]

When I open Word 2004 (11.2) I get a window that says "(name of font)
is corrupt and should be removed". In order to finally open Word I have
to say "Yes". I get this window for almost all of the fonts (including
some system fonts) on my computer! I have run most of these fonts
through FontDoctor and they are fine. They work fine in every other
application, but Word has removed them from the font drop down menu.
this is making me crazy!

any suggestions/solutions!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

When I open Word 2004 (11.2) I get a window that says "(name of font)
is corrupt and should be removed". In order to finally open Word I have
to say "Yes". I get this window for almost all of the fonts (including
some system fonts) on my computer! I have run most of these fonts
through FontDoctor and they are fine. They work fine in every other
application, but Word has removed them from the font drop down menu.
this is making me crazy!

Quit all Office apps, go to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ and trash
the Office Font cache from there. When you re-launch Word, it will
rebuild it and if all the fonts are OK (which they probably are)
everything should be fine then

Corentin

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Carol:

My main suggestion is "wait a little longer". There's a fix in the pipeline
for this. Below is the best we have of things you can try. Please be aware
that they may not work at all for you: we're really waiting for
Apple/Microsoft patches to fix this one.

In the meantime, it appears to be caused by a problem in the Apple system
font cache (or with Word's ability to read what is in there). Font Finagler
http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fontfinagler/ seems to be the application
of choice for resolving this issue. Then follow the advice below to remove
both font caches, because the Microsoft one is built from the System font
cache.

Beth Rosengard is our resident collector of knowledge on this issue: She
recently posted:

To the best of my recollection, there was no ultimate solution for this
problem but here¹s what seemed to help many:

1. Be sure you have both Office and your OS fully updated. See here for
more: http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Update.html

2. Make absolutely sure there are no duplicate fonts. Use Font Book or a
third part application to resolve duplicates.

3. If you need the OS 9 fonts, keep only the necessary ones. If you don't
need them, rename or delete the OS 9 fonts folder.

4. Trash both the Office and System font caches as follows:

Office Font Cache: ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font Cache (11)

Com.apple.ATS.plist (Home/Library/Prefs)
Com.apple.ATS (/Library/Caches)
FontTablesAnnex ( /System/Library/Caches)
All other files whose names include .ATS or font found in
/System/Library/Caches, especially com.apple.ATS.System.fcache and
com.apple.ATSServer.FODB_System

After dragging the caches to the trash, log out, reboot and *then* empty the
trash.

Note: Do not trash the Font Cache Tool.

Hope this helps

When I open Word 2004 (11.2) I get a window that says "(name of font)
is corrupt and should be removed". In order to finally open Word I have
to say "Yes". I get this window for almost all of the fonts (including
some system fonts) on my computer! I have run most of these fonts
through FontDoctor and they are fine. They work fine in every other
application, but Word has removed them from the font drop down menu.
this is making me crazy!

any suggestions/solutions!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

In the meantime, it appears to be caused by a problem in the Apple system
font cache (or with Word's ability to read what is in there). Font Finagler
http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fontfinagler/ seems to be the application
of choice for resolving this issue.

FontFinagler is a shareware that does nothing more than just trashing
the System and User cache file.
Alternatively, you can use Onyx:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
(free) which will also alternatively perform a bunch of other
maintenance operations for you (including repairing Permissions).

Since I'm not sure either app really *require* that you reboot after
they've trashed the cache files, I would deeply emphasize that you HAVE
to: right after they've trashed them.

In any case, as I was saying, both these apps simply do what's described
further down your post and trash the System and User cache:

Com.apple.ATS.plist (Home/Library/Prefs)
Com.apple.ATS (/Library/Caches)
FontTablesAnnex ( /System/Library/Caches)
All other files whose names include .ATS or font found in
/System/Library/Caches, especially com.apple.ATS.System.fcache and
com.apple.ATSServer.FODB_System

Corruptions of these cache files are not so common though. Most of the
time, it's the Office Font cache that's corrupted,


Corentin

 

[Carol R]

Thank you all. I already tried trashing the Microsoft office font Cache
- to no avail. I will try John's suggestion next. I hope it works.
Thanks!

Carol

 

[Carol R]

Since I happened to have OnyX I tried that app - and it worked!!

Tank you, thank you.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Since I happened to have OnyX I tried that app - and it worked!!

Tank you, thank you.

I'm really glad it corrected the problem for you. Onyx is a nice an
useful app to keep around.

Corentin

 

[Brian Crussel]

I have tried everything mention in this thread to no avail. Still over
1/2 of all my fonts (which work in every other application) come up as
corrupt. Font book has them OK and no dupes. Onyx has been run and so
has Fontfinagler. OS 10.4.5, Latest Office 2004, Mac G5 Quad 2.5,
4.5GB Ram

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I have tried everything mention in this thread to no avail. Still over
1/2 of all my fonts (which work in every other application) come up as
corrupt. Font book has them OK and no dupes. Onyx has been run and so
has Fontfinagler. OS 10.4.5, Latest Office 2004, Mac G5 Quad 2.5,
4.5GB Ram

Have you also trashed the Office font cache from the
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft folder ??

Corentin

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Brian,

You *could* try removing and reinstalling Office from scratch though it may
not be any help. If you decide to try this, you must use the Office Removal
tool. The step-by-step is here:
<http://word.mvps.org/Mac/RemoveReinstall.html>

You could also try creating a new user. That *might* make a difference.

This 'corrupt fonts' issue is nasty and unpredictable. It only hits a small
percentage of Office users and no one can reproduce it consistently. That
makes it very hard to pin down and fix.

Sorry not to be of more help.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Brian Crussel]

Beth-
I have already tried both of these with no success. Does anyone have a
fix?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

On a different thread, someone said that deleting the Font Cache Tool worked
for them.

I have not tracked the intricacies of this problem to figure out why this
deleting it is advised against, but it is, so use at your own risk.

Slightly more info--see the posts by Loren on this thread:
<http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office/browse_frm/threa
d/bb5ad97e88528de2/d8c4831806c938c1>

 

[Brian Crussel]

OK I' am up and working. I got rid of the FontCacheTool. Fonts are
not in their own type style, but I'm up and working.

 

[Brian Crussel]

OK I' am up and working. I got rid of the FontCacheTool. Fonts are
not in their own type style, but I'm up and working.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Here are the problems with deleting the Font Cache Tool:

1. If you like to view fonts as WYSIWYG and you ever (again) have to trash
your Office Font Cache, you will lose WYSIWYG display.

2. Not only will you not get *false* corrupt font error messages, but you
won't get *real* ones either.

3. The only way to get the Font Cache Tool back is by reinstalling Office.

None of these is fatal, but they could be problematic.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[j.bingham]

I would love to have WYSIWYG fonts in Word / Excel, but need to
actually be able to open the apps even more. So, I disabled the Font
Cache Tool and I can use the apps again. I no longer have to remove
80% of my fonts temporarily to be able to open the apps. (Moving the
allegedly offending font and all the rest below it alphabetically to
another location, opening the app, and then putting them back would
also work temporarily. At least it allowed me to open the app! But it
also seemed to make my system flakey, which forced me to reboot soon,
which made the font corruption message come back again, ... lather,
rinse, repeat...)

If other apps on my system by vendors who live and die by typography
thought my fonts were corrupt I would believe the Word / Excel message.
But since all those apps and the Font Book utility all are very happy
with them, I have to believe it's a problem with Office.

BTW, you don't have to delete the Font Cache Tool. I just created a
subfolder and dropped it in there. That allows me to put things back
exactly where they should be for updates.

I'm VERY disappointed that 11.2.3 Update did not fix this problem. It
has been reported ever since Tiger shipped. That's approaching a year!

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I feel your pain, and I understand your frustration

<rant>

Let's be clear about this: This is an APPLE bug that Microsoft cannot fix.
They don't own the code that causes the problem.

The bug was caused by Apple in Tiger. Microsoft has already put in a fix
that is supposed to deal with the issue, but it depends on Apple doing what
they said they were going to do.

We're still waiting for Apple ...

The cynics amongst us might be forgiven for suspecting that the only reason
Apple is taking so long to fix their bug is that Microsoft Office is the
only common application out there that uses the faulty function, and that by
dragging their heels they get a chance to make Microsoft look bad. Surely a
major computer manufacturer wouldn't do anything underhanded and sly like
that. Would they?

In the meantime, if you back-grade to OS 10.3.9, you will never experience
the problem. Which is why I don't run Tiger. There are some of us out
there who need to use our Apples for business purposes. Apple needs to
understand that having Word running right is a lot more important to us than
the dubious benefits of either Spotlight or MacIntel

</rant>

I would love to have WYSIWYG fonts in Word / Excel, but need to
actually be able to open the apps even more. So, I disabled the Font
Cache Tool and I can use the apps again. I no longer have to remove
80% of my fonts temporarily to be able to open the apps. (Moving the
allegedly offending font and all the rest below it alphabetically to
another location, opening the app, and then putting them back would
also work temporarily. At least it allowed me to open the app! But it
also seemed to make my system flakey, which forced me to reboot soon,
which made the font corruption message come back again, ... lather,
rinse, repeat...)

If other apps on my system by vendors who live and die by typography
thought my fonts were corrupt I would believe the Word / Excel message.
But since all those apps and the Font Book utility all are very happy
with them, I have to believe it's a problem with Office.

BTW, you don't have to delete the Font Cache Tool. I just created a
subfolder and dropped it in there. That allows me to put things back
exactly where they should be for updates.

I'm VERY disappointed that 11.2.3 Update did not fix this problem. It
has been reported ever since Tiger shipped. That's approaching a year!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Do I understand from what J. Bingham says that this issue only arises if you
choose to show WYSIWYG font menus? I hadn't been doing so, so I'll try.

But, if this is the case, is it really so much more essential for you to
have WYSIWYG font menus in Word than to have all the benefits of Tiger?
I'll believe you if you say so, but this seems a pretty odd set of
priorities to me.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

From: "John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:28:33 +1000
Conversation: "Corrupt" fonts in Word
Subject: Re: "Corrupt" fonts in Word

I feel your pain, and I understand your frustration

<rant>

Let's be clear about this: This is an APPLE bug that Microsoft cannot fix.
They don't own the code that causes the problem.

The bug was caused by Apple in Tiger. Microsoft has already put in a fix
that is supposed to deal with the issue, but it depends on Apple doing what
they said they were going to do.

We're still waiting for Apple ...

The cynics amongst us might be forgiven for suspecting that the only reason
Apple is taking so long to fix their bug is that Microsoft Office is the
only common application out there that uses the faulty function, and that by
dragging their heels they get a chance to make Microsoft look bad. Surely a
major computer manufacturer wouldn't do anything underhanded and sly like
that. Would they?

In the meantime, if you back-grade to OS 10.3.9, you will never experience
the problem. Which is why I don't run Tiger. There are some of us out
there who need to use our Apples for business purposes. Apple needs to
understand that having Word running right is a lot more important to us than
the dubious benefits of either Spotlight or MacIntel

</rant>

I would love to have WYSIWYG fonts in Word / Excel, but need to
actually be able to open the apps even more. So, I disabled the Font
Cache Tool and I can use the apps again. I no longer have to remove
80% of my fonts temporarily to be able to open the apps. (Moving the
allegedly offending font and all the rest below it alphabetically to
another location, opening the app, and then putting them back would
also work temporarily. At least it allowed me to open the app! But it
also seemed to make my system flakey, which forced me to reboot soon,
which made the font corruption message come back again, ... lather,
rinse, repeat...)

If other apps on my system by vendors who live and die by typography
thought my fonts were corrupt I would believe the Word / Excel message.
But since all those apps and the Font Book utility all are very happy
with them, I have to believe it's a problem with Office.

BTW, you don't have to delete the Font Cache Tool. I just created a
subfolder and dropped it in there. That allows me to put things back
exactly where they should be for updates.

I'm VERY disappointed that 11.2.3 Update did not fix this problem. It
has been reported ever since Tiger shipped. That's approaching a year!

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Paul:

I think what he's saying is that if you hammer the Office FontCacheTool, the
"error" goes away, and so do WYSIWYG fonts in the font menu

This effectively disables any reporting of bad fonts

Cheers

Do I understand from what J. Bingham says that this issue only arises if you
choose to show WYSIWYG font menus? I hadn't been doing so, so I'll try.

But, if this is the case, is it really so much more essential for you to
have WYSIWYG font menus in Word than to have all the benefits of Tiger?
I'll believe you if you say so, but this seems a pretty odd set of
priorities to me.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[google]

As mentioned in other threads, a fix that has worked for me is to do a
safe boot, open word while in safe mode, then restart your computer
normally. To do a safe boot, start up your machine, when you hear the
chime, hold down the shift key, release the shift key when you see the
spinning progress clock. It takes a long time [maybe two or three
minutes] to boot, but this is normal.

If you do this, everything will work fine. I first did this three or
four months ago when I first installed Tiger. Everything has been cool
until yesterday. I bought a new font and tried to install it. For some
reason it didn't want to install properly. I tried to shut off some
other fonts [using Mac's Font Book], in hopes that this would help with
the install [but it didn't]. I gave up and went back to work [I was in
Adobe Illustrator]. I needed to open up a word doc and when I tried,
the problem came back. I figure it had to do with this new font I was
trying to install. I have installed new fonts over the last couple
months without any issues but this was the first time I was turning
them on and off within Font Book, so I'm sure this caused the issue to
arise again.

I did the safe boot fix again and now word is back to normal. Until
Apple and Microsoft figure this out, this fix seems to work well
without having to install any other programs or having to only use
select fonts.

-jeffrey