Drawing toolbar causes Word to freeze

[Melisa]

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

Does anyone know why when I try to open the drawing toolbar it causes Word to freeze and it shows that little colorful circle to spinning. From there I have to do a force quit. All the other toolbars open with no problem, except that one! Help

 

[John McGhie]

Check you're fully updated ‹ I thought that bug was solved

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

Does anyone know why when I try to open the drawing toolbar it causes Word to
freeze and it shows that little colorful circle to spinning. From there I have
to do a force quit. All the other toolbars open with no problem, except that
one! Help

--
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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]

 

[Swedish]

I have exactly the same problem using Mac Word 2008 on a mac using OSX 10.5. I check the Software Update regularly and nothing for Word 2008. A real pain that needs sorting out.

 

[CyberTaz]

Nah, this one is still under investigation MacBU hasn't been able to
repro the behavior with any degree of consistency combined with the fact
that most of those who have experienced it have failed to cooperate in any
way other than to complain... Requests for details: crash logs, error
reports, config info, etc. have been met with a lack of response.

One individual did report having resolved a similar problem in PPt by
reinstalling Office 2008 after running Remove Office & deleting the
"Microsoft libraries" but that doesn't help much because there are no such
libraries to delete :-/

I have a ticket in on the matter plus the attention of a key individual, but
unless some of those experiencing the problem start contributing it may
never be resolved.

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

 

[Swedish]

I would be more than willing to give any Crash Logs, Error Reports or Config Info. Unfortunately Word does not give you this information when trying to select the Drawing Toolbar. All you get is the Beach Ball as we call it in the print trade spinning round until you force quit the programme. Until this matter is resolved I shall have to use a PROPER programme in order to draw some rules

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Steve:

I am sure you will be overjoyed to hear that no-one in here has even a
passing interest in which applications you choose to use This vital
piece of information may keep someone awake at night at Microsoft, but out
here in "User Land" we have the Global Financial Crisis and our retirement
portfolios to worry about

But if you would care to email me a copy of your Normal.dotm template, I
will have a quick look. Right at the moment, the Drawing toolbar works just
fine here in Word 2008 (I have 2004 installed also, and it works there
too...)

When Word hangs, if you open Console, you should see a bit of garbage appear
in the Log that would give the Devs some clue as to what locked up.

The easy way is to "Clear" the Log, then cause Word to hang: all the entries
should then be generated by the fault. If you copy those into an email and
send it to me, I can put it in to the Devs for you, along with your
Normal.dotm.

If the developers can find a way to actually reproduce this bug, then they
can fix it.

Cheers

I would be more than willing to give any Crash Logs, Error Reports or Config
Info. Unfortunately Word does not give you this information when trying to
select the Drawing Toolbar. All you get is the Beach Ball as we call it in the
print trade spinning round until you force quit the programme. Until this
matter is resolved I shall have to use a PROPER programme in order to draw
some rules

--
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]

 

[centralmail1]

Hi Steve:

I am sure you will be overjoyed to hear that no-one in here has even a
passing interest in which applications you choose to use  This vital
piece of information may keep someone awake at night at Microsoft, but out
here in "User Land" we have the Global Financial Crisis and our retirement
portfolios to worry about

But if you would care to email me a copy of your Normal.dotm template, I
will have a quick look.  Right at the moment, the Drawing toolbar worksjust
fine here in Word 2008 (I have 2004 installed also, and it works there
too...)

When Word hangs, if you open Console, you should see a bit of garbage appear
in the Log that would give the Devs some clue as to what locked up.

The easy way is to "Clear" the Log, then cause Word to hang: all the entries
should then be generated by the fault.  If you copy those into an emailand
send it to me, I can put it in to the Devs for you, along with your
Normal.dotm.

If the developers can find a way to actually reproduce this bug, then they
can fix it.

Cheers



--
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]

I'm experiencing the same crash - would you like me to email the log
as above?
Mark (e-mail address removed)

 

[laurenkcarter]

Hey guys, i was having the same problem and i held down the shift key
whilst starting Word and it seemed to resolve it. hope that helps?

 

[Swedish]

Yes, holding down the shift key has resolved the problem. Any idea what holding down the shift key is actually doing to the programme.

 

[John McGhie]

Yes please!! And I need your Normal.dotm template.

Cheers

I'm experiencing the same crash - would you like me to email the log
as above?
Mark (e-mail address removed)

--
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]

 

[John McGhie]

That indicates that your problem is "Haxie-related".

Holding down the Shift key during startup disables any add-ins. What
version of Word are you using? The bug we're chasing affects ONLY Word
2008.

Cheers

Hey guys, i was having the same problem and i held down the shift key
whilst starting Word and it seemed to resolve it. hope that helps?

--
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]

 

[CyberTaz]

Just to clarify - Software Update has nothing to do with MS products. That's
Apple's update program that provides updates to OS X & Apple apps such as
iTunes, QuickTime, etc.

MS updates are supplied via a totally separate program by the name of
AutoUpdate. You can run it from the Help menu of any Office app. When you do
it will prompt you set it to run automatically - I'd suggest Monthly if you
don't already have it set to do so.

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

 

[John McGhie]

It does a "clean start up" of Word, disabling your Word preferences and
add-ins.

If this fixes the issue, you need to delete your Word 2008 preferences.

Follow this procedure:

1) 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.

2) 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/

3) 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!)

4) Then Repair Permissions with Disk Utility.

Hope this helps

Yes, holding down the shift key has resolved the problem. Any idea what
holding down the shift key is actually doing to the programme.

--
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]

 

[Bill1117]

Nah, this one is still under investigation MacBU hasn't been able to
repro the behavior with any degree of consistency combined with the fact
that most of those who have experienced it have failed to cooperate in any
way other than to complain... Requests for details: crash logs, error
reports, config info, etc. have been met with a lack of response.

One individual did report having resolved a similar problem in PPt by
reinstalling Office 2008 after running Remove Office & deleting the
"Microsoft libraries" but that doesn't help much because there are no such
libraries to delete :-/

I have a ticket in on the matter plus the attention of a key individual, but
unless some of those experiencing the problem start contributing it may
never be resolved.

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

 

[Bill1117]

Nah, this one is still under investigation MacBU hasn't been able to
repro the behavior with any degree of consistency combined with the fact
that most of those who have experienced it have failed to cooperate in any
way other than to complain... Requests for details: crash logs, error
reports, config info, etc. have been met with a lack of response.

One individual did report having resolved a similar problem in PPt by
reinstalling Office 2008 after running Remove Office & deleting the
"Microsoft libraries" but that doesn't help much because there are no such
libraries to delete :-/

I have a ticket in on the matter plus the attention of a key individual, but
unless some of those experiencing the problem start contributing it may
never be resolved.

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




Sorry about the blank message, I'm new here.

I have the same "drawing toolbar causes Word to freeze" in my up-to-date
Word for Mac 2008. I will be happy to work with you to resolve it.

Just contact me. thanks.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

You need to post a live email address before we can contact you — the
Discussion server fudges your email so we can't reply.

When you do that, would you please put together a full set of "Reproduction"
instructions?

We will need the CPU type versions of Word and your OS, and their update
levels.

Then a set of numbered steps, starting from a blank document, that reproduce
the crash.

I've had the drawing toolbar displayed in Word 2008 12.1.7 for about a month
now with no crashes (I switched it on to answer a question and I forgot to
turn it off...)

Cheers

I have the same "drawing toolbar causes Word to freeze" in my up-to-date
Word for Mac 2008. I will be happy to work with you to resolve it.

Just contact me. thanks.

--
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]

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Bill;

Your enthusiasm is appreciated, but in addition to what John listed it would
also be helpful if you would confirm that you have indeed followed the
previous suggestions as well as any other specific steps you may have taken
to resolve the matter.

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

 

[Bill1117]

Reproduction Instructions.
OS: OSX V10.2.7
CPU: 2.66 Ghz Intel Core Duo
Word: Wood 2008 for MAc V12.1.7

1. Restarted computer
2. Opened Word by selecting from Dock (no other apps running). Both the
standard and formatting tool bars displayed at start-up.
3. With one blank document opened, I selected View/Toolbars/Drawing from the
menu.

Word did nothing for a few seconds then displayed the whirring disc/beach
ball. Went to Force Quit which indicated Word was not responding.

I then read CyberTaz's message. I am updated with the latest Word 2008. I
also tried holding the shift key down while starting Word. Interesting. That
worked. I could select the Drawing toolbar. I closed Word down and tried it a
few more times. I could select the Drawing toolbar without fail. So I guess
that makes it "haxie-related." The "hold-the-shift-key-down" approach works
for me for now but I would like to start Word normally and be able to select
the Drawing toolbar. I also noticed that when I started Word while holding
the shift key down, only the standard toolbar was display, the formatting
toolbar was not.

I did try to record information in the Console but when Word did hang after
following the same steps at the start of this message, no information was
recorded.

What do you think I should do next?

My e-mail address: (e-mail address removed).

Regards,

Bill

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Bill;

If your specs are stated accurately I don't understand how you're able to
run Office 2008 at all -- Minimum OS X requirement is 10.4.9 so I assume
10.*5*.7 is what you meant??

Shift-launch of the app isn't an indication of interference from haxies but
is an indication of a corrupt Preferences file. Using the Shift key bypasses
your existing Preferences & allows Word to launch in "safe" mode.

That technique isn't a *fix*, it's a diagnostic tool, so to correct the
problem... While no Office apps are running go to: User/Library/Preferences/

Remove the file named: com.microsoft.Word.plist

Launch Word as usual & see how it goes. You will have to reset your
preferences settings.

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

 

[Bill1117]

Hello Bob,

Works as slick as . . .

Yes, I meant OSX 10.*5*.7. Sorry.

Thanks so much for your assistance and very timely responses. You are THE man.

Regards,

Bill