MS Word 2008 Crashes when closing a file

[Phil Dirt]

iMac (purchased about a year ago) that had 10.4.10.
Installed MS Office 2008 and run all the updates -> 12.1.2

When you hit the red dot to close the doc, Word crashes and asks if you want
to send a error message to MS. Even if it is just a new doc right after open
MS Word. Log in as a different user - same results.
Reinstall MS Office and update - same results. You can create and work on
docs but as soon as you close it out, MS word crashes. Excel does not crash.
Repaired permissions - no joy. Deleted prefs and the whole MS folder in the
Library.

I know/think what the problem is. It is not accessing /creating a Normal
template. Google say that if you remove the Normal template, it creates a
new one. This one is not. I have copied a Normal temp from another computer
and placed it in the same location but still not joy.

Updated to 10.4.11 and still no joy.

Out of about 12 installs that I have done at this location, this is the only
one that has this issue, and of course it has to be the CEO of the company.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Phil:

I suspect you are correct, it's the Normal template.

In Mac Word 2004, the Normal template is called simply "Normal". The file
name has no extension, and Word won't use it if you try to add one. It's a
bug.

Word will indeed create a brand new one if it starts up and cannot find the
existing one. If it's not doing that, that's because it HAS found one.

Each copy of Word can have its Normal template any place the user chooses:
the only way to find out if that has happened is to use
Word>Preferences>File Locations>User Templates and make Word tell you where
it thinks the thing is.

Be alert for the fact that it may be pointing at an external disk the user
has in their pocket! CEOs love to carry critical files around on a data key
so you guys can't give yourselves a pay-rise

Of course, it may be that the user lacks write permissions to the folder
where Word is attempting to write the thing, but then it should give you an
error when it attempts to save the Normal template. It saves on shut-down,
so I expect it is not getting that far.

Re-installing does nothing on a Mac: it never replaces existing files. Even
if it did, this file is not amongst the installed files.

If all else fails you will need to run the Remove Office tool from the
installation CD to physically remove all the program files, then start
again.

Before repeating the installation, you must use Finder/Find to search the
entire HDD for files named "Normal" and hammer them... Also remove the
following files:
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist

Remember to repair permissions again afterwards.

Hope this helps

iMac (purchased about a year ago) that had 10.4.10.
Installed MS Office 2008 and run all the updates -> 12.1.2

When you hit the red dot to close the doc, Word crashes and asks if you want
to send a error message to MS. Even if it is just a new doc right after open
MS Word. Log in as a different user - same results.
Reinstall MS Office and update - same results. You can create and work on
docs but as soon as you close it out, MS word crashes. Excel does not crash.
Repaired permissions - no joy. Deleted prefs and the whole MS folder in the
Library.

I know/think what the problem is. It is not accessing /creating a Normal
template. Google say that if you remove the Normal template, it creates a
new one. This one is not. I have copied a Normal temp from another computer
and placed it in the same location but still not joy.

Updated to 10.4.11 and still no joy.

Out of about 12 installs that I have done at this location, this is the only
one that has this issue, and of course it has to be the CEO of the company.

--

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]

 

[roadzy]

did this work?