Office apps don't start

[Ineffable]

When I launch any of the Office apps, the splash screen is displayed, the beach ball spins, and nothing starts, ever.

The only solution is to Force-Quit and re-install Office.

This has occurred 3 times--in 2 weeks.

On the splash screen, I notice that nothing is displayed underneath the serial number--usually, when it works, it displays what's going on during the startup. When it's failing, nothing is displayed.

This problem is the same with all apps--Entourage, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

I'm running Office on a MacBook Pro with Leopard 10.5.2.

 

[Diane Ross]

When I launch any of the Office apps, the splash screen is displayed, the
beach ball spins, and nothing starts, ever.

The only solution is to Force-Quit and re-install Office.

This has occurred 3 times--in 2 weeks.

On the splash screen, I notice that nothing is displayed underneath the serial
number--usually, when it works, it displays what's going on during the
startup. When it's failing, nothing is displayed.

This problem is the same with all apps--Entourage, Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint.

First re-install 10.5.2 using the Apple combo updater.

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1052comboupdate.html>

Did Office ever work? What version of Office are you using?

For help with crashes see:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/crashes.html>

 

[Ineffable]

Hi Diane,

Thanks for your response.

Yes, Office has worked. One hunch I have is that I have a lot of fonts; however, most of them are disabled via Font Book. I have about 1,500 fonts, but only about 100 are active.

Also, when I Get Info on the Entourage icon, I notice that under the Sharing & Permissions section that the Names listed are _unknown, admin, and everyone. When I check out other apps (InDesign CS3, for example), I see system instead of _uknown.

Could that be a clue as to my issues? Maybe Entourage doesn't have the right permissions?

I try repairing permissions but nothing changed.

 

[Diane Ross]

Yes, Office has worked. One hunch I have is that I have a lot of fonts;
however, most of them are disabled via Font Book. I have about 1,500 fonts,
but only about 100 are active.

Office doesn't like some fonts being disabled. See

Also, when I Get Info on the Entourage icon, I notice that under the Sharing &
Permissions section that the Names listed are _unknown, admin, and everyone.
When I check out other apps (InDesign CS3, for example), I see system instead
of _uknown.

Could that be a clue as to my issues? Maybe Entourage doesn't have the right
permissions?

Yes, these are mine for 2008 in Leopard:

Permissions: (use Get Info to find settings)

Entourage application:
Your user folder: read write
Admin: read write
Everyone: read only

Documents folder:
You: read write
Everyone: No access

Microsoft User Data folder
You: read write
Staff: read only
Everyone: read only

Office 2004 Identity folder
You: read write
Staff: read only
Everyone: read only

 

[Ineffable]

I deleted most of my fonts and Office 2008 is now working. I'll have to be more selective about adding fonts in the future.

The permissions on my Entourage (and all other Office 2008 apps) do not show my user folder. Rather, it simply displays "_unknown". Doesn't seem right as that is not my user folder's name. However, everything is working properly so I am not going to chase that tail.

Thanks for your replies and suggesting. That MVPS site you linked to is golden, although there isn't too much information on 2008 apps yet.

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for your replies and suggesting. That MVPS site you linked to is
golden, although there isn't too much information on 2008 apps yet.

We're all too busy answering questions to work on the web site updates.