Optimizing font menu performance stops start up

[design]

I am on Intel Mac Pro - when trying to open word, excel, powerpoint I get the "Optimizing font menu performance" and it lists 75% of my fonts. My fonts are fine - I use them everyday in Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop - then the office program stops responding and I have to force quit. How can I turn off "Optimizing font menu performance"?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I am on Intel Mac Pro - when trying to open word, excel, powerpoint I get
the "Optimizing font menu performance" and it lists 75% of my fonts. My
fonts are fine - I use them everyday in Quark, Illustrator, Photoshop -

That doesn't necessarely mean that they are fine.

It could be that the Office Font Cache is corrupted (you can find it and
delete the file in your Preferences folder within the Microsoft fodler
there), but it could also be that 1) the System font cache is corrupted
(Onyx can purge it for you) or that you have a corrupted font on your
System (You can check that with FontBook, or even much better with
FontDoctor - in demo or full mode).

Corentin

 

[Cheryl Cromer]

I have the same problem. I use Quark, Photoshop, In Design, etc. .... and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I spend five minutes each morning having Word and/or Excel tell me my fonts are corrupt (they are not). I have tried to FIND the Office Font Cache, but there is NO Microsoft folder in my Preferences Folder on my Intel Mac Mini, 10.4.11 OSX. I've been dealing with this for a few weeks and spending every weekend trying to solve it ... and have also reloaded Office for Mac (2004) twice. What the heck am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help!

 

[Cheryl Cromer]

Aha! It is the FONT CACHE TOOL that needed to be trashed! I was looking for a preferences file. Passing this along in case it helps the original person needing assistance.

Thanks anyway!

 

[CyberTaz]

Glad you got it sorted, but just for future reference...

"Reloading" Office will rarely cure anything and may have been contributing
to your problem. If you haven't done so you will have to reapply all the
updates beginning with 11.3.5 & repair disk permissions before you'll be
able to get things sorted out.

Also, it isn't in your best interest to tag your issue onto an inactive
thread - this one goes back nearly a month. If the info offered in a post
doesn't resolve the problem for you, it's better to post as a new message &
specifying exactly what suggestions you've already tried along with the
results of attempting them... Otherwise your message may never be seen.

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

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Cheryl:

{Ah hem} That's not a solution to the problem, it's a way of "hiding" the
problem.

If you trash the Font Cache Tool, which is part of Microsoft Office, then
none of the Office applications can rebuild the Office font cache.

This means that none of the Office applications will ever see any changes to
your fonts. The old cache will continue in use. If you add or remove a
font, Office will never be aware of that.

And when Microsoft finally gets around to fixing this damned stupid bug, you
will not get the fix either, because the bit that needs to be patched will
no longer be present to be patched.

So you might like to retrieve the Font Cache Tool from the trash and put it
somewhere safe. Remember to put it back where it is supposed to be each
time you install an update for Office 2004, just in case they issue another
update.

And whenever you make changes to your fonts, put it back and suffer the slow
startup while it does its thing.

Cheers

Aha! It is the FONT CACHE TOOL that needed to be trashed! I was looking for a
preferences file. Passing this along in case it helps the original person
needing assistance.

Thanks anyway!

--
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]