Word 2004 does not show "Format/Fonts" or "Tools/Language"

T

Tony Curtis

Hi,

I have been workin with Word 2004 without major problems but today...

Word 2004 (version 11.0.0) does not show "Format/Fonts" or "Tools/Language". I cannot select any language for spell checking...

How to fix it?

Thanks.
 
M

matt neuburg

Tony Curtis said:
I have been workin with Word 2004 without major problems but today...

Word 2004 (version 11.0.0) does not show "Format/Fonts" or
"Tools/Language". I cannot select any language for spell checking...
Click to expand...

I would revert your menus to the default. I found that menus behaved
very oddly after the upgrade until I did this (entire sets of menu items
came and went unpredictably). m.
 
B

Beth Rosengard

Hi Tony,

Since resetting the toolbars didn't work, try testing your Word preferences
and Normal template:

1) Quit Word and navigate to your Normal template which should be in
~/Microsoft User Data/Normal. Rename Normal to something else (like
OldNormal), then relaunch Word. If this fixes the problem but you have
customizations, etc, in OldNormal that you want to maintain, you can use
Organizer to transfer those from OldNormal to the newly-created Normal
template. Then you can trash the old renamed file. To learn how to use
Organizer, see here (if you're using Safari you may have to refresh the page
a couple times):
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm>

If this doesn't fix the problem, quit Word again, trash the new Normal and
rename OldNormal back to Normal.

2) To test your Preference files, quit *all* Office Applications.
Navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/. Drag to the desktop the
following files: com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist,
com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist and Microsoft Component Preferences. When
you restart Word, these files will be recreated. If all is well, you can
trash the old files. You will have to reset some Preferences and
AutoCorrect settings.

If this doesn't help, you can trash the new files and rename the old ones
back.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>
 
J

Jan Rijnierse

Tony Curtis said:
Hi,

I have been workin with Word 2004 without major problems but today...

Word 2004 (version 11.0.0) does not show "Format/Fonts" or "Tools/Language".
I cannot select any language for spell checking...

How to fix it?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony,

What may have happened is that you accidentally hit a key combination
(Ctrl-5 or Ctrl-8 for instance), activating Word 5.1 Menus. Go to Menu
view and check if Word 5.1 Menus is checked. If it is, uncheck it and
your menu's should be back to the way they were.

Regards,

Jan Rijnierse
 
T

Tony

Hi all,

Deleting the Normal file did not fix it.

But deleting the file "com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist" fixed it.
Although that way I lost all my custom settings.

Suggestion to Microsoft: Word 2004 (and previously Word v.X) is the
only application that unexpectedly quits and corrupts its own
preference and setting files in our Mac OS X 10.2.8 and Mac OS X 10.3.4
systems, which are rock solid. This is a positive criticism: please,
please, please, make Word 2004 a truly Mac OS X application: stable as
the OS itself! Thanks.

More: as far as I can tell, this instability of Word 2004 (and Word
v.X) is due to the "peculiar" way in which Word handles memory. If
possible, Word should handle memory like the OS X and other
applications do.

Again, it is amazing to me that only Word causes these annoying
problems in Mac OS X. And we use dozens if not hundreds of applications
which never --or almost never-- ever quit. But as said Word quits
unexpectedly quite frequently when opening files, closing files and
--mostly-- when copy/pasting/cutting text.

Weird to me...

Note: deleting all current and previous Office versions and
clean-reinstalling Office 2004 (or Office v.X latest version) does not
help.

Thanks.

Regards,



---
 
D

Dayo Mitchell

Hi Tony,

Glad you fixed it, and the newsreader too...

Tony said:
But deleting the file "com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist" fixed it.
Although that way I lost all my custom settings.
Click to expand...
But as said Word quits
unexpectedly quite frequently when opening files, closing files and
--mostly-- when copy/pasting/cutting text.
Click to expand...

It's very likely that your preferences have been corrupt for a while, and
were causing the unexpected quits before the missing commands sent you
looking for a fix. If Word continues to quit unexpectedly several times a
day, you should look for more fixes, as I'm quite sure not everyone is
experiencing that.

DM
 
T

Tony

Hi,

Thanks.

I used the Remove Office (version 11.0.0) that comes with Office 2004.
I also experienced this problem on Mac OS X v.X up to the latest 10.1.5
version.

I am using Mac OS X 10.2.8 on a PowerMac G4/500 (AGP) with 1 GB RAM and
booting from an external FireWire disk.

What puzzles me is that I use many applications and only Word 2004
(previously Word v.X) unexpectedly quits. Several times a day. Mainly
when copy/pasting/cutting text in simple or 100-page documents even
without tables or pictures.

Removing completely all Office installations and reinstalling does not
help. But the problem is unpredictable. You cannot know when it will
hit.

I guess it has something to do with the "peculiar" way Office handles
the memory. Or else why only with Word and not the other applications?

Thanks.
Regards,
 
B

Beth Rosengard

Hi Tony,

I don't think it has anything to do with the way Word handles memory. If
that were the case, everyone would have these problems and they don't. It's
something in your system. It's possible that upgrading to OS 10.3.4 would
help, but then again it might not.

There are various reasons why Word might quit unexpectedly, including
conflicts with third-party add-ins and font duplication or corruption. I
suggest you work through the procedures outlined here:
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm>

Good luck!

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>
 
T

Tony

Thanks Beth.

For sure it has something to do with my system. But since I have no
problem with any other application (and I use a lot of them), it seems
to me that Word must be peculiar in some way too. I have been
experiencing this annoying problem with Office v.X and Office 2004 on
Mac OS X 10.2.8 and previous versions.

I have removed the full Office and re-installed several times. Even
removed all fonts from Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 (I have both systems on
the external booting FireWire disk). Fixed permissions and ran disk
repair utilities.

All seems OK, yet the unexpected Word quits persist. It is really
frustrating. I must save every few words to avoid losing my work. It is
unpredictable but strikes mostly when copy/pasting/cutting and also
when I quit Word (weird!).

I have not installed yet Panther though because some applications that
I use are not Panther-compatible.

Regards,
 
T

Tony

Beth,

Thanks.

I have:

---
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Startup/Word/MathType Commands.dot

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Startup/PowerPoint/MathType
Commands.ppa

/Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Startup/Excel <--nothing on
this folder
---

I have quit Word 2004 and moved MathType Commands.dot and MathType
Commands.ppa to the Desktop as suggested on
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Add-Ins.htm>, yet the problem persists.

BTW (note for the webmaster), you cannot see the contents of
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Add-Ins.htm> using Safari 1.0 on Mac
OS X 10.2.8. You get a blank page.

Thanks.
Regards,
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Tony said:
BTW (note for the webmaster), you cannot see the contents of
<http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Add-Ins.htm> using Safari 1.0 on Mac
OS X 10.2.8. You get a blank page.
Click to expand...

It's a known problem with Safari. The site still uses frames, partly as
a way to control linkage to the site, and the way they're implemented
Safari chokes on. Other browsers, such as FireFox, Mozilla, Opera, and
OmniWeb, work better, though it looks like dogmeat using Camino.



Hit reload in Safari a couple of times and the page will be visible.
 
B

Beth Rosengard

Hi Tony,

I just looked back through this and your other threads and I have to admit
I'm now confused :). There's one thread where you say that trashing the
..plist file restored your language options. So is the only problem now that
your Format>Fonts menu is screwed up? It would be a great help if you would
recap exactly what the current problem is along with a list of measures that
you have tried but which failed. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this
eventually.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>
 
T

Tony

Beth,

Sorry about the confusion. They are different issues.

1 - The issue with subject "Re: Word 2004 does not show "Format/Fonts"
or "Tools/Language" - FIXED!" goes away deleting
"com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist" fixed it.

2 - The unexpected quit of Word is the issue that remains. I have open
a new thread: "Word 2004 unexpectedly quits" about it.

Sorry again about that.

Thanks.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Problem selecting certain weights in Word 2011/Mac 1
Converting URLs in comments to Markdown-formatted links 2
Spell check will not work 1
Spell Checker not working 1
Keyboard and Language Auto-Select problem 4
Problem with MS Word paragraph and character styles: format getting messed up 2
Word 2004 Spellcheck Question 4
Proofing tool/change language in Office for Mac 1

Top