Word 2004 font problem

[Zeph]

Greets -

A user running the latest version of Word 2004 -- and this occurred
before installing the updater patch as well -- is unable to correctly
render fonts in Word. Rather than, say, Times New Roman, the font
appears as something altogether different, in print and on screen.
I've tried tossing font-related Office prefs, then all the prefs, to no
avail. I saw that he had multiple copies of Times New Roman, and so
deleted all but one of the fonts; no dice. This is also occurring with
other fonts -- Courier, Palatino, &c.

I am able to view these fonts fine in TextEdit, or other programs.

Any idea what might be causing this?

Many thanks, as usual,
z

 

[JE McGimpsey]

A user running the latest version of Word 2004 -- and this occurred
before installing the updater patch as well -- is unable to correctly
render fonts in Word. Rather than, say, Times New Roman, the font
appears as something altogether different, in print and on screen.
I've tried tossing font-related Office prefs, then all the prefs, to no
avail. I saw that he had multiple copies of Times New Roman, and so
deleted all but one of the fonts; no dice. This is also occurring with
other fonts -- Courier, Palatino, &c.

I am able to view these fonts fine in TextEdit, or other programs.

Any idea what might be causing this?

<Speculation> It may be a different font entirely that's corrupting
Word's font list.</speculation>

Try using Font Book to troubleshoot all your fonts, disabling half (or
more, to see if the behavior disappears, first). If the problem
disappears, add half back and try again (close Word between trials), and
so on until you identify the font(s) responsible.

Note: the TNR provided with Office 2004 is a full Unicode version.
Versions supplied with previous versions of Office weren't.

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi z,

Specifically, did you trash the ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font
Cache (11)? And was Word quit (not just closed) when you did so?

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

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

 

[Zeph]

Specifically, did you trash the ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font
Cache (11)? And was Word quit (not just closed) when you did so?

I'm pretty certain I did delete the cache, and had quit Word. The user
isn't in yet, so I'll do this again to verify it later today and let
you know. Also will check all the fonts on his system, per JE's
suggestion.

Thanks,
z

 

[Zeph]

Specifically, did you trash the ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font
Cache (11)? And was Word quit (not just closed) when you did so?

I just did this again, to no avail. I also checked to see if
FontDoctor could find any problems with the font, but it didn't find
any. Also, as I mentioned earlier I think, the fonts in question work
fine in other applications; and other fonts work fine in Word.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
z

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I just did this again, to no avail. I also checked to see if
FontDoctor could find any problems with the font, but it didn't find
any. Also, as I mentioned earlier I think, the fonts in question work
fine in other applications; and other fonts work fine in Word.

FontDoctor won't detect all the font problems that will cause problems
with Word. You need to do a binary search (e.g., remove half your fonts,
see if the problem still exists; if not, re-enable half the ones you
disabled, try again...).

FontBook, if you're in OS X 10.3.x makes this much quicker...

 

[Delfino Rodriguez]

FontDoctor won't detect all the font problems that will cause problems
with Word. You need to do a binary search (e.g., remove half your fonts,
see if the problem still exists; if not, re-enable half the ones you
disabled, try again...).

FontBook, if you're in OS X 10.3.x makes this much quicker...

Tried this with FontBook, and the problem remains. I even disabled
every font I could except Times New Roman -- this after copying a
working TNR from my machine to the user's machine -- and the problem
remains. Any further ideas will be greatly appreciated -- the user is
basically without the use of Word for the time being. Given that the
font works fine in other apps (TextEdit, for instance), there must be
*something* in Word other than the font cache file which is causing the
problem.... No?

Thanks much,
z

 

[matt neuburg]

Tried this with FontBook, and the problem remains. I even disabled
every font I could except Times New Roman -- this after copying a
working TNR from my machine to the user's machine -- and the problem
remains. Any further ideas will be greatly appreciated -- the user is
basically without the use of Word for the time being. Given that the
font works fine in other apps (TextEdit, for instance), there must be
*something* in Word other than the font cache file which is causing the
problem.... No?

What was the original problem? All previous messages for this thread
have fallen off my newsserver. m.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

What was the original problem? All previous messages for this thread
have fallen off my newsserver. m.

You can always check the archives:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*mac.office*


using the Subject line. In this case:

http://google.com/groups?threadm=171120041106300328%[email protected]
re.net

 

[matt neuburg]

You can always check the archives:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=group:*mac.office*


using the Subject line. In this case:

http://google.com/groups?threadm=171120041106300328%[email protected]
re.net

Ah, so:

Rather than, say, Times New Roman, the font
appears as something altogether different

I've actually seen this. Fonts seemed to be correct up to a certain
point in the font list. After that they were wrong, as if the names were
off by one or something. Mmmm... There's a pref file that dictates font
substitutions. I think what I did was toss that. But I don't really
remember. The only other thing I can think of is to toss the font cache
file (as was suggested), also toss the computer's font cache files (you
can use Panther Cache Cleaner to do that), and restart the computer. And
use Font Book to resolve all duplicates and disable all Classic fonts.
Oh, and don't use any third-party weird font haxies, like that thing
from You Software. m.

 

[Roger Morris]

Ah, so:


I've actually seen this. Fonts seemed to be correct up to a certain
point in the font list. After that they were wrong, as if the names were
off by one or something. Mmmm... There's a pref file that dictates font
substitutions. I think what I did was toss that. But I don't really
remember. The only other thing I can think of is to toss the font cache
file (as was suggested), also toss the computer's font cache files (you
can use Panther Cache Cleaner to do that), and restart the computer. And
use Font Book to resolve all duplicates and disable all Classic fonts.
Oh, and don't use any third-party weird font haxies, like that thing
from You Software. m.

As an aside - can I ask if there is an easy way to disable (eg) all
Classic Fonts?
I can't see, in Font Book, a way to display these as a collection.

 

[Michel Bintener]

In Font Book, click on the small arrow right next to "All Fonts". You should
get different collections, User, Computer and Classic. Select Classic and
disable the collection.

Michel

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

As an aside - can I ask if there is an easy way to disable (eg) all
Classic Fonts?
I can't see, in Font Book, a way to display these as a collection.

In Panther:

€ You'll see a disclosure triangle next to the top item "All Fonts" in the
"Collection" column. Click it.

€ You'll now see 3 sub-items: User, Computer, Classic Mac OS.

€ Click "Classic Mac OS" sub-item to select it. (All its fonts now show up
in Font column. Ignore them.)

€ In Edit menu, select "Disable Collection".

You'll now see all the fonts dim, and "Off" appear next to the Classic Mac
OS sub-item in Collection column.

Done.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Roger Morris]

In Panther:

You'll see a disclosure triangle next to the top item "All Fonts" in the
"Collection" column. Click it.

You'll now see 3 sub-items: User, Computer, Classic Mac OS.

Click "Classic Mac OS" sub-item to select it. (All its fonts now show up
in Font column. Ignore them.)

In Edit menu, select "Disable Collection".

You'll now see all the fonts dim, and "Off" appear next to the Classic Mac
OS sub-item in Collection column.

Done.

Thank you Michael and Paul.

I should have paid more attention to that disclosure triangle but was
possibly diverted by the "Classic" collection named underneath. That
one, of course, does not mean "Classic OS"!

 

[Zeph]

I've actually seen this. Fonts seemed to be correct up to a certain
point in the font list. After that they were wrong, as if the names were
off by one or something. Mmmm... There's a pref file that dictates font
substitutions. I think what I did was toss that. But I don't really
remember. The only other thing I can think of is to toss the font cache
file (as was suggested), also toss the computer's font cache files (you
can use Panther Cache Cleaner to do that), and restart the computer. And
use Font Book to resolve all duplicates and disable all Classic fonts.
Oh, and don't use any third-party weird font haxies, like that thing
from You Software. m.

Thanks, Matt. Seems to have done the trick -- using PCC to clear the
cache, that is. Without that, dumping the MS font cache pref did
nothing. Appreciate your help, and the input of everybody along the
way.

z

 

[matt neuburg]

Thanks, Matt. Seems to have done the trick -- using PCC to clear the
cache, that is. Without that, dumping the MS font cache pref did
nothing.

Whew! I'm glad, because I was really tapping the hidden places of my
memory to dredge up any sense at all of how I solved it... Some FAQ
keeper should add this one to the list of standard tricks. m.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Whew! I'm glad, because I was really tapping the hidden places of my
memory to dredge up any sense at all of how I solved it... Some FAQ
keeper should add this one to the list of standard tricks. m.

What trick, exactly? Using Panther Cache Cleaner? Can you explain how one
does that? (OS X Help was no help, per usual)

DM

 

[matt neuburg]

What trick, exactly? Using Panther Cache Cleaner? Can you explain how one
does that? (OS X Help was no help, per usual)

You download Panther Cache Cleaner and run it. Alternatively you could
boot into single-user mode and throw away all the contents of the two
Library/Caches folders. m.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You download Panther Cache Cleaner and run it. Thanks, Matt.
Alternatively you could
boot into single-user mode and throw away all the contents of the two
Library/Caches folders. m.

And the Unix commands for doing that would be? FAQs need to be in such a
form that any Word or OS X novice (i.e., me) can use them.

 

[matt neuburg]

And the Unix commands for doing that would be

If you use Panther Cache Cleaner you don't need to use any Unix
commands. If you don't know any Unix commands you should not use the
single-user mode as a way of removing the files; it is too easy to make
a tiny mistake in punctuation and do serious damange. m.