Word X crashes

[rjmeach]

I recently migrated to a MacBook running Leopard 10.5.8, and am having
a recurring problem with Word X. After working successfully for a
while I get a crash at startup just after "Optimizing font menu
performance" and then the "Quit unexpectedly" pops up. Other Office
applications (Excel) don't have the problem. I have tried repairing
permissions, trashing the preferences file, removing the
Library>Fonts, removing the Normal template, uninstalling and
reinstalling Office X and the 10.1.9 updater, all to no avail.

I'm not able to upgrade to 2008 at this time (and prefer the simpler
interface, anyway). I'd like to find the culprit file and kill it, and
get back to stable running.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[John McGhie]

My idea would be to roll it back to the OS it was designed for, OS 10.1

I doubt if you will ever get software that old to work reliably on OS
10.5.8.

Each time it crashes, it saves a crash log. Have a look in there and see if
anything pops out at you.

Cheers

I recently migrated to a MacBook running Leopard 10.5.8, and am having
a recurring problem with Word X. After working successfully for a
while I get a crash at startup just after "Optimizing font menu
performance" and then the "Quit unexpectedly" pops up. Other Office
applications (Excel) don't have the problem. I have tried repairing
permissions, trashing the preferences file, removing the
Library>Fonts, removing the Normal template, uninstalling and
reinstalling Office X and the 10.1.9 updater, all to no avail.

I'm not able to upgrade to 2008 at this time (and prefer the simpler
interface, anyway). I'd like to find the culprit file and kill it, and
get back to stable running.

Any ideas? Thanks!

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daniel Cohen]

My idea would be to roll it back to the OS it was designed for, OS 10.1

I doubt if you will ever get software that old to work reliably on OS
10.5.8.

Each time it crashes, it saves a crash log. Have a look in there and see if
anything pops out at you.

For the record, Word X works ok on 10.5.8 for me. It might not be
entirely reliable, but I haven't has any major trouble yet. There was
one issue I raised in the newsgroup that got solved from the replies.

 

[CyberTaz]

I noticed a couple of things about your attempted remedies & just wanted to
clarify...

Removing Normal & trashing preferences each have to be done while Word is
not running -- just wanted to be clear that you knew that

Secondly, re "removing the Library>Fonts": I hope you don't mean that
literally. For one thing, that is only one of several Fonts folders so
there's no guarantee that even if it is a font problem it's actually
originating there. Also, the fonts stored in that folder are available to
all User Accounts as well as many other programs. Getting rid of everything
there -- including fonts that aren't bad -- may create concerns elsewhere.

Since it sounds like it could be a matter related to fonts, though, there's
a more effective approach. You might run the OS X app called Font Book & use
2 of its routines: Validate Fonts & Resolve Duplicates

You might also have a look at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313535

Additionally, if by "migrated" you actually mean the use of Apple's
Migration Assistant that could be the root or the issue. It often doesn't
play nice with complex apps & suites. However, if you did use Remove Office
before reinstalling that should normally make things right. Since it didn't,
I'd suggest getting the OS X 10.5.8 Combo Update from the Apple Downloads
site & applying that. The Combos do a much more comprehensive job of
revitalizing the OS.

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