Office Mac - Strange Font Selection Issue!

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Hi all,

Would like your feedback on a strange issue I'm having. I've only recently made the switch to the Mac platform, and am loving it. I've hit my first major snag though, I installed Office Mac 2008 and it's having issues with the fonts on it.

When I choose a font that lies within a selection arrow, it chooses a completely different font from somewhere higher in the font listing. It's very weird!

For example, if I click the Baskerville arrow and then select any font type such as Regular, it sets the font to American Typewriter! When I choose other fonts it will either pick the typewriter font or one called Abada MT. I tried to see if it was a problem with the tree by scrolling through the font names with the font name selected and using the down key, but I can't see any of the fonts that use these arrow trees - specifically this applies with my custom fonts that I have installed (from reputable font factories).

Does anyone know what might be causing this? I'm so confused! My version of Word is the absolute latest update available from today 20th, October 2008 which is 12.1.3.

Thanks in advance!
 
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did you ever find an answer to this?? i'm having the exact same issue..?? help please?
 
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bump, only b/c i really need some advice on this
 
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You could try trashing the com.microsoft.Word.plist the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist
 
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This problem happened to me. The customer service eventually got me to create a new login identity before trying Word again. It worked - it seems the original login identity I used has been corrupted in some way and it was affecting the Word program.

This might lead me to try and find some software to look into the corruption - maybe there's a virus or spyware that's hiding? Don't know.

Try going to System Preferences, clicking Acounts and create a new identity. Log out and log in with the new identity and then try Word again.
 
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Office font quirks on a mac

Ever since I've had the most recent Office for mac (2008 edition) I've had the same problem - you type something, then style it up using whatever fonts you think look best, but whatever font you choose, Office has a mind of its own and chooses something different.

Since reading the last posts I created a different user, completely uninstalled office from my main user, installed a completely fresh clean install o the new user (which has admin status) and then went back to my main user. No change. However, on the new user account Word worked as it should, with all fonts available. That may be fine for some, but I can't keep switching between users just to access Word.

Is there any sensible fix to this? I'm getting really frustrated at not being able to get things looking the way I want, and am using Quark 8 more and more simply because Word doesn't work properly.

Mac is an early Quad-core mac Pro, 3GHz with 8Gig RAM, latest version of OSX and has never been connected to the internet - no virusses or spyware because it's used for commercial video editing in Final Cut Studio and I can't afford any hiccups.
 
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Same font problem, found a way to override the problem.

I've been having the same issue with my word, I go to use Times New Roman, and end up getting switched to American Typewriter. I've got a lot of writing documents, and cannot afford to lose the program. My Dad bought the current computer I have over a macLIMBS site, and i thought Word was registered to the prior owner. Come to find out, my Dad had a copy of Office Suite 2008, and after he wiped the hard drive, he reinstalled OS 10.5.8, and put a fresh copy of the program on it for me as a gift. :)

I'm pretty sure I know why my fonts suddenly did this, and it was a mistake on my part. I downloaded a few fonts, 3, from a website I've been able to trust up until now. I believe the fonts, which I installed onto Font Book, played havoc with my Word program, (Word 2008.) An identity still exists on the font list for one of the downloaded fonts, after I erased it. i think it may have corrupted the font listings for Word.

I ran a validate scan on Times New Roman, and it showed only one out of 5 worked, the other four had minor issues. I thought I was done for, but then, I found a way around it.

Here's my trick.

Times New Roman, and it's variants are all still there, and still operational, but using the FONT drop down menu from the top bar or tool bar doesn't heed results. But it, and every font which refuses to communicate through those two menus can be used by going to the FORMAT option on the top bar, and selecting Font. Here, you can access the fonts completely. The toolbar can still use all the other features, but the font picker cannot.

The only downfall is having to continually go back to the format option above, and reselect the font option when I need to change a font completely. Until I get a new copy of Word, or a new Suite, I've found this option as a get - around. Take my advice, and don't install downloaded fonts. Properly scan and research the file.

There is a safe way of placing downloaded fonts into the Font book, without harming Word. I believe it involves converting the file to a similar, but different format. I'm not too sure, but my Dad knows.

By the way, Word for Mac uses a font library which doesn't communicate with Font Book completely, better yet, at all. This is due to a coding compatibility issue PCs don't run into, but Macs encounter frequently. It's fonts work only with it, and it alone. Adding downloaded fonts to the Font Book cause the program to link with the entire Font Book library. It pretty much confuses the program, and somewhere in the communication transfer, it gets fonts mixed up. The only way to fix it, is to reinstall Word, or Office Suite, (If you have it,) completely. My Dad's a printer, and I used to do all his Graphic Design work, we used a Mac and encountered the problem a few years back. Both of us did a ton of research into what happened. And this is pretty much it.

If you're interested, but don't want to trash your downloaded fonts added to Font Book, the word processor program Abiword, communicates with all fonts in the Font Book library completely. It's a little buggy sometimes due to the fact it's freeware/shareware, but it does a pretty good job. It saves in a number of different files, including Word documents. Converts existing word docs pretty smoothly as well. Just make sure you get the version compatible with your machine. It's picky with non intel machines now. :/


I hope this helps!
 

chscag

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I suggest you purchase a legal copy of Microsoft Office since the version you have is not yours. Also, read our guidelines regarding language.
 
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In regards to the above message

Sorry about the language issue, that was my fault. But in regards to the Office Suite I have, i just found out from my Dad a few minutes ago, he wiped the computer after he got it, and placed a new copy of Suite on it I didn't know he had. I'm a writer, and at the time couldn't afford Office. He installed it as a gift.

Seems he was looking out for me :)
 

chscag

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OK, thanks for posting back. And you're quite right about Microsoft Office using its own fonts. And you'll notice that even fonts with the same name aren't really the same. The MS fonts are larger and more broad.

You can read up on this at the MS Mac Office MVP site. "Font Weeding"
 

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