Why wont Microsoft Word Work Anymore?

A few months ago a friend of my partner (tech head) was visiting and insisted for reasons that I can't recall, that I update Quicktime on my imac.

I did this and afterwards (the next day if I recall correctly) when I went to open Word it no longer worked!

Applications such as, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage etc work fine, but Word is a no go.

To solve my problem of having no word processor to work with on my mac, I downloaded an application from apple.com called 'Bean', which works fine.

But I want 'Word' back! What on earth happened?

If anyone can help I'd be ecstatic.

Thanks.

Operating System:
Mac OS X Version 10.5.8
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

No longer works in what way?

Gives an error message, bounces on the dock but doesn't open????
And which version of Office?

I'd probably try running repair permissions, then reinstall, then uninstall and reinstall since we have no additional details regarding your issue.

Updating Quicktime would be coincidence. Wouldn't have anything to do with Word functioning or not.

No longer works in what way?

Gives an error message, bounces on the dock but doesn't open????
And which version of Office?

Yes, when I would try to open it, or open a documented created with word, the icon would bounce up and down in the dock and an error message would pop up:

'The application Microsoft Word quit unexpectedly.

Mac OS X and other applications are not affected.
Click Relaunch to launch the application again. etc etc'

And when I'd click 'Relaunch' the same message would pop up again.

I believe it is the 2008 version.

How do I run 'repair permissions'?

Open up Applications - Utilities - Disk Utility

Highlight your MacIntosh HD partition on the left side
Make sure you are on the First Aid page
and click on the Repair Disk Permissions button at the bottom
It will take a few minutes

If that doesn't do it, there is a bunch of other stuff that can be tried, but I'd just go ahead and uninstall the office package and reinstall it.

Use it's uninstaller - not just a drag and drop to the trash.

I ran the repair permissions and found these at the bottom of the list as a result:
(Please forgive the lengthy jargon)

Warning: SUID file "bin/rcp" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Permissions differ on "System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/RemoteDesktop.menu/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-r--r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/quota" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/rlogin" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/rsh" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Permissions differ on "Library/QuickLook/iWork.qlgenerator/Contents/CodeResources", should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are lrwxr-xr-x .
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired.

Word still wont launch.
I've found the option under the Microsoft Office Folder that enables me to 'Remove office'.

Apparently it will track down all versions of office installed on my Mac and remove them.

Which is what we want in theory. But I bought this iMac from it's first owner and he still has not sent me the discs that originally came with it. (It has been months, so I've stopped emailing him about it) =(
Which will make it impossible for me to reinstall Microsoft Office once I've uninstalled it. Unless I purchase it again.

Am I right?

imacsetes said:

...Which is what we want in theory. But I bought this iMac from it's first owner and he still has not sent me the discs that originally came with it. (It has been months, so I've stopped emailing him about it) =(
Which will make it impossible for me to reinstall Microsoft Office once I've uninstalled it. Unless I purchase it again.

Am I right?

Click to expand...

Yes that is correct. You will need to buy a retail copy of Microsoft Office if you want to continue using it.

There are other alternatives to Microsoft Office, which are free and work just as well.

Open Office for example.

I think I will just settle with 'Bean' or 'Pages' for now, which is much better I think.
Only I was hoping to have Word, as I am wary of sending files to PC users and having them not be able to open them due to format issues etc.

I believe in pages that you can make your documents Windows Friendly ...... So you should be able to send to Window's PC's and then have them open them without a problem.
Or it could be Open Office or NeoOffice .. One of the two

Cheers

imacsetes said:

I think I will just settle with 'Bean' or 'Pages' for now, which is much better I think.
Only I was hoping to have Word, as I am wary of sending files to PC users and having them not be able to open them due to format issues etc.

Click to expand...

TextEdit documents are Windows-friendly, especially if you save them in Word format for sending to your Win contacts.

PS. In addition to what bobtomay has said about Permissions, try Onyx http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/download.html instead. It goes deeper into the system, and I'm persuaded it does a better job than the OS disk utilities.

You really do need those discs but as the previous owner has obviously decide to diddle you for them, legally MS Office and similar applications should be removed as they are now illegal copies which cannot be updated.

Office is by far the best word processor, particular if you are in school or college and required to submit work. Office 2008 Home and Student Edition is quite cheap for what you get, and second hand copies abound in various auction sites.

Make sure if you go that way there are valid registration keys available.

Guys, will rebuilding the plist file help?

hughvane said:

TextEdit documents are Windows-friendly, especially if you save them in Word format for sending to your Win contacts.

PS. In addition to what bobtomay has said about Permissions, try Onyx http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/download.html instead. It goes deeper into the system, and I'm persuaded it does a better job than the OS disk utilities.

Click to expand...

Thanks I will check that out.

After I try the above link, I will consider just removing Microsoft office anyway and using pages for now until I can buy it again.

As for the disc, I am quite annoyed as the guy that sold me the imac works for one of the Mac1 stores, so I am surprised at his blatant ignorance. If it were some random guy over the internet I would just shrug my shoulders and forget about it, but this guy works for apple and delivered it to my door himself, so i don't understand. Perhaps he can no longer find them and feels it is just easier to ignore me. =s

Plist file? I'm not one to know anything about rebuilding files.

Please explain?

"Rebuilding" is not an official term, just what I called it. .plist files can become corrupt, causing erratic behavior in an application. The "proper" strategy is to isolate the file, and then fire up the program. The OS automatically creates a new .plist file in its proper location, set to defaults. So, if you've changed any preferences, those are lost. That's why you isolate it instead of delete it; in case it doesn't turn out to be the solution to your problem. If you want to try this, here's how it works for me on OS 10.5.8:

With Word closed down, I go to Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences/Microsoft and find
com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist and move it to my Desktop.
Then I fire up Word, causing a new file to be created in that last folder.
That's it. If the problem is gone, I Trash the file on the Desktop.
If not, I can move it back to that folder, and overwrite the defaults with my customized settings. Of course, I still have the problem to troubleshoot some more.

I also have a com.microsoft.Word.plist (no .prefs) in Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences (not in the Microsoft folder) but I don't think that one is the active file. I really don't know why I have both.

With Word closed down, I go to Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences/Microsoft and find
com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist and move it to my Desktop.

Okay so I followed your instructions and am now in the microsoft folder. But there is no plist for word. only messenger or powerpoint...

I tried going further, into the Office 2008 folder, can't find it.
Here is a list of the files name I can find that contain the word .plist:

com.microsoft.Messenger.plist
Microsoft Messenger User Cache.plist

(Am ofcourse assuming that the above are related to windows messenger.)

Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist

I think the problem may be that, I did delete the 'Word' part of Microsoft office (due to it's not working) a while ago, and brought it back out of the recycle bin a few weeks ago because it wouldn't let me empty the recycle bin due to my not have the 'authority'.

Could this have caused the preference files to go missing?

imacsetes said:

I did delete the 'Word' part of Microsoft office ... and brought it back out of the recycle bin ... Could this have caused the preference files to go missing?

Click to expand...

Probably. The Word preference explained is not protected or locked, so it could be deleted from Trash without extra permissions/privileges. However, deleting a .plist should not prevent another preference being created when you tried to open MSWord.

Therefore, other files essential to MSWord, eg. a library file, probably got deleted along with others when you trashed Word, and the only recourse is to reinstall Word (or Office).

Can you chase up the seller by means other than emails - which are all too easy to 'ignore' (yeah, right) .

You don't have a "recycle bin" on your Mac. You have Trash.

No, deleting the Word application icon would not cause the plist file to disappear. The plist file must have been deleted also. Opening Word would cause a new plist file to appear. I'm assuming you're in the correct Library folder, in the path I provided, just substituting YourUserName. There are several Library folders.

Deleting Word is not a good idea. You should Remove it. In Applications/Microsoft Office v.?/Additional Tools/Remove Office you'll find the Uninstaller of the same name. This will remove the whole suite of MS applications. Of course, you don't want to do that unless you have the disc to reinstall it.

Okay imacsetes time to get tough with this rooster. March into the Apple store where he works and DEMAND the discs to all the programs, particularly the system install discs, and if you have any trouble ask to see his manager in order you can complain about his actions and your preparedness to take this all the way to Steve Jobs as you have been conned by an Apple employee, or a reseller's employee as the case may be.