MS Word for Mac - annoying glitch

I run an iMac, about 5 or 6 years old with OS X v10.6.8, on which I have MS Word for Mac.

Lately, whenever I open a new or existing doc, it appears without the standard or formatting toolbars. If I go to 'View' and 'Toolbars' I see that both the standard and formatting toolbars are checked. But the only way to make them appear is to un-check them and re-check them. It's a work-round, but it's a pain in the foot.

Any suggestions how to fix the glitch?

Restarting doesn't work, making sure I have the latest MS Office for Mac didn't change anything.

Thanks

Which version of Word? I'm running '11 without issue.

Your "Normal" template has become corrupt. You need to delete it and let Word create a new one for you.

Your "Normal.dotm" template is located here:

Shut down all Office applications first and then navigate to:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/normal.dotm

Delete it but don't empty the trash. Word will create a new template for you the next time it starts.

vdubbeet said:

Which version of Word? I'm running '11 without issue.

Click to expand...

v12.3.4

chscag said:

Your "Normal" template has become corrupt. You need to delete it and let Word create a new one for you.

Your "Normal.dotm" template is located here:

Shut down all Office applications first and then navigate to:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/normal.dotm

Delete it but don't empty the trash. Word will create a new template for you the next time it starts.

Click to expand...

I'm afraid that didn't work. The new template still didn't show the standard and formatting toolbars.

The new Normal Template won't show the tool bars until you select them to be viewed. The next time you open Word after selecting them the first time, they should continue to show up.

chscag said:

The new Normal Template won't show the tool bars until you select them to be viewed. The next time you open Word after selecting them the first time, they should continue to show up.

Click to expand...

You misunderstand. I mean that the glitch is still there. I open word and the standard and formatting toolbars are still not showing on the new document, nor on any existing doc I choose to open. I go to View -> Toolbars and they are checked, however. The situation is as it was before I deleted the template - if I want to see them I have to un-check them and re-check them.

Any other ideas?

M-o-M

If the toolbars are not sticking, and you have to keep reselecting them and have already removed the normal template, the only thing left is to reinstall Office. You can not reinstall Word by itself in the Mac version as you can in the Windows version. The entire suite has to be reinstalled.

chscag said:

If the toolbars are not sticking, and you have to keep reselecting them and have already removed the normal template, the only thing left is to reinstall Office. You can not reinstall Word by itself in the Mac version as you can in the Windows version. The entire suite has to be reinstalled.

Click to expand...

Let me just check I have you correct - you don't just mean download and install the latest update of MS Office for Mac (because I already did that), you mean either find my old installation disk or get a brand new one and start again from scratch, right?

(By the way, now the wretched default font has changed for no apparent reason!)

M-o-M

According to your other post you're using MS Office 2008 with the latest updates to it. If that's correct, use the MS Office 2008 uninstaller or better yet follow Microsoft's instructions for complete removal as given here. That will remove everything except your documents and personal templates.

If you no longer have your Office 2008 install CD, you will either have to buy another or just update and buy Office 2011 instead. Office 2011 single install Home and Student is around $90 from several on line resellers.

chscag said:

According to your other post you're using MS Office 2008 with the latest updates to it. If that's correct, use the MS Office 2008 uninstaller or better yet follow Microsoft's instructions for complete removal as given here. That will remove everything except your documents and personal templates.

If you no longer have your Office 2008 install CD, you will either have to buy another or just update and buy Office 2011 instead. Office 2011 single install Home and Student is around $90 from several on line resellers.

Click to expand...

Thanks. All noted.

My daughter recently bought Office 2011 for her new 'Book so I might be able to install that. I note from the link that it's easier to do that than to uninstall-reinstall 2008.