I'm an idiot. Help!

Hi everyone. First post here, so please forgive me if this is a silly question with a simple answer. I'm a relatively new Mac user.

I "repaired permissions" on my Mac because I was told it would help increase performance. This computer is a few years old and while I don't think it really needed it, someone told me that it was wise to do this every few months. I have no idea why.

I also went into my applications and deleted some things I don't need (Garage Band, Neo Office, SmartBoard, and some other things). I only deleted applications that I was positive I knew about and didn't need. (I didn't look at something, go 'Hm... I wonder what that is..' and delete it!) I did NOT delete anything associated with Microsoft Office but for some reason, now my Office documents won't open (Excel, and Word, most importantly). Microsoft Office 2008 is still showing up in my applications - and all of the Office products are still inside the folder, so I'm sure I didn't accidentally delete them.

When I click an Office document or try to open Word from my applications bin, I get "The application Microsoft Word quit unexpectedly... etc." with the option to "ignore", "report", or "relaunch."

Any ideas about why this is and how I can fix the issue?

Welcome to Mac-Forums..

First of all, whoever told you that repairing permissions would increase performance was wrong. It does no such thing. OS X is based on a Unix system which has a permission scheme to ensure only the right people/accounts can access the right files. Over time, these permissions might get out of whack and you might get errors associated with this lack of permissions. Repairing permissions will put this back in order and things will work just as did they did before, not faster or slower..

Do you have a backup either through Time Machine or something else of your machine? If so, you can revert back to the day before you started deleting stuff to see if things work. If you don't have a backup, then your only recourse would be to grab the Office 2008 installer and do a repair/re-installation..

Raz0rEdge said:

Welcome to Mac-Forums..

First of all, whoever told you that repairing permissions would increase performance was wrong. It does no such thing. OS X is based on a Unix system which has a permission scheme to ensure only the right people/accounts can access the right files. Over time, these permissions might get out of whack and you might get errors associated with this lack of permissions. Repairing permissions will put this back in order and things will work just as did they did before, not faster or slower..

Do you have a backup either through Time Machine or something else of your machine? If so, you can revert back to the day before you started deleting stuff to see if things work. If you don't have a backup, then your only recourse would be to grab the Office 2008 installer and do a repair/re-installation..

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Thank you so much for your response! I figured repairing permissions was pointless after I did it. My computer runs fine and I still have lots of memory, so there wasn't really a problem before.

Unfortunately, I don't have a backup. And I don't have the Install disc either, as it was given to me with Office on it already and I can't seem to find anyone with the install disc. I should already have Office though - is there another way to get the installer?

Thank you again for your time!

If you didn't pay for Office yourself, you wouldn't have the installer and you can't get the installer after the fact..

With no backup of your system (you really should look into remedying that), your optons are to seek out Neo-Office or Pages and other programs that will open Office documents..

@Shannon<3 . . . I noticed in your original post you only "deleted applictions you knew about and didn't need". I guess you didn't know NeoOffice can function as a complete drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. Is there any way you can get that app back?

You can download Libre Office which is free and seems to be better supported these days.

Dogbreath said:

@Shannon<3 . . . I noticed in your original post you only "deleted applictions you knew about and didn't need". I guess you didn't know NeoOffice can function as a complete drop-in replacement for Microsoft Office. Is there any way you can get that app back?

Click to expand...

Yes, actually! I used Neo back in the day and for some reason - I don't actually remember why - I decided I didn't like it much and quit using it.

osxx said:

You can download Libre Office which is free and seems to be better supported these days.

Click to expand...

I'll look into this! Thank you!