Knowledge Base

How to troubleshoot font problems in Office for Mac programs

Article ID: 313535

Article Last Modified on 12/26/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac
Microsoft Entourage X for Mac
Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
Microsoft Excel X for Mac
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Standard Edition
Microsoft Office X for Mac Standard Edition
Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 for Mac
Microsoft PowerPoint X for Mac
Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac
Microsoft Word X for Mac

This article was previously published under Q313535

SYMPTOMS

When you try to start a Microsoft Office for Mac program or open a document for an Office for Mac program, the program's splash screen may appear, but then the program closes unexpectedly.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if there is a damaged or an unsupported font in one of the Fonts folders on your computer.

When a Microsoft Office X for Mac program or a Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac program starts, the program will try to read and to create an optimized list of the fonts that are available in the operating system. If the program finds a damaged font, the program may close unexpectedly. The following conditions can cause this problem to occur:

Duplicate font files.
Corrupted Font Cache file.
Corrupted font files and folders.

For more information about similar symptoms that have different causes, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

312209 MacWDX: Error message when you open Word: The application Microsoft Word has unexpectedly quit

313488 MacOFFX: Program quits after the Project Gallery appears

RESOLUTION

Important Before you follow these steps, make sure that you back up all the important files that you have in your User folder.

Identify and then remove duplicate or corrupted fonts

To resolve this problem, locate and disable the damaged font. To do this, use the following methods in the order that they appear in.

Caution Do not try to change any font folders that you find in the Mac OS X System folder.

Corrupted Font Cache

Open the following folder:

Hard disk\Users\User_name\Library\Preferences\Microsoft
For Office X, drag the Office Font Cache (10) file to the trash. For Office 2004, drag the Office Font Cache (11) to the trash.

Start Word to determine whether the problem is resolved.

Duplicate font files

On the desktop, click File, New Folder.
Name the new folder Old Fonts.
In the Finder, open the following fonts folders:
- Hard disk\Mac OS 9 System_folder\Fonts

Typically, this is Hard disk\System folder\Fonts

- Hard disk\Library: Fonts
- Hard disk\Users\User_name\Library\Fonts
Drag any duplicate font files that you find into the Old Fonts folder that you created in step 2.
Restart your computer.

Start Word to determine whether the problem is resolved.

Corrupted font files

In the Finder, open the folder that contains the Mac OS 9 fonts. Typically, the folder that contains the Mac OS 9 fonts is:

Hard disk\System folder\Fonts
Drag the font files in the Fonts folder to the Old Fonts folder on the desktop that you created in the "Duplicate font files" section.
Restart the computer.
Try to start Microsoft Word to determine whether the problem is resolved.
If the problem still occurs, return the font files from the Old Fonts folder back into the font folder that you used in step 1.
If the problem still occurs, repeat steps 1 through 4 and use a Fonts folder that differs from the folder that you used in step 1. Use one of the following Fonts folders:
- Hard disk\Library\Fonts
- Hard disk\Users\User_name\Library\Fonts

If the problem does not occur, there is a possible corrupted font located in the font folder that you used in step 1.

To determine the font that is causing the problem, use a process of elimination. Return half of the fonts at a time to the Fonts folder, and then test to see whether this problem occurs. To find the damaged font, follow these steps:

Open the Fonts folder that you removed the fonts from.
Open the Old Fonts folder, and then click as List on the View menu.
Click the first font file that is listed.
Scroll down about halfway through the list.
Hold the SHIFT key, and then click a font midway in the list. This will select about half of the fonts in the list.
Drag the selected fonts into the Fonts folder that you opened in step 1.
Try to start Word to determine whether the problem is resolved.
If this problem occurs, the damaged font is in the half that you copied into the Fonts folder. To find the damaged font, follow these steps:
1. Select half the fonts that you copied into the Fonts folder.
2. Drag these fonts into the Old Fonts folder.
3. Try to start Word to determine whether the problem is resolved.
4. If the problem still occurs, repeat steps a through c.
If the problem does not occur in step 7, repeat steps 3 through 8, selecting half of the remaining fonts in the Old Fonts folder.

Problems with the Mac OS X operating system

This problem may also occur if there are problems with the version of the Mac OS X operating system that you have installed on your computer. For more information about how to troubleshoot problems with the Mac OS X operating system, visit the following Apple Web site:

http://www.apple.com/support

Microsoft KB Archive/313535

Contents