Microsoft… I was happy to see the updates to the Office Suite, expecting to see some improvements, but the result is a bit different: Microsoft shows me its nice Setup Assistant everytime I try to open a document (thank God I have Pages and Numbers).
According to MaCNN here are some possible fixes:

  1. Word Settings: If you’re experiencing a crash on launching Word 2008, try throwing out its settings file. Look in your home directory - that’s /Users/ and your account’s short name - in Library > Preferences > Microsoft. Toss Word Settings (10) and relaunch Word 2008.
  2. Remove the Microsoft AU Daemon from Startup Items: Open System Preferences, then navigate to “Accounts” and click “Startup Items,” then remove Microsoft AU Daemon.
  3. Corrupt normal template: The normal template file — located at ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm appears to be corrupt in many cases of crashing. The fix for the problem is as follows: create a new user account, launch Word 2008 under the new account (it should launch properly if this is the cause), then copy the aforementioned file from the clean (working) account to the same location in the old (crashing) account, replacing the corrupt file.
  4. Corrupt Microsoft.plist, etc. files Go to ~/Library/Preferences and delete everything that starts with com.microsoft…. Re-attempt application launch and usage.
  5. Corrupt fonts: Remove any recently added fonts temporarily, or use a tool like Font Doctor to search for corrupt fonts.

I’m going to have a lot of fun!

Another problem has been reported by some other users: the installation issues!
The fix after the jump…

  1. While logged in to an admin account, type the following command, as one line, and then press return: sudo chmod -R a-st “/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008″ “/Library/Fonts/Microsoft” “/Library/Application Support/Microsoft” “/Library/Automator” (If you donā€™t have the Special Media Edition of Office 2008, omit “/Library/Automator”.)
  2. Enter your account password when prompted.
  3. Type the following command, as one line, and then press return: sudo chown -h -R root:admin “/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008″ “/Library/Fonts/Microsoft” “/Library/Application Support/Microsoft” “/Library/Automator” (If you donā€™t have the Special Media Edition of Office 2008, omit “/Library/Automator”.)
  4. Enter your account password if prompted.

Thanks to Microsoft!

Posted in Macintosh Tips & Help, Microsoft