MacOFFX: How to Troubleshoot Office v. X for Mac Programs

This step-by-step article describes how to troubleshoot Microsoft Office v. X for Mac program issues.

The article discusses several steps that you can take to troubleshoot issues. Try the steps in the order that appear until you resolve the issue.

To troubleshoot an issue in an Office v. X for Mac program, follow these steps:

1. Move the Microsoft Preferences folder to the desktop:
   1. Quit any Office v. X for Mac programs that are running.
   2. In Finder, open the following folder:
      Hard disk:Users:user name:Library:Preferences
   3. Drag the Microsoft folder to the desktop near the Trash.
   4. Close the hard disk windows, and then start the Office v. X program in the usual way (do not press and hold the SHIFT key while you start the program).
2. If the issue still occurs, create a new user account on the computer, and give that user administrative rights. Log on to the new user account, and then start the Office v. X program. Do either of the following:
   • If the issue still occurs, go to step 3.
   • If the issue no longer occurs, your user profile may be corrupted. You can continue using the new user profile. Contact Apple if you want help moving your user files to the new profile.
3. If the issue still occurs, move the Microsoft .plist files to the desktop. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Quit any Office v. X for Mac programs that are running.
   2. In Finder, open the following folder:
      Hard disk:Users:user name:Library:Preferences
   3. Drag the following .plist file to the Trash, where Program is the name of the Office v. X for Mac program that you are troubleshooting:
      com.microsoft.Program.plist
      For example, if you are experiencing an issue with Microsoft Word X for Mac, drag the following file to the Trash:
      com.microsoft.Word.plist
   4. Close the hard disk windows, and then start the Office v. X program as usual.
   If the issue no longer occurs, the issue is caused by a damaged .plist file. If the issue still occurs, go to step 4.
4. Remove, and then reinstall the program:
   1. Run the Remove Office utility in the following folder on the Office X CD-ROM:
      Valuepack:Remove Office
      Select only Office X from the Remove Programs list.
   2. Empty the Trash.
      
      Note If you receive any error messages when you empty the Trash, repeat the step until you no longer receive error messages.
   3. Restart the computer.
   4. Perform a drag-and-drop installation of Office X. For additional information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
      311939  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311939/EN-US/ ) MacOFFX: How to Install Office v. X for Mac OS X (10.1)
5. If these steps do not resolve the issue, contact Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) for more help. For additional information about how to contact PSS, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
   Microsoft Product Support Services (http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=http%3a%2f%2fsupport.microsoft.com%2fdirectory%2fquestion.asp%3fsd%3dgn%26amp%3bfr%3d0)