Troubleshooting

Once you’ve installed Office, you’re supposed to leave its thousands of software pieces where they lie. If you drag Word out of the Microsoft Office 2008 folder, for example, it won’t work; double-clicking it does absolutely nothing.

Nevertheless, it’s possible that, while experimenting with your Mac or innocently trying to tidy up your hard drive, you’ll end up trashing or moving a file that Office needs to operate. Even when you use Office programs the usual way, your software creates settings and preference files that keep track of how you use and customize the software. Occasionally, a settings file or a bit of software becomes corrupted, causing all manner of strange behavior, odd crashes, and chaos. If you’re experiencing strange crashes, investigate the possibility that a settings file or a bit of Microsoft software has gone bad.

Check for a Bad Settings or Preference File

To test for a corrupt file, quit all Office programs, and dig into Home → Library → Preferences → Microsoft → Office 2008, then drag onto your desktop Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist and any Preference (or Settings) files that relate to your problem program. When you next start the program, it creates fresh, clean copies of these preference files. If your problem goes away, move the old, corrupt files from your desktop to the Trash. (If the corrupt files contain a lot of customization work, you can try further testing to see which specific file causes the problem, or—if you have backups—try ...

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