Symptoms
When you try to open a document or file for an Office for Mac application, the application's
splash screen may appear with Optimizing font menu performance... but then the application
closes unexpectedly or hangs.
Note: If you can launch Entourage for Mac or Outlook for Mac on your computer and when
Word, Excel and PowerPoint are hanging on the splash screen, most likely the issue is font
related and the steps in the article may resolve the issue.
Cause
This problem may occur if there is a damaged or an unsupported font in one of the Fonts
folders on the computer.
When a Microsoft Office 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 or hang. The following conditions can
cause this problem to occur:
- Duplicate font files.
- Corrupted Font Cache file.
- Corrupted font files and folders.
Resolution
1. Quit all Applications.
2. In Finder click Go in the top menu and choose Home.
3. Open the Library folder
4. Open the Preferences folder
5. Open the Microsoft folder
6. Locate the Office Font Cache 11 (if present), and move to the Trash
7. Open the Office 2008 Folder, and move the Office Font Cache 12 (if present) to the Trash
If you have Office 2011, follow this additional step:
8. Open the Office 2011 folder in the Microsoft folder, and move the Office Font Cache to the
Trash
9. Launch Word, this will rebuild the Office Font cache
When the problem still persists, repeat the above steps and continue with the steps below.
2. In Finder click Go in the top menu and choose Home.
3. Open the Library folder
4. Open the Preferences folder
5. Open the Microsoft folder
6. Locate the Office Font Cache 11 (if present), and move to the Trash
7. Open the Office 2008 Folder, and move the Office Font Cache 12 (if present) to the Trash
If you have Office 2011, follow this additional step:
8. Open the Office 2011 folder in the Microsoft folder, and move the Office Font Cache to the
Trash
9. Launch Word, this will rebuild the Office Font cache
When the problem still persists, repeat the above steps and continue with the steps below.
Clear the System font cache (Mac OS X v10.4.x and later)
In Mac OS X 10.4.x and later, safe boot disables all fonts other than those in the
System\Library\Fonts folder, and it trashes all system font caches.
To start up in Safe Boot or Safe Mode, do the following:
1. Shut down the computer by going to the Apple menu and choosing Shut Down
2. Press the power button
3. Immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard
4. Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (gear going around),
during startup in Mac OS X v10.4.x or later, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, even if
you normally log in automatically
5. Launch Word when you are in Safe Boot, when it launches, do nothing and go to Word in the
top menu and choose Quit Word
To leave Safe Mode, restart the Mac normally, by going to the Apple menu and choosing
restart, without holding any keys during startup.
Once back in Normal Mode, test the Office for Mac applications again.
Disable the Microsoft Fonts
1. Click Go in the top menu in Finder and choose Computer
2. Open the Macintosh HD
3. Click on Library
4. Click on Fonts
5. Drag the Microsoft Folder to the Desktop
6. Restart the Mac
7. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc).If the problem doesn't recur, then disable 50% of the
Microsoft fonts and compare the results with both halves, and continuing in this process for the
half that reproduces the problem. See isolating half of the fonts in a font folder below.
Check for bad fonts
1. Resolve Duplicates and Validate Fonts in Font Book
a. Quit all applications
b. Click on Go in the top menu in Finder and choose Applications
c. Open Font Book
d. Click on All Fonts
e. Highlight the first font
f. Click on Edit, and choose Select All
g. Click on Edit, and choose Resolve Duplicates
h. When finished, with the Fonts still highlighted, click on Edit and select Validate Fonts
i. If any fonts show with the Red X beside them, disable these fonts and restart the Mac
2. Check for number of fonts installed in the folder: Macintosh HD/System Folder/Fonts.
There should be NO MORE than 255 files in this folder.
3. A bad font in Classic can cause a problem with any application and even OSX itself, not just
MS Office. OSX checks several places for fonts. One of those places is fonts in OS9, whether
Classic is running or not.
Deactivate Font Management Utilities
1. Deactivate all font management utilities, such as Adobe Type Manager, Extensis Suitcase
Fusion, Insider FontAgent Pro, Linotype FontExplorer X, etc.
2. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc). Then do one of the following:
If the problem recurs, then move on to the next section below.
If the problem doesn't recur, then re-activate your font management utility, and use it to
disable 50% of your fonts and compare the results with both halves, and continuing in this
process for the half that reproduces the problem. See isolating half of the fonts in a font folder
below.
Troubleshoot All Users Library Fonts Folder
1. Create a folder on your desktop named Disabled User Fonts.
2. Open the folder /Users/<user name>/Library/Fonts/.
3. Choose Edit > Select All, and then drag the contents of this folder (fonts and subfolders) to the
Disabled User Fonts folder on the desktop.
4. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc). Then do one of the following:
If the problem reoccurs, then move on to the next section below.
If the problem doesn't recur, then disable 50% of your fonts and compare the results with both
halves, and continuing in this process for the half that reproduces the problem. See isolating
half of the fonts in a font folder below.
Troubleshoot Your User Library Fonts Folder
1. Create a folder on your desktop named Disabled User Fonts.
2. Open the folder /Users/<user name>/Library/Fonts/.
3. Choose Edit > Select All, and then drag the contents of this folder (fonts and subfolders) to the
Disabled User Fonts folder on the desktop.
4. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc). Then do one of the following:
If the problem recurs, then move on to the next section below.
If the problem doesn't recur, then disable 50% of your fonts and compare the results with both
halves, and continuing in this process for the half that reproduces the problem. See Isolating
half of the fonts in a font folder below.
Troubleshoot the Office 2004 Fonts Folder
1. Create a folder on your desktop named Disabled Office 2004 Fonts.
2. Open the folder \Applications\Microsoft Office 2004\Office\Fonts.
3. Choose Edit > Select All, and then drag the contents of this folder (fonts and subfolders) to the
Disabled Office 2004 Fonts folder on the desktop.
4. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc). Then do one of the following:
If the problem recurs, then move on to the next section below.
If the problem doesn't recur, then disable 50% of your fonts and compare the results with both
halves, and continuing in this process for the half that reproduces the problem. See Isolating
half of the fonts in a font folder below.
Isolating half of the fonts in a font folder
This is a process of testing half of your data, in this case, fonts, then the other half to see which
half contains data that is causing a problem. Once a set of fonts are found to not cause the
problem, they can be set aside as having been tested proven as not causing the problem. Then,
the process is repeated with the set of fonts that are demonstrating the problem, by splitting
them in half again, and so on.
1. Having disabled all fonts through one of the above methods and confirming that the issue you
are troubleshooting no longer recurs, re-enable half of the fonts.
2. Attempt to perform the action which previously produced the problem (launching your
application, accessing the font menu, etc). Then do one of the following:
If the problem doesn't recur, then disable these fonts by moving them into a new folder on the
desktop named Tested Good Fonts, then re-enable the other half, and repeat step 2.If the
problem recurs, then disable half of the currently enabled font
Applies to
- Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac
- Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 for Mac
- Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac
- Microsoft Word 2008 for Mac
- Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011
- Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 2011
- Microsoft Word for Mac 2011
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 for Mac
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