MS Word/Excel conflict in fonts

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Level 1

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MS Word/Excel conflict in fonts

I have a Macbook Pro which has suddenly developed a tick that I can't work out - when I try to start MS word or excel as it 'optimises the fonts' it throws up a message telling me that *(name of font) is conflicted and needs to be removed. I've been on Font book and removed any fonts that have issues (which aren't the ones Word or Excel tell me are issues) but still get error message and as it goes through every single font on my computer it never gets to open. I have no idea why this is happening and am unable to use Word or Excel or open any file with those extensions. I've repaired permissions, taken MS works off and put it back on but still get the same message. Does any one have any ideas?
thanks!

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 14, 2009 1:12 PM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,700 points

Apr 14, 2009 1:23 PM in response to lizziewizz42

Office sometimes throws out messages that are incorrect in regards to fonts. Download and run Font Finagler to clear the font cache files from your Mac. Please let us know after that if anything has changed.

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Answer 2

lizziewizz42 Author

Level 1

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Apr 14, 2009 2:30 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Did as you suggested and it seems to have worked - thank you! Font book is showing quite a few fonts that have issues though, should I clear them or leave them?
thanks for your help!

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,700 points

Apr 14, 2009 2:50 PM in response to lizziewizz42

Font book is showing quite a few fonts that have issues though, should I clear them or leave them?

That's kind of a "watch and wait" thing. If your cache files being corrupted again in a rather short amount of time (causing garbled text or error messages from Office), then you should consider removing them since they are damaged. It does also depend on now serious Font Book thinks the errors with the fonts are.

Bad fonts can actually cause a number of system errors since each enabled font does take up a small amount of residence in RAM. A bad font can then overflow the area in RAM it's suppose to be contained to and intrude on another application's space.

Replace any fonts you have that with fresh copies from the original disks they came from. Any others, download them again if they were obtained from sites that host free fonts. Also note that most free fonts are major league junk. Avoid them if you can. There are good ones out there, but they represent a small percentage compared to the ones that no one should ever use.

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