Microsoft Word on MacBook Pro with macOS Catalina Version 10.15.6

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

There is no reason to ever run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community   

Uninstall CleanMyMac according to the developer's instructions.

You can check to see if you've removed all of the files by downloading and running Find Any File to search for any files with the application's name  and the developer's name in the file name.  For example for CleanMyMac software you'd do the following searches: 

1 - Name contains cleanmymac

2 - Name contains macpaw

Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.

FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  

What version of Word do you have? If not sure, use Finder "Go" menu, select Applications, scroll to MIcrosoft Word and highlight it, press Command i and look for the version in the Info window.

I have the current version 16.39 and it is working with 10.15.6.

recently upgraded to 10.15.16 and my word is causing problems to the point I can't use it. I also have version 16.39. It seems to be leaking memory and asks me to force quit since the app reaches over 60GB. If I don't do anything within minutes it closes by itself. I uninstalled office and reinstalled, same problem. Used Clean My Mac, and doesn't help.

The documents are also changed. regular font turns to italics and bold. bold is regular and just is messed up. the same document is fine in onedrive on the cloud and on a Dell computer.

Any suggestions?

Those are not issues I have had or heard of. If someone else here doesn't help you may want to also post to or search on the Microsoft Word for Mac forum: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_word-mso_mac?sort=LastReplyDate&dir=Desc&tab=All&status=all&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=all&isFilterExpanded=false&page=1

I am running 10.15.6 and word overnight was auto upgraded to 16.41 and now I am having issues as described in this thread. Word will not open, gives an error message as soon as I open it and then closes. Powerpoint, excel and all the the other office suite programs are operating fine. I did notice the legacy s/w warning when I restarted this morning, not sure if its related. I am using pages as my workaround but its not ideal. if anyone has suggestions, please offer them.

Used Clean My Mac, and doesn't help.

That could be the problem. CMM is totally unneeded and interferes with automated maintenance and security routines you paid Apple a lot of money to build into macOS.

Are other third-party utilities installed? Anti-virus? Torrent software? Banking security software?

I'm having the same problem with opening Word with the new Catalina upgrade. I went to safe mode and tried to open Word and had the same problems it would start Word and open the document then go to the error screen.

Not sure what to do other than using other programs to edit or create docs.

Help?

So what I found out is the Word version 16.41 20081900 is the insider version of Microsoft Word. It is having problems and Microsoft is working on it but has not solved it yet so more to come.

If you download the 16.40.20081000 version which is the Production version and it works fine. Just go to help and click update and click advanced tab and then click the drop down and put production and unclick the auto update and then uninstall the insider version and the go to Office365 and install the Word version. It will be the 16.40.28001000 version which works fine.

Fun fun.

I have this problem and am unable to access all my documents. The only info I have found, and I am not a geek to bear with my explanation, is that the Apple update runs on 64 bits, whereas out old MSWord is configured in 32 bits. It instructed me to go to A🍎>About this Mac>Overview>System report>Apps and check out whether your MSWord info. If it's a "legacy/32" version it is not compatible. At the time of installation of Catalina you had to opt out of that specific update. So Apple has provided an answer, but no solution. They sold out to Microsoft, where you must download their software and then pay the annual fee to access your own documents. Plus, you must save them to a MicroSoft Cloud. Haven't figured out how to avoid that yet...This stinks!!!

In the interim, Look into the Free LibreOffice, it handles MS Office files…

https://www.libreoffice.org/

yes problem persist when booted in safe Mode

No 3rd party applications installed, except slingplayer but I doubt that would be the issue.

If you need to access your Word files before you're able to get a more recent version of Word give the free LibreOffice app a try. I use it routinely as I gave up on MS Office.