Microsoft Office Word crashes using Lion

Unfortunately, the crashes and eventual need to reformat occur when when disconnected from Time Machine. But keeping autosave off may get me through my deadline. IMO, those of us with large files may be niche users, but should not be discounted.

The crash happens even with a two page word document or three slide presentation. Every time when I try to save the work I get some sort of disk write error. If I save the file using "Save As" and use different file name I can save the file. When I I used CUT and PASTE function the application crashes or I may not be able to save the document. Apple genius ran Disk Utiliy and I ran Drive Genius and no problems with the hard drive.

The crashing started after I installed Lion and the crash is very frequent with Mountain Lion. My wife's MB 17" runs Snow Lepoard and she has no issuse with MS office 2011.

This is cleary a incompatibility problem. I know the problems will be finger pointed by MS and APPLE on each other. For now I am stuck and I hope this problem will be resolved.

I have the same problem. I just got a brand new retina MBpro (but had to install Lion in anticipation of some other software compatibility issues) and did a clean install of Office 2011 on an otherwise empty hard drive. My first attempt to work on a Word doc with lots of comments and tracked changes (on Day #2 of owning the computer, with the vast majority of my files - and all of my apps - untransferred) resulted in 3 massive crashes when trying to save, with blank menus and popup boxes (just empty white rectangles) and total failure of autosave. It IS a real problem, it persists with a clean install on an otherwise empty hard drive, it exists without Time Machine (haven't added the new computer yet), and it is not due to crappy third party software - so give the original poster a break! Perhaps it's only a problem for people who are actually using Word to capacity or relying heavily on certain features, and that may not be you. I agree that the two clearly have lethal compatibility issues (even if only for users like me). My solution? I vastly prefer Pages, which also opens Word docs pretty well. When dealing with similar situations absolutely requiring Word, I will be going back to my old MBpro running 10.6 and Office 2011 (never had any problems with that configuration). Office sucked on the retina display anyway.

I have a similar problem, on a brand new Macbook Air with Mountain Lion and Office 2011/Word 14.2.3

I did not save or move any files from my old PC. Other than using Safari, Office was the first thing I set up.

Word crashes repeatedly; the page goes blank and so do the drop-down menus and pop-up boxes.

Sometimes there's a "word unexpectedly closed" with BAD_ACCESS error reports and sometimes I have to Force Quit.

I tried weeding out fonts, testing as another Mac user, removing preferences without any success.

I un-installed Office 2011 and reinstalled it with Microsoft technical support on the phone

... and the same thing happened once I started working heavy tracked changes/comment files.

No opinion on whether this is an inherent incompatability ... I just want it to go away, please. Any ideas?

I had this problem for months, first Word would crash if I turned on track changes, and lately I could not open file if someone turned on track changes when working on it, It would simply close Word without any error message.

First I tried to reinstall Office, but that didn't solve my problem, then I tried with creating new user that helped, so I knew problem is in User, probably in Preferences folder.

I tried to delete all preferences in old user (backup old ones before) but that didn't help.

Then I deleted one hidden preference file .GlobalPreferences.plist and that solved all problems with Word crashing, hang and not opening files with track changes turned on.

🙂

Just in support of the person who added the initial post: This problem does exist and it is not marginal!

I have had exactly the same problem! Bought brand new imac in October 2011 - with Lion and Office 2011 and have NEVER been able to get word to work - just as previous people describe:

Word documents (even those just started on this new Mac) will crash within minutes as soon as I use track changes and/or comments function. AND NO - these are not huge document (one side of A4 is sufficient) - and the number of comments or track changes really does not matter (e.g. 4 comments in a 6 page document is enough...).

I get blank error messages - word will freeze and sometimes there will be a note saying 'memory has run out' or my 'disk' is not properly inserted... (all nonsense).

I have spent 4 months first with Mac and then with microsoft support (email and phone support) trying to solve the problem and done everything from deleting obscure preference files to duplicate fonts - rebuilding identities - checking memory etc to re-installing office to sending crashed files to a microsoft expert... nothing has worked -- microsoft finally said my Mac must be broken.

So I took that back for service where it was checked thoroughly for a week (it was fine) and as a precaution I had it re-set and re-built completely, including OS reinstallation etc.

Result: no change at all except Word now crashes even more quickly than before. And Outlook (the only thing that did actually work initially) now refuses to sync with ical (this did work at first).

One of the most frequent responses I got on forums was that this problem does not exist... clearly it does exist! Maybe not for a huge majority of users but for a significant number -- I guess most people have just given up posting about it... (btw my partner bought a new mac airbook with Lion and office 2011 and this has exactly the same problem - only difference is that he does not have to use comments or track changes...).

The only solution I see is throw the MAc out of the window -- or stop using word (unfortunately for work reasons I have no choice but to use word/windows - so it will have to be the former solution...).

Sorry - not very constructive I know, but there really do not seem to be any solutions.

To add to the above:

I have had a look at the recent microsoft forums and there is a huge trail of messages about word crashing randomly while any number of normal functions are used (including opening and closing documents...) - so this clearly is a big problem - but obviously discussed more on the microsoft sites than here.

Again - no solutions there either.

I am sure Mac is entirely innocent - still extremely frustrating as I am now stuck with my mac (well, and it is good for watching films and editing music - just not what I have to do most of the time).

I hate to add this to the mix, but my Word 2011 crashes and subsequent requirement for hard drive reformatting have not reoccured since my drive and its cable were replaced by Apple 2 weeks ago.

The recent Microsoft office 2011 update (14.2.4) and Mountain Lion software update (10.8.2) seems to be stable. I never encountered any crash on Word/Excel/Power Point. Please try updating both OSX and Microsoft Office to the latest and see if this improves.

My personal observation is that the recent Microsoft update (14.2.4) does not solve the problem (I have it and there's no change at all).

re Mountain Lion - before using that solution (and spending yet more money on an update) I would urge anyone considering that to read the microsoft support forums. there are a number of posts by people saying the update to Mountain Lion has either removed their whole Office 2011 suit or left them unable to even open any part of it - again so far there seem to be no solutions to this problem.

I have not tried mountain lion myself, so this is just reporting what I read on other forums, but I would be very suspicious about this solution as it might leave you in a worse position (and I will not be trying it myself).

I have tried running Office word 2008 on my Lion Mac but the problems are exactly the same as with office 2011.

I might go with WordCrash Expert's idea and go for the Snowleopard and office 2008 - and yes - a refund for Lion and Office 2011 would be nice (and it is a shame because both Lion and Office 2011 look like nice products if only they worked).

I also agree about lost working hours - a considerable investment in my case too and to no effect.