How do I get the fonts I add to the Font Book to appear in Word?

Word has an annoying quirk. If it's already running when you add new fonts, they will not show up in Word's menus until you quit the app and relaunch it.

This helped solve my problem - http://help.fontshop.com/entries/21547983-I-can-t-find-the-font-in-Microsoft-Wor d-on-Mac-OS-X

Do NOT follow the advice given by mediadebb. Unless, that is, you don't mind deleting every font Office installed for your use. You can have as many subfolders in either the main Library's Fonts folder, or the Fonts folder in your user account as you want.

There is one problem with that Microsoft folder, but it doesn't have anything to do with its existence. The problem is that Office installs old versions of newer fonts already installed by OS X. Those create font conflicts between those fonts. What you do need to remove are the old conflicting fonts.

In the main /Library/Fonts/Microsoft/ folder, remove these older legacy TrueType fonts. Note that they do not have a file extension such as .ttf.

Andale Mono

Arial Black

Arial Narrow

Arial Rounded Bold

Comic Sans MS

Georgia

Impact

Tahoma

Trebuchet MS

follow the medialab insctructions---EXCEPT DO NOT DELETE THE MICROSOFT FOLDER. Simply copy the fonts into the microsoft folder.

This is false information. Fonts do not need to specifically be in the /Library/Fonts/Microsoft/ folder in order for fonts you add to appear in the MS Office apps. As the above link explains, they also do not need to be in the /Library/Fonts/ folder in order to work. They can be put there, but it isn't a necessity. The Fonts folder in your user account works just as well.

For me, only fonts in the Microsoft folder show in Word 2011 for Mac.

But moving new fonts into the Microsoft folder did not make them show up in Word.

I've used Font Book, put fonts into the Library folder, put them into the enclosed Microsoft folder, and rebooted, but none of it has worked.

Basically, your system isn't working right if added fonts don't show up in all apps.

As explained above, did you activate these fonts after Word (or any Office app) was running? If so, then no, newly activated fonts won't appear until you shut down the Office app and relaunch it.

Fonts not appearing in all apps (even though Font Book says they're active) is a very common fault with Font Book. Follow these basic font resetting steps:

Close Font Book if it's open, and any other apps you may have running. From the desktop, hold down the Shift key and choose Go > Library from the menu. Open the Preferences folder. Put the following two items in the trash:

com.apple.FontRegistry.user.plist

com.apple.FontBook.plist

Keep all other apps closed. From an administrator account, open the Terminal app and enter the following command. You can also copy/paste it from here into the Terminal window:

sudo atsutil databases -remove

Terminal will then ask for your admin password. As you type, it will not show anything, so be sure to enter it correctly.

This command removes all font cache files. Both for the system and the current logged in user account. After running the command, close Terminal and immediately restart your Mac.

When the system boots back up, do not launch Font Book. Manually place the fonts you want to see in Office 2011 in the Fonts folder of your user account. You can also place them in the root /Library/Fonts/ folder. It doesn't matter where within either one.

Now launch your Office apps and test. Assuming nothing is wrong with the OS or the fonts themselves, the fonts should be available.

Thank you,

That is clear and seems like it ought to work, but it didn't.

I tried it again after also deleting some Microsoft .plist files that seemed font related. I also moved the Font folders out of my user Library and disk Library (leaving only the required fonts in the System Library). That reduced the fonts showing in Word by a few, but Word continued to show some fonts (well, at least one, I didn't check further) that are not in that folder. Word was still finding Century Gothic. Where?

After I moved the Fonts folder back to the disk Library, Word was the way it was before, showing some of the fonts in that folder, but not all.

I suppose I can try reinstalling OSX next?

I appreciate your help.

Before spending the time reinstalling the OS, create a new test user account and login to it. Try Word from the new account. If fonts behave as they should there, then the problem is somewhere in your normal account. If the same thing happens, then it's a system wide issue. That could be the OS needing a reinstall, Office needing to be reinstalled, or both.

Another quick thought. Is Office 2011 up to date? From within any Office app, click Help > Check for Updates. If there are any, apply them and see if it helps.

Word was still finding Century Gothic. Where?

Century Gothic was installed by Office 2011. When you move any fonts out of the root /Library/Fonts/ folder, the OS (though not always) may still consider them open. Even if you put them in the trash. You have to restart to release the fonts from use. After restarting, nothing from the /Library/Fonts/ folder should appear in Word.

CenturyGothic.ttc is also installed by OS X into /Library/Application Support/Apple/Fonts/iWork. Unless this directory location is added to Font Book as a new font collection, the fonts in this location are not found during standard System font library searches, and remain unseen by applications.

This is true from at least Lion through El Capitan.

Yes, OS X also installs a copy of that font. In that location, only the iWork apps see it when using those apps.

Wow: Even reinstalling OSX has not helped. The fonts are still not showing in Word. To recap:

I'm using OS 10.11.4 and Office 2011 for Mac.

The same problem exists in another account on this Mac. The problem does not exist in non-Office programs.

I've used Fontbook. I've deleted duplicate fonts manually from the Fonts folders. I've used FontNuke to delete font caches.

I've deleted the Normal.dotm template, and, from one or both Library/Preferences folders:

• file com.apple.FontBook.plist
• com.apple.FontRegistry.user.plist
• com.microsoft.word.plist

• com.microsoft.office.plist.

I've reinstalled the operating system.

Is there anything left to try, other than reinstalling Word? (I can't find the key to reinstall, don't want to buy Office for Mac 2016 because it's said to be crap, neither do I want to pay even more money ⚠ for the same old version again!)

Is it just this specific third party font you're trying to use that won't appear in Word, or does it vary (some system fonts won't appear, either). I was helping someone else some months back with a font set that wouldn't appear in Word, and only Word 2011. They sent me the fonts to look over. There was nothing technically wrong with them but I rebuilt the internal names and saved them back out as OpenType fonts. Just rewriting a font can often fixes issues with it. The new fonts worked in every single app as they were supposed to - except Word 2011. Of the four type faces (regular, italic, bold, bold italic), Word would not for any reason show the bold italic font.

Is this a free font I can download from the same site you got it from? I'd like to look it over and see what's going on. Or, you could email it to retoucher at jklstudios dot com.

I have no issues with Office 2016. Yes, the initial perpetual release had some ugly bugs/behavior, but the 15.15 updates cleaned up virtually everything (it's up to 15.20 now).

Should add since we're in the Mountain Lion forums. Office 2016 requires Yosemite or El Capitan. So don't purchase it if you're running Mountain Lion and have no plans to upgrade the OS, or you'll have software you can't use.

Hi Kurt,

There are other fonts not showing. As an example, though, I need Kameron. I got it from Google fonts. http://www.fonts.com/web-fonts/google?showGoogleFontsDialog