microsoft word crashes on yosemite

I have Word 2011 v 14.5.4 running on Yosemite.

Used to have the same flickering/lag problem when selecting a file to open, which I solved by selecting the one that didn't have a preview image, but as of tonight, I simply cannot choose File/Open from inside Word. It freezes completely and requires a force quit.

Opening a blank document works fine. File/"Open recent" works fine. Can open Word docs from the finder, just not from inside Word.

Any ideas? thanks.

Same here. I upgraded my Mac Air to Yosemite and Word has been crashing non-stop ever since, no matter whether I have track changes on or not.

Thanks, your suggestion solved my problem.

@GabrieleK,

I'm not sure if you were able to finally work this out or not, but I eventually discovered the root of my issue with MS Office.

I use Word because I'm a freelance copywriter, and the majority of my clients expect my copy decks in Word format. However, I also dabble in some basic design work, so I use Illustrator and Pixelmator quite frequently. Over the past twelve months, I've downloaded several fonts from the web (both independent sellers and professional sites), and it appears that one or more of these fonts were corrupted or were having an adverse effect on Word. (I repeatedly had Word crash when the "Font Menus Loading" bar was at around 90%.)

I went through and deleted all User fonts from Font Book, and then I spent about an hour on IM with the Microsoft support team, during which we walked through the process of uninstalling and then reinstalling Office. Since that day, I've not had ONE problem opening MS Office for Mac.

I'm not sure if you have downloaded any fonts or not, but if so this may be the cause of your issue.

Also, please ignore my username. I made it in a fit of frustration a couple of years ago, and they don't let you change it. 😟

To date, I have not gotten any satisfactory responses which enabled me to fix the problem. Your explanation sounds very plausible because I have downloaded fonts -- the problem is that I don't want to delete them all because I use them for some design work that I do. Is there a way to determine which font causes the problem, rather than getting rid of all of them? Thanks!

@Kimouna,

I didn't outright delete all my User fonts - I actually just removed them from Font Book, and then kept them in a folder in my Dropbox for safe keeping and future reference. I had to remove them in bulk at the time because I had a copywriting deadline looming, and desperately needed to get Office back up and running as quickly as possible.

However, because I've used some of these fonts in work for clients, I have slowly begun to add them little by little back into Font Book. So far I have not experienced a crash, so I am guessing that if Office does crash again I will have a clear idea of which font is the perpetrator.

Short of this time-consuming process of elimination, I'm not sure what else you can do. Maybe someone with more technical prowess than me can respond with a suggestion?

I am having the same trouble, except on El Capitan. Both Word and Excel crash all the time. I tried reinstalling MS Office, latest version, but it has not gone away. Any other suggestions? How about downgrading to Mountain Lion?