Office for Mac 2011 keeps crashing

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Level 1

8 points

Office for Mac 2011 keeps crashing

My machine: A Mac Mini (late 2012)

My OS: Yosemite 10.10.3

My app: Office for Mac 2011 with latest update 14.5.2

I work as a freelance advertising copywriter and logo designer. For the writing portion of my job, I really need Word as it is what ALL of my clients use and also it allows them to track changes (and me to accept or decline them). Otherwise I would happily use Google docs or Pages.

I also have been doing some logo design to add another service to my repertoire. For this I use Adobe Illustrator, and in the process I've downloaded several fonts which I keep in Font Book. In the past two weeks, Microsoft Office products have all been crashing right when I try to open them. I noticed that Word freezes up right when it says it is "Optimizing font menu performance."

I have a sneaking suspicion that something with the fonts is screwing with Office. Does anyone else have this problem or know of a solution?

Previously attempted troubleshooting:

Updated Office via Microsoft

Installed Onyx to clean up the font cache

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), Office for Mac 2011

Posted on Jun 23, 2015 5:12 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

D.Cohen

Level 6

8,588 points

Jun 23, 2015 5:26 AM in response to Pabbbles

Try the steps below:

Quit MS Word, open the Go menu with the Option (Alt) key pressed - Library - locate the file 'com.microsoft.Word.plist' and move it to your Desktop. Open MS Word once again. If the problem is resolved, you can delete the file from Desktop.

If this doesn't help, quit all MS Office apps and open the Go menu with the Option (Alt) key pressed - Library - Preferences - Microsoft. Locate the file 'com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist' and move it to your Desktop. Restart Word. if everything works, remove this file.

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

Jun 23, 2015 7:29 AM in response to Pabbbles

From my own experience, the MS Office 2011 may have become corrupted.

By reinstalling Office 2011 you might be able to address these problems.

The current version of Office 2011 is 14.5.2

First - find your Office 2011 install disc with the product key # - and only then remove Office according to MS instructions

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2398768

Or go here to DianefromOregon's site for help removing Office 2011:

http://www.officeformachelp.com/2012/12/office-for-mac-2011-remove-office/

then Reinstall from DVD

then enter your Product #

After successfully reinstalling Office 2011, update your Office product by going to the Help menu within Word or Excel or PowerPoint and select Update.

How to locate product keys

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2279109

or here on locating product keys

http://office.about.com/od/MicrosoftOfficeMac/a/Best-3-Ways-To-Find-Microsoft-Of fice-For-Mac-Key-Codes.htm

Or

http://try.officeformac.com/store?Action=ContentTheme&Locale=en_US&SiteID=msmacu s&pbPage=CSTable&resid=VSGpKAoydBAAAINBCDQAAABU&rests=1428269373647

This note is updated as of June 23, 2015

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Answer 3

Pabbbles Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2015 8:01 AM in response to Sparkleberry

Thank you so much Sparkleberry! That seems to have worked.

It was a bit of an odyssey as Microsoft appear to have erased all records of purchases prior to 2012 (for some reason), so I spent about an hour and a half with support trying to sort it out.

Anyway, I'm back up and running!

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Answer 4

Jun 25, 2015 8:16 AM in response to Pabbbles

That's great, Pabbles. I am glad they helped you get legit again. On my MBPro I had nothing but crashes until I found the tip to reinstall. So, I dug through cabinet drawers to find my original disk, reinstalled it, and since then have had no 'crashes' myself.

PS, Now is the time to make a good backup.

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Answer 5

Jun 28, 2015 12:58 PM in response to Pabbbles

Hi All,

I have tried all of the above suggestions and excel keeps crashing on me. There is a macro in the sheet but I have disabled it to no avail. Everytime I try and write a formula, the sheet crashes.

Does anyone have any further suggestions as it is really beginning to annoy me.

I am on an Office 365 subscription so no install disk but I reinstalled from a new download.

All the best

Heath

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Answer 6

Jun 28, 2015 1:12 PM in response to Staffchild101

Heath, have you tried disabling the macro, then copying the sheet over to a new sheet in a new workbook with a different name?

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Answer 7

Jun 28, 2015 1:50 PM in response to Sparkleberry

Sparkleberry, I have given it a try on one of the sheets and so far no worries. I will try it out with the rest of the workbook and hopefully it will be of equal success. Thank you very much. Much appreciated.

Apparently there is something in my VBA that is affecting the sheet.

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Answer 8

donm2000

Level 1

8 points

Jul 14, 2015 9:25 AM in response to D.Cohen

> open the Go menu with the Option (Alt) key pressed - Library - Preferences - Microsoft. Locate the file 'com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist' and move it to your Desktop. Restart Word. if everything works, remove this file.

Word 2011, newest build, was crashing when printing. First time this happened I re-installed everything and it worked again for a few months or so. Didn't feel like re-installing so I found this thread and followed the basic steps listed above, finding any of the plist files with word or office in them, deleted them, and it works now.

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