OSX and Office

I was hoping someone here might be able to help me.

I'm looking at a MacBook Pro for a client of mine as a favor to another client (they know I'm not very experienced with Macs). The problem they're having is that none of the Microsoft Office applications will launch. When I first turn the computer on and click on the Word icon in the dock, it'll bounce for a while (about 10 seconds) and then stop without anything happening. If I click on it again, it will bounce once and nothing happens. If I click on another application like Excel, it'll bounce a couple times and stop, and then every other time it'll bounce once then stop.

The MacBook is running 10.7.5 and Office 2008. I don't have the installation discs for Office.

There's not a lot of information on this type of problem, but I've tried several of the suggestions I've found.

- ran a disc repair by booting into the Disk Utility
- ran "repair disc permissions"
- removed relevant plist files to make the program recreate them
- I even went through validating the fonts

So far I've struck out. I just can't get the application to launch. Any suggestions?

Open up Console (It's in Applications/Utilities, or runnable via Spotlight).

In Console, go to All Messages in the upper left to show everything at once.

Then launch an Office app and look for relevant errors in the Console log output.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/mac_os_x_using_console_to_troubleshoot_problems/

This is a pretty standard way to get more info to aid in troubleshooting a number of Mac issues. Similar to looking in Event Viewer in Windows.

Since this specific issue is with Microsoft Office, it should also have come with a Microsoft Update program. Make sure to fire that up and ensure they have the latest updates for Office.

Thanks, Tom, it's good to know about that console (I spend a ton of time in event viewer).

Here's what I'm getting when I try to launch Word:

com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: ([0x0-0x26026].com.microsoft.Word[357]) Exited with code:1

Both of the numbers before and after the "com.microsoft.Word" part increase each time one of the Office apps is launched.

Unfortunately I don't see any sort of Office updater...

*edit*
I just tried creating a new admin account and launching Word from there. It crashed even quicker...

Is there a reason the Mac OS has not been updated to a more current version?

I'm not sure, it's not mine I can do that but I'm not sure if the client wants it (though I don't know why they wouldn't).

Good call on creating a new account. That helps confirm it's nothing in the users account causing the problem.

The error you got from Console indicates Word is not even starting at all. So it's not a crash, it's a failure to launch issue.

"com.apple.launchd.peruser.501" is a user process, owned by user ID 501 (usually the first user ID on a Mac) that is responsible for launching any programs for the user. It's trying to start Word and failing. The numbers changing are a timestamp (I think), and a process ID (the 357) of trying to start the new process. Those aren't going to be relevant for any search results.

Exit code 1 though is a non 0 exit indicating a problem, but unfortunately not much to explain it.

There are a few possibilities I can think of:
- The app is damaged. Since nothing in Office is running, it's possibly a shared library (think DLL) with the damage.
- 3rd party security software may be causing a problem and blocking execution for some reason. I'd expect a log of such but no guarantees here.

Getting Office patched up may repair the damage. If you aren't seeing Microsoft Update around, you can download the patches manually. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads - down at the bottom is a not so useful 2008 link. It's out of support, and last update seems to be 12.3.6. If you find Word in the Finder, and do a Get Info on it (Command-I or under the File menu in Finder), it should show the version they currently have.

Thanks for the help, Tom. Unfortunately my time with the laptop was up and I wasn't able to get it running again. I would have loved to try some of the things you suggest.

I think, however, that you're onto something with the security software. She had some sort of software on there (Mac Keeper, I think? I can't remember), and I didn't feel very confident about it.

Isn't Mac Keeper Spamware ???

Cheers

Cris

I'll have to verify that that was the exact software she was using. If so, I'll advise her to remove it. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with OSX software to look out for. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it didn't do anything to help her, but she seemed to really want it on there...

It's also possible that this copy of Office was installed in some pirate fashion, so it doesn't have all its bits and parts where they belong.

That wouldn't surprise me. She claims that the MacBook came with Office on it when she bought it, and that it didn't have any installation media. 2008 was never on the App Store, was it?

The only version of Office on the App Store is Office for iPad. Microsoft does have digital versions and defaulted to this for anyone buying from the Home Use Program. The download would be a .dmg file for the Mac, a sort of .iso equivalent.

Checking my NAS, the .dmg (or the CD if it was a physical disc) had an installer on it. Office 2004 had offered people the choice of using an installer, or dragging and dropping the apps they wanted.

Are you sure? I could have sworn that I installed Office for Mac through the Mac App Store

Yes. Office for OSX is not in the App Store. OneNote and a few other bits and pieces are though.