Why is Microsoft Word continuously freezing?

I want to add: I was instructed to delete a file in Users/Dominic/Library/Preferences/

com.Microsoft.Word.plist. I deleted it and it works fine. For about 15 minutes.

Then it’s back to not working again.

If it’s not a legal copy of Word, you may have installed a corrupted version and may need to obtain a new copy. Otherwise, have you downloaded all the updates for Office 2008, using Microsoft AutoUpdate tool? If so, and that didn’t work, you might need to reinstall with your original disc.

@TheIncomparableBenziniBrothers

It was a legal copy; I bought it at the Apple Store. I checked for updates and it says there are none.

The CD has already been installed on two computers, so I have one chance left and then I have to buy it again. But how come deleting this preference file fixes the problem temporarily?

You could always switch to Open Office (temporarily) so that you have something to take notes with.

Or you could switch to iWork—Pages can read any Word document (even .docx), doesn’t tax the system the way Word does, and is generally more user-friendly than Word.

(I never use Word anymore, because I can convert Pages documents to Word documents with minimal fussing.)

Otherwise, I have no idea why Microsoft Word is freezing. One question, though—do Excel and Powerpoint freeze as well? (And what do you mean by freeze? Can you force-quit the application, or do you need to completely restart your computer?)

I haven’t tried Excel or PowerPoint yet and yes, I can Force Quit it, but that’s it; nothing seems to fix anything.

I would start with making a new user account. See if it works OK when using the other account.

That will help pinpoint if the problem is system wide or specific to your user account. Office spews shit all over the place so it is hard to track down the problem.

Because it’s winter outside

Because it’s Microsoft.

He still needs help. We should hold off on the jokes until this is resolved.

@johnpowell Yes, and that WAS help.

@DominicX: Download and install openoffice.

@johnpowell Not “sitting back and laughing” here then?

1) Use Open Office
2) Try to forget that you wasted money on a Microsoft product
3) Finally realize the beauty of open source
4) ????
5) PROFIT

Why don’t you just use Bean or Textedit?

I used to use Bean but now just stick with Textedit when I need it.

They are both better than that Microsoft trash.

Open office is free but it is clunky, slow on very large documents, has memory leaks and very resource hungry – it is far from being the equal of MS Office yet. As for your MS Office software you can install on as many systems as you like as long as “de-install” it first. I change computers regularly and just keep reinstalling the software. Licence it by phone – not online and tell the technician what you are doing.

Okay, well, I downloaded the free trial version of iWork, so I’m going to try it out and I may end up buying it and replacing MS Office.

@wenn

No offense, but TextEdit might be okay for notes, but that’s not all I do and I need something with more features.

@DominicX Well all you said in your question was you need it for notes, not other things, sooooo….....

Bean then. Or keep iWork and stick with Pages.

@DarkScribe: depends on the system you’re running, on ubuntu and windows i never saw any real issue, resource hungry as it may be it’s still better than Office.

@Thammuz on ubuntu and windows i never saw any real issue, resource hungry as it may be it’s still better than Office.

It is cheaper than office, that is all. Name the areas where it surpasses Office? Then name all the areas where it hasn’t quite matched Office. I wish that it was a viable alternative – I am not a Microsoft fan, but it isn’t. Not yet – maybe one day.

(I run a cross platform office Mac/PC and Unix servers.)

@DarkScribe: tell me in which case it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. He doesn’t have to write a novel, he only needs to take notes. And so do i.

I can’t think of a meaningful advantage that office offers over open office, as far as day-to-day use goes. If you happen to have some more in-depth need, i can’t tell if it’s as good or not, i usually don’t need anything more than writing and basic formatting.

Last but not least saving and encoding in open office is MUCH better. To the point that i use it to restore damaged files from my father’s office…

@Thammuz He doesn’t have to write a novel, he only needs to take notes. And so do i.

We seem to have segued from “better that Office” to “it meets the limited needs that I have”.

Not quite the same thing. If you do not use the full capability of MS Office, then there are possible many other apps that will suffice. For just taking notes Open Office is probably overkill.

@DarkScribe I simply say that in my experience it turns out to be a better tool. Obviously this is related to what i actually do.

Actually, I do have to write a novel. I’ve entered NaNoWriMo. Not to mention I write stories/novellas all the time.

I also use European characters and Japanese fonts a lot.

@DominicX: All of which you can do with openoffice

By the way, I discovered that it was not isolated to my user. I created a new user and the same thing happens. I’m going to uninstall Office. When I get home and get access to the CD, I’m going to install it again but I’m pessimistic. Until then, I’m currently using Pages.

Have you repaired permissions/file associations etc.? Does it happen when you open it both by clicking on a document and directly as an application? Have you run MS (Office) Auto-Update?

@DarkScribe

Well, you’re not going to believe this, but I just fixed the problem.

At least, I know what was causing the problem. I still don’t understand how it causes the problem, but it does for some reason. Someone who understands Macs more might be able to explain it or maybe my computer is still a little fucked up.

So, here’s what happened: ever since I started these notes documents, I wanted to quickly access them, so instead of scrolling through all my documents to find the document entitled “LIN.docx” for example, I typed in “lin” into the little search bar in the open box when you click “Open” on MS Word. When I typed in “lin”, all files in the documents folder containing the letters “lin” in the title and in the document would appear. This made the list shorter, so I could scroll down quicker to the L’s and find “LIN.docx”. Then when I double clicked on it, MS Word froze.

But that’s what was causing the problem: typing it in the search box instead of just scrolling down in the documents folder. I’ve tested it. If I just click “Open” and scroll down to “LIN.docx” and open it, it’s fine. But if I type it into the search box so that only documents with “lin” in them appear and then click on “LIN.docx” and open it, it freezes. I don’t understand why this happens, but it does and I can get it to work now.

I didn’t notice this at first because I had grown into the habit of typing it into the search box almost every time and I didn’t understand why that would be a problem, but it is. So I don’t do it anymore. Whatevs. It works now.