Clipart Gallery crashes with clipart download imports

H

HSHarmon

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I have recently upgraded to a 27" iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, OSX 10.6.2 and I'm using Microsoft Office 2008. The problem I have been experiencing occurs when I try to add new Clipart from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart like I have always done. After moving from my old G5 to the new iMac I began noticing that my Clipart Gallery crashes whenever I download and then try to import the new clipart to the Microsoft Office Clipart Gallery.

I have always double-clicked the downloaded .cil file and then it would be installed into the gallery. Now however it crashes the gallery and I get an error message saying that the gallery cannot be opened independently of an Office program (ex/ Word). I also tried importing the .cil file from inside the Clipart Gallery with the same results.

I found the discussion "Word 2008, Mac OS 10.5.2 and Clip Art Gallery import" in the Word forum at mactopia+, but the suggested solutions did not immediately solve my problem. I wanted to share my solution with all those who may still be frustrated with their Clipart Gallery crashes.

I read through the thread and implemented the following:

1) Repair disk permissions (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility)
2) Deleted the microsoft clipart preferences at the following locations:
Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Clip Gallery Preferences
Home/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.ClipGallery.plist

These two solutions did not solve the issue alone; so I attempted to purge the gallery database of possible corruption.

3) To purge corrupted clipart database:
"Look for the clip gallery user database file in folder Microsoft Office 2004/Clipart/Clip Art

If it is there, move the content of the folder to a folder on your desktop.

Then look for the ~Microsoft Office 2008/Office/Media/Clipart/Personal
folder, and move the content of that to a folder on your desktop.

Now, your Clip Gallery should start without a crash, and rebuild its
database without a crash." by John McGhie May 6, 2008 5:16pm

These procedures did not solve my issue until I a) deleted the entire contents of the clipart folder entirely removing them from my computer and b) restarted my computer. Until the restart the removal of the clipart folder had no effect.

I was then able to import previously downloaded clipart .cil files to the gallery. However, new clipart downloads were download as .mpf files which are PC format and cannot be imported. As a work-around I opened the Clipart Gallery through Insert > Picture > Clipart menu and then clicked Online... It will automatically take you to the Office Online Clipart. After selecting and downloading clipart it seemed to correct the platform error and the files were downloaded as Mac .cil files.

Long story... my clipart gallery works now. :)

There may have been a simpler solution(?), but I hope this helps others with this issue.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Cheers,
Heather Harmon
 

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