OS 10.5 and Entourage 2004 Email: crash if click font color button

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

With Office 11.3.9 (Entourage 11.3.6) and OS 10.5 on a G5 PowerMac:

Whenever I select the font color button when writing an html email message,
Entourage crashes. This did not happen before Leopard and is the only
problem I¹ve experienced with Entourage since installing OS 10.5.

Rebuilding the database does not help nor does Disk Utility¹s Repair
Permissions.

It also did not help to move or trash these two preferences:
Users/~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Entourage.plist
Users/~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Entourage.pref.plist

Is this a Leopard-Entourage-conflict bug that others have observed or is it
a corrupt preference?

If a corrupt preference, which would be the most likely culprit and what
would I lose by trashing it?

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Diane Ross]

Whenever I select the font color button when writing an html email message,
Entourage crashes. This did not happen before Leopard and is the only problem
I¹ve experienced with Entourage since installing OS 10.5.

It¹s not a Leopard thing. I¹m assuming you have restarted and repaired
permissions since installing.

A similar bug where clicking on preferences in the menu bar would cause
Entourage to crash was fixed by using "Remove Office" and reinstalling.
"Remove Office" will get your permissions and make sure all of your files
are installed correctly. It¹s important that you update or Entourage will
give you the "This Identity Cannot Be Opened With This Version of Entourage"
error.


Mactopia Downloads
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx>

You need to get these updaters:

11.3.5 combo
11.3.6 requires 11.3.5 to be installed
11.3.7 requires 11.3.6 to be installed
11.3.8 requires 11.3.7 to be installed

Let me know if this works.

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

corrupt preference?

It¹s not a Leopard thing. I¹m assuming you have restarted and repaired
permissions since installing.

A similar bug where clicking on preferences in the menu bar would cause
Entourage to crash was fixed by using "Remove Office" and reinstalling.
"Remove Office" will get your permissions and make sure all of your files
are installed correctly. It¹s important that you update or Entourage will
give you the "This Identity Cannot Be Opened With This Version of Entourage"
error.


Mactopia Downloads
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx>

You need to get these updaters:

11.3.5 combo
11.3.6 requires 11.3.5 to be installed
11.3.7 requires 11.3.6 to be installed
11.3.8 requires 11.3.7 to be installed

Let me know if this works.

Isn't there another option, please? Such as moving to the desktop certain
preferences?

I was aware of the option of ripping out the entire Office 2004 and starting
from scratch by installing from my CD and then all the several updaters.

That alone is a big, time-costly sledgehammer to swat a font bug--time when
I could not be using any of my Office programs. Running Leopard's Repair
Permissions after the initial CD installation and then after each update
would add to the downtime. Then, on top of that comes the time and tedium
for re-creation of all the Office preferences.

Surely, there's another option in dealing with the color font bug. Please?

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Diane Ross]

Surely, there's another option in dealing with the color font bug. Please?

None that I am aware of. You could test in a new User in Leopard to see if
it's your User's folder that has the problem.

Remember everything with Leopard is new and we're learning from experiences
reported by users.

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

It¹s not a Leopard thing. I¹m assuming you have restarted and repaired
permissions since installing.

A similar bug where clicking on preferences in the menu bar would cause
Entourage to crash was fixed by using "Remove Office" and reinstalling.
"Remove Office" will get your permissions and make sure all of your files
are installed correctly. It¹s important that you update or Entourage will
give you the "This Identity Cannot Be Opened With This Version of Entourage"
error.


Mactopia Downloads
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx>

You need to get these updaters:

11.3.5 combo
11.3.6 requires 11.3.5 to be installed
11.3.7 requires 11.3.6 to be installed
11.3.8 requires 11.3.7 to be installed

Let me know if this works.

I regret to report that after the investment of precious time to Remove
Office, re-install from the CD and run each of the above updaters, the bug
remains. Although I checked removal of preferences when I ran "Remove
Office," apparently it captured and/or rebuilt all my preferences for
Entourage exactly as they were before removal. That could be part of the
problem. Did I need to manually trash all the preferences prior to running
"Remove Office"?

What now, please?

 

[lars.schou]

I regret to report that after the investment of precious time to Remove
Office, re-install from the CD and run each of the above updaters, the bug
remains. Although I checked removal of preferences when I ran "Remove
Office," apparently it captured and/or rebuilt all my preferences for
Entourage exactly as they were before removal. That could be part of the
problem. Did I need to manually trash all the preferences prior to running
"Remove Office"?

What now, please?

Try removing:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font Cache (11)

In Tiger, I saw this exact same crash behaviour with a user that had
Unsanity's Application Enhancer and ShapeShifter installed. Probably
not related, but if you have those, try disabling them.

Cheers,
Lars

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Try removing:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font Cache (11)

In Tiger, I saw this exact same crash behaviour with a user that had
Unsanity's Application Enhancer and ShapeShifter installed. Probably
not related, but if you have those, try disabling them.

Cheers,
Lars

Thank you so very much, Lars Schou!

Removing the font cache fixed the problem! I have not installed any
haxies. But something sure corrupted the font cache preferences.

So, no need to remove and go through all the time and tedium of
re-installing Office, running each update and re-setting each preference for
each component of Office. (Unless whatever corrupted the preference happens
again.)

Thanks, again!

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Diane Ross]

Thank you so very much, Lars Schou!

Removing the font cache fixed the problem! I have not installed any
haxies. But something sure corrupted the font cache preferences.

So, no need to remove and go through all the time and tedium of re-installing
Office, running each update and re-setting each preference for each component
of Office. (Unless whatever corrupted the preference happens again.)

Thanks for the feedback. I¹ll get this posted on the Entourage Help Page.

I must say a font cache problem and clicking on the font color button seems
unlikely.

 

[lars.schou]

Thanks for the feedback. I¹ll get this posted on the Entourage Help Page..

I must say a font cache problem and clicking on the font color button seems
unlikely.

Maybe Norm can confirm if he tried this, but I'd guess that clicking
other text formatting buttons (especially the font menu) in the
message window would have crashed Entourage, too. In my experience, it
has improved over time, but early versions of Office 2004 seemed very
prone to font cache corruption, especially for designers who
frequently load and unload fonts.

In the case I mentioned where the crashing was caused by ShapeShifter,
the user could change font, size etc. from the Format menu, just not
from inside the message window.

Cheers,
Lars

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

Maybe Norm can confirm if he tried this, but I'd guess that clicking
other text formatting buttons (especially the font menu) in the
message window would have crashed Entourage, too. In my experience, it
has improved over time, but early versions of Office 2004 seemed very
prone to font cache corruption, especially for designers who
frequently load and unload fonts.

In the case I mentioned where the crashing was caused by ShapeShifter,
the user could change font, size etc. from the Format menu, just not
from inside the message window.

Cheers,
Lars

During the font-color-button crash period, I had no problems with other font
buttons.

Font selection in Entourage email seems (emphasize "seems"--because I'm not
sure it is--slower with Leopard than it used to be under Tiger.

For anybody tuning into this thread late: MY font-color button problems were
solved by trashing the font cache. Up 'til then, Entourage crashed each
time I used that button. And as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I have
used no haxies at all with Leopard. I also did an erase-and-clean-install
installation of Leopard. Somehow, along the way, the font cache became
corrupted and nothing short of trashing it had worked.

The only fonts I added since installing Leopard were for Intuit's TurboTax
application but I vaguely recall that I already was having font-color-button
problems in Entourage earlier.

Incidentally, I had no problems with Word, Excel or other applications'
font-color selections.

Respectfully, Norm

 

[hmarquis]

I still have the same problem ... only trying to set color of email font
causes crash. Nothing I can do fixes it. Any more ideas?

Thanks

hank

 

[John McGhie]

Sorry? What have you already done?

We need the exact steps you have taken so we know where you're up to.

This has to be Font Cache, or Updates, or Preferences.

How did you get Entourage onto the new OS? Replicating from an old computer
is likely to produce these problems until you delete all the preferences and
re-apply all the updates.

Cheers

I still have the same problem ... only trying to set color of email font
causes crash. Nothing I can do fixes it. Any more ideas?

Thanks

hank

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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[malbase]

Apple indicated that the problem is Microsoft's.
Microsoft is coming out with an upgrade due 2/2008.
In the mean while, I tried this: I copied my draft mail from
Entourage to Apple (or you can write your draft in Apple Mail). I
added the color fonts where I needed
it, and then copied the Apple Mail back to Entourage.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Nobody wants to see your silly colors. What looks good to you doesn't
look good to everyone else. You're being rude to everyone you send those
emails to. Stop sending out colored junk and use Plain Text so everyone
else can see their email they way THEY want rather than how YOU want.

And as the days became shorter, and the lights twinkled earlier each day,
people came to appreciate more and more the season of friendliness and good
will, and quietly wished that they could continue the bonhomie into the new
year and beyond, into the uncertain world that would unfold before them.

Down here it's warm and sunny on the beach, and we're friendly just because
we feel like it.

So I send warm Christmas cheers to you, Roger, and may your new year be
suffused with geneality...

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
====================

 

[John McGhie]

Happy New Year, squire! And welcome back

: ) Cheers.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]