OK, there is no reason you would have been anywhere near "Document
Elements.dotx", and if you have a correct installation of Word, it should
have created a new one.
I believe we need to do a Remove and Replace.
Do it exactly this way: don't skip or change any steps, or it won't work:
1) Make sure you have your Office CD and your Product Key (Orange Sticker
on the CD cover) handy. Without the product key, Office will not run after
you have removed it.
2) Disconnect any external drives you have.
3) Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on the boot drive.
4) Restart the computer (we want to make sure the memory is clean and
nothing else is running...)
5) Go to /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office
and run "Remove Office".
6) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension (there shouldn't be any...)
7) Find and delete the file Normal.dotm. It may no longer exist: Unless
you have moved it, it should be in
~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/
8) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)
9) User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist
10) User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 (the whole folder!)
11) Restart the computer again.
12) Put the CD in the hole and do a full install (BUT DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN
ANYTHING YET).
13) Go to
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx and download the
following:
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update
<
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=E0E
D1569-AB2F-407C-B728-4EDDC463C385#viewer>
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.3 Update
<
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=B84
FE57D-DDDA-451E-9EAD-69E10AEE7928#viewer>
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (12.2.0)
<
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=300
133BB-B5F7-4946-BB7B-B0C6C6D6E28C#viewer>
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)
<
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2008&fid=395
D1487-A3A6-4106-A0F8-4D6E1D6D89D2#viewer>
14) Run those updates in sequence, oldest to newest (12.1.0, 12.2.0, then
.... To 12.2.4)
15) Run Disk Utility again and Repair Permissions again.
16) Now shut down the computer, wait for the power to go off, then start up
again (this runs the System clean-up tasks).
This procedure won't affect any data you have, and everything should now be
working. Sorry it's a lot of work, but something is not right and we need
to ensure we touch all bases.
Hope this helps
Thanks for the help John, I followed your suggestions, except that the
DOCUMENT ELEMENTS folder appeared to be empty. I was able to locate and
delete the NORMAL.DOTM file, but that didn't appear to solve the problem. I
don't recall ever going into the Document Elements folder...I'm not sure where
that pesky Document Elements.dotx file could have gone, a spotlight search
didn't reveal anything?
--
The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:
[email protected]
I would have put it off as long as possible too. A full remove