Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#9): More fixes for "corrupt font" error message

More fixes for "corrupt font" error message We continue to report on an issue where Microsoft Office 2004 startup stalls or fails, indicating that one or more fonts being accessed are "corrupt," even though said fonts are in proper working order.

Yesterday we noted a fix that involves removing the application FontCacheTool from /Applications/Microsoft Office/Office/Support Files/. We've re-posted that fix, along with a few others with which users are having success, below:

Fixes

Remove Fontcachetool Microsoft's Office programs use an application called "Fontcachetool" to check system/user fonts at launch. Unfortunately, it seems that this tool often flags working fonts as corrupt. Temporarily removing the tool bypasses this checking mechanism, allowing Office apps to properly launch in some cases.

Navigate to the following directory:

• /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Support Files

and move the application "Fontcachetool" to another location outside that folder (your Desktop, for instance). Log out then back in, and check for persistence of the corrupt font error message.

Removing this application can also provide a noticeable speed boost in Office application launch time.

Boot in safe mode On numerous occasions, we've noted that simply booting in safe mode can resolve a number of troubleshooting issues, as in addition to turning of system extensions, the process clears certain caches and performs other maintenance operations.

It appears that safe booting can, in some cases, resolve the issue where Office 2004 incorrectly claims corrupt fonts are present.

In order to boot into Safe Mode, just hold the Shift key immediately after restarting or pressing the power button.

Delete duplicate fonts Open the application Font Book (located in /Applications) and use the "Remove Duplicates" option under the Edit menu. Then, reveal duplicate fonts in the Finder and either delete them or move them to a different location. [Thanks to MacFixIt reader Joe Cordes for noting this workaround as potentially successful]

Delete font caches Use a utility like Font Finagler to remove font caches, or manually delete the following files:

• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS    
• /System/Library/Caches/FontTablesAnnex      
• /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS.System.fcache
• /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.ATSServer.FODB_System
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ATS.plist    
• ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font Cache

Re-install Office As a last resort, try re-installing Microsoft Office 2004 from its original media.

You'll want to save you Entourage identity, located in:

• ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2004 Identities

first if you have an active Entourage e-mail account.

Next run the Remove Office tool, located in Applications/Office 2004/Additional Tools. After Office is removed, run the Office 2004 installer from the original disc.

More Entourage scheduling issues Users continue to note some significant scheduling synchronization issues with Entourage 2004. We previously noted an issue where scheduled appointments on the calendar are shifted to one hour later than the original time.

MacFixIt reader Michael Snyder corroborates:

"I too noticed this strange anomaly. It appears to happen for all appointments entered into Entourage for 3 weeks in March, 2007 only (3/11/2007 - 3/31/2007). I can't work around it, but appointments appear to be normal both before and after this date range"

Meanwhile, John Haslam reports an issue with synchronizing appointments between Exchange servers in one time zone, and Macs in a different time zone. This is an issue that does not affect Windows systems running Outlook, which properly adjust appointments when the time zone differs.

John writes:

"Our exchange server is in California. So every time our secretary makes an appointment in Windows to Outlook, the appointment shows up 3 hours earlier for a regular appointment (such as 9 AM would show up as 6 AM) or a day earlier if the appointment was set for an all day event..(all day Wednesday would show up as all day Tuesday.  The reason is Entourage looks at the time of the server.  The only fix is to get a dedicated server and put it on the same time as Florida or move our exchange server to Florida.  I have MacBook pro so I just run parallels and use Outlook until I see a fix for this."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#8): Font problems ("corrupt font" message), fixes; Appointments scheduling issues
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#7): Word: Unexpected quits
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#6): Entourage problems and fixes; Endnote incompatibility; more
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#5): Continuing issues
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#4): More fixes for problems updating; Entourage version remains at 11.2.5
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#3): Fixes for problems updating
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 (#2): Problems applying update
• Microsoft Office 2004 11.3 released: Security enhancements

Resources