Microsoft Word For Mac 2008 Startup Folder Location

Symptoms

You may see this error when you start Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 or 2008:

Open the 'Preferences' folder and drag 'com.microsoft.Word.plist' to the desktop. If you can't find the file, in the Preferences look up for Microsoft folder, and drag com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist to the desktop. Now If you have Service Pack 2 installed, open 'Application Support' 'Microsoft' 'Microsoft'. So each time I want to open a file, I have to navigate to the proper folder. In my old version of Word (2008) and Word for Mac 2011 until a few days ago, clicking File - Open opened up the last folder I viewed. (OS X Yosemite, 10.10.3) In an old question, advice was given as below-to change Preferences - File Locations. Please use the Workgroup Templates parameter in the same File Locations dialog for this type of application. You can set the Workgroup templates to a network share rather than an online location. If the client is using SharePoint, it is possible to set a OneDrive folder as the Workgroup Templates source, but it does require some additional. Please use the Workgroup Templates parameter in the same File Locations dialog for this type of application. You can set the Workgroup templates to a network share rather than an online location. If the client is using SharePoint, it is possible to set a OneDrive folder as the Workgroup Templates source, but it does require some additional. If you want to quickly open or access your word startup folder in Word, you can quickly get it done as follows: 1. Please open your Office Word application, and then applying this utility by clicking Click Kutools More Word Startup Location.

Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.


Cause

This can happen if:

  • Word preferences are corrupted.

  • The user account profile is corrupted.

  • Programs running in the background are interfering with Word for Mac.

  • Application files are corrupted.

Resolution

IMPORTANT: The location of certain files are different if you have Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed. To check if it is installed, open Word, and then click About Word from the Word menu. If the version number is 14.2.0 or above, you have Service Pack 2 and you should follow the Service Pack 2 steps when provided in this article.

Method 1 - Reset Word for Mac preferences


Warning This step will remove custom preferences, such as keyboard shortcuts, or changes to the toolbars or dictionaries.
Corrupt Word preferences may cause this error. Follow these steps to reset them:

  1. Quit all programs.

  2. On the Go menu, click Home > Library. If you have OS X 10.7 (Lion) or above, click Go, hold down the OPTION key and choose Library.

  3. Open the Preferences folder and drag com.microsoft.Word.plist to the desktop. If you can't find the file, continue to the next step.

  4. Now, open the Microsoft folder (in Preferences), and drag com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist to the desktop.
    Note If you have Service Pack 2 installed, open Application Support > Microsoft instead of Preferences > Microsoft.

  5. Start Word. Do you see the error?

    • No. Quit Word, and drag one of the files back to its default location and test again. If the error re-appears, the file you just dragged back is corrupt. Move it to the Trash. If there's still no error, drag the other file from your desktop to the Trash. Congratulations, this solved the problem.

    • Yes. Quit Word, and restore both files to their original location. Go to the next step.

  6. Quit all programs.

  7. On the Go menu, click Home > Library. If you have OS X 10.7 (Lion) or above, click Go, hold down the OPTION key and choose Library.

  8. Open the Application Support folder, then the Microsoft folder, then the Office folder, and then the User Templates folder.

  9. Find the Normal.dotm file, and drag it to the desktop.

  10. Start Word. Do you see the error?

    • No. Quit Word, and drag Normal.dotm from your desktop to the Trash. Congratulations, this solved the problem.

    • Yes. Quit Word, and restore the file to its original location. Go to the next method.

Method 2 - Create a new user account

A corrupt user account could cause this error. To test and see if this is the problem; follow the steps in this article to create a new user account:

Testing your user account to troubleshoot Office for Mac applications
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method.

Method 3 - Clean start the operating system

We recommend you clean start the operating system to determine if other programs are interfering with Word for Mac. To do this, see this article on how to clean start your computer:

Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method.

Method 4 - Run Repair Disk Permissions

You can use the Repair Disk Permissions option to troubleshoot problems in Mac OS X 10.2 or later versions. To use this option, follow these steps:

  1. On the Go menu, click Utilities.

  2. Start the Disk Utility program.

  3. Choose the primary hard disk drive for your computer.

  4. Click the First Aid tab.

  5. Click Repair Disk Permissions.

Note: The Disk Utility program only repairs software that is installed by Apple. This utility also repairs folders, such as the Application folder. However, this utility doesn't repair software that is in your home folder. For more information about this option, see Apple's article About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature.
If the problem continues to occur, go to the next method.

Method 5 - Remove and then reinstall Office for Mac

Corrupt Word for Mac application files could cause this error. We recommend you remove and then reinstall Office to fix this type of corruption. To do this, choose the article based on your version of Office for Mac:

How to uninstall Office for Mac 2011

Word

The first thing you should do is learn about your normal.dot file in Word. This makes Word ever so much easier to understand and helps you to resolve problems so much more quickly. Please read About Normal.dot in Microsoft Word. It'll only take a couple minutes. Then come back here to take the troubleshooting steps.

Some people may tell you to do a system restore. Though it may very well work, I feel that it's a pretty drastic measure to take to fix Word. That doesn't mean it's not necessary, but you won't likely hear it from someone who knows Word. We have no idea how much or how often you use your computer, or what you've done recently that we'd be undoing by advising a system restore.

Many will tell you to start Word using StartRun and type: winword.exe /a or to start Word in 'safe mode'. That really only lets you know that Word will run once the problem is taken care of. Use the steps below to get right to the source of the problem. More about Word Command-Line switches, which you might find interesting, can be found here.

If Word opens files fine, but you can't launch Word with the icon, the shortcut could be bad. Just find winword.exe and create a new shortcut.

Windows 2000 Update

Apparently, there's a known issue about the Windows 2000 Update (when combined, I believe, with Word 2003) that makes Word crash when saving to a floppy drive (which you shouldn't do anyway, see this article). The only fix I'm aware of at this time is to uninstall the update.

Where Is Startup Folder In Windows 7

Norton AntiVirus

If you are running Norton AntiVirus, then you may first want to check the Microsoft TechNet support article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329820/.

Adobe Acrobat

If you are running Adobe Acrobat, you may first want to check the Microsoft TechNet support article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307410/.

Printer Must Be Installed

Believe it or not, you must have a printer installed for Word to perform properly, even if it's only Acrobat's PDF to Word writer. Word just doesn't know how to act without a printer driver. (Thanks to Barb for asking me a question at AllExperts.com, which reminded me to add this to my article!)

Step 1. Check Word's Startup folder.

The Word startup folder can generally be found under:

C:Documents and SettingsYour NameApplication DataMicrosoftWordStartup

Check it for the existence of files that perhaps don't belong there or conflict with Word. You could temporarily place them elsewhere and re-launch Word to see if it helps.

Step 2. Rename or delete your normal.dot file.

If Word runs for you at all, first close it. If you've really been having troubles, you may want to hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and ensure that winword doesn't appear in your Applications list or in your Processes list. If it does, End task on it.

From the Windows Start button, choose Search, then choose For Files or Folders. Type the following into the All or Part of the File Name box:

normal.dot

Tip: You must be searching for hidden files and folders, so make sure your other search options are looking there. You must also ensure that you are viewing hidden and system files by going to My Computer, then hit ToolsFolder Options, and ticking the appropriate choices, as shown below. If you aren't viewing them, you may also want to untick hiding of extensions for known file types, too.

If you cannot find your normal.dot file during a search, rest assured that if you've ever successfully launched Word, you do have one. If you're in a network environment, it may not reside on your hard drive. If you are able to open Word at all, go to ToolsOptions, File locations tab, and double-click User templates. This is the location of your normal.dot file.

If you have customized your Word application to any degree, rename the normal.dot file when you find it. Right-click the file's name, and choose Rename. Call it abnormal.dot. If you have not customized Word, just delete your normal.dot file. If you find more than one normal.dot file, rename or delete all of them.

Now you can try launching Word again. Word should create a brand new normal.dot for you, and you're all set. Most people will not need to venture beyond this point.

Step 3. Run Detect and Repair from the Help menu.

Some people might have you do this step first. Not me. This is not usually as helpful as Step 1, but you should try it, at least if you're able to open Word. If you are, just go to the Help menu dropdown and choose Detect and Repair.

Note: Someone named snizborski reported to us on the newsgroups that he placed his installation CD in the CD Rom drive and ran Detect and Repair, and this did not help. He called Microsoft and learned that he shouldn't put the CD in until prompted, and this enabled the Detect and Repair to find the 'bad' file that caused his problem.

Step 4. Dump the Windows Word registry key.

There are many people who would rather that I didn't tell you how to do this. But any adult that's paying any attention can follow my steps. What we're doing is removing Word from the Windows registry. When you launch Word again, it will re-register itself, so you can expect it to take a little longer to launch than usual.

Location

Microsoft Word Startup Folder Location

Hit StartRun and type regedit and hit enter. Browse, just like you would in Windows Explorer or My Computer, to the following folder:

My ComputerHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftOfficeX.XWord

X.X will be as follows, depending on your version of Word:

  • Word 2000 is 9.0

  • Word 2002/XP is 10.0

  • Word 2003 is 11.0

Once you find it, right click the Word folder, and choose Rename. Rename it to OldWord. This is a quickie method of backing up your registry. Close the Registry Editor.

Word Startup Folder In Windows 10

Launch Word.

Step 5. Uninstall and Reinstall Word.

Microsoft Word Startup Settings

If the above steps don't fix Word, you'll need to completely uninstall and reinstall it. Office 97 usesEraser97 to completely remove Office. Office 2000 usesEraser2K to completely remove Office. Or you can remove itmanually.