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| Fonts and Office 2004 Service Pack 1 update | | Date Created: 21 Nov, 2004, 02:35 PM |
 I try to keep my articles useful and the content complete. To that end when font problems are reported (elsewhere on the web or to me directly), I examine all of the posts, apply the various situations that I read about to my test Mac, apply a little of my own knowledge about how fonts work (as well as a lot of common sense) and then report my results. Unfortunately this means that occasionally I won't report on a problem the day after it is reported elsewhere. Instead I prefer to do extensive testing and offer, what I hope is a more accurate analysis of the problem(s) that users are having.
The font problems and the various speculations and the reasons for those font problems reported after users applied the recent Microsoft Office 2004 Service Pack 1 update (11.2.0) in mid October made me glad of this policy. After extensive testing, I discovered that a lot of these issues were truly much ado about nothing. |
 There are far too many posts to list here, but I'd like to comment about the most common and notable ones in this article.
Online complaint & observations #1: After applying the Office 2004 Service Pack 1 update, my Office 2004 is incompatible with my font management program. (The supposed proof of this was that the program worked better when the font management program was turned off.)
My Response: I understand why the user thought this. It seems like a fairly straight forward conclusion -- that it must be a software conflict if the Office programs work when the font manager is turned off. But the observation is a little too simplistic. It's more accurate to say that the Office 2004 programs are not happy with the manner in which the font manager is managing the fonts. |
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| When Office (X or 2004) is first installed it puts a whole bunch of fonts in the User's Fonts folder (~home/Library/Fonts). These are the fonts that Microsoft not only wants you to have for the creation of your documents but also so that the program and it's templates work. Unfortunately some of these fonts may conflict (duplication) with some of the other fonts you use. So you may (without realizing it) remove or deactivate those fonts either manually or through some kind of font management program. |
 A quick fix for this is to re-install the application from the CD again and then apply the update again and then restart your computer. The fonts will be where Office needs them to be and the program will be stable again. If you choose to move and/or manage these fonts via a font management program, you can do so -- but it's probably a good idea to create a set in your font management program so you can turn these fonts on easily when you need to use any of the Office 2004 programs. |
 Online complaint & observation #2: Some of the PowerPoint templates cause my PowerPoint 2004 application to quit.
My Response: This is a real problem. But it's caused by the same thing as the previous post. If you restore the MS fonts and then restart your computer (or at least log out and log back in) this problem should go away.
Online complaint & observation #3: I restored my MS fonts and I'm still having these problems.
My response: This is a valid complaint, but the cause is still not the update -- the update was just the catalyst. The real problem is the font OS and MS font caches. The reason that I know this is that this problem can happen (and does) to users of other programs as well as to users of Office 2004 that have not updated with the Service Pack 1 release from Microsoft. |
 The easiest way to deal with this is to clear the various font caches. The one that is probably causing the problem for your Office 2004 programs is the Microsoft Office Font cache (located at ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office Font Cache (11)). If you select this file, delete it and the restart your computer (or at least log out and back in) you will more than likely fix this problem.
It's also not a bad idea to clear your other OS font caches. I have written a great deal about font cache clearing utilities as well as How-To articles for those utilities here in Font Geek. Please refer the Why do my fonts look garbled? article in the OS X issues section of Font Geek for a better explanation of font cache problems as well as links to other articles about the various utilities for fixing these problems. |
 Online complaint & observation #4: After installing the Office 2004 Service Pack 1 update, none of my fonts worked in my Office 2004 programs or any other applications.
My response: Well... OK. Um... At least the OS was running, right? I assume so since the person who posted this supposedly tried at least a few of his other applications. So my guess is that your system may have had larger issues than the poster realized.
I don't mean to make light of this. I have also had "bad things" happen to me when I've installed programs or updates. It's the nature of computers that "these things happen." But the fact that I've only seen one of these posts would lead me to believe that this is an aberration rather than a bug of the update. I'm sure that's poor conciliation to the poster who lost most of their fonts -- but it's important to put these posts into some perspective so that the software developers are not "hung out to dry" by a few unfortunate incidents, that may have little or nothing to do with their software, but that seem to attract undue attention and paranoia from online readers.
If you're looking for something useful on this one, I can only tell you what I tell my customers... A good backup system is a good idea for any user. When these things happen (not if, but when) you'll be glad you have the capability to step backward a few days. |
 A Little Personal Experience: I'd also like to add here that I applied the update on my own computer without incident. I had the MS fonts set aside as a separate library in FontAgent Pro and made sure that the that library was turned on when I launched Word and PowerPoint again after the update.
I'm planning on writing an article about the optimal font and font management configuration for a Mac in the near future -- so look for more about a separate MS fonts library in that article.
To wrap up, here are the things you can do if you find that you have similar problems...
1. Reinstall the Office 2004 program from the CD and then re-apply the update.
(And/or re-install just the MS fonts if you have them set aside somewhere for safe keeping.)
2. Clear out the MS and/or Mac OS font caches manually or by using some third party utility.
3. Get some font management. Many Application issues are caused by damaged or corrupt fonts running loose on a system. If you want to read more about font management, please refer to The Truth About Font Management article in the Font Management section of Font Geek.
4. Get a back-up procedure or system. I know it's an expense and a drag -- but it's a good investment in peace of mind. (Trust me. You'll sleep better.) |
 A few words to the various forum moderators...
I have to say that I'm actually not all that impressed with the way that this issue was reported and handled on some of the online forums. I see these articles posted but no one ever posts any kind of acknowledgment and/or refuting of the less than valid complaints. This leads the casual reader (who comes to these sites looking for help) believing what they read as "fact" rather than just one user's experience. And I think this lack of follow through is at best not useful and at worst misleading.
Many of the online forums use the reporting of these problems as a draw to get more hits. More hits means greater interest for online advertisers. And I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. (I'm not against the idea of making money based on a service or need of the market.) But at the same time, I think that these sites have an obligation to post some kind of compiled results once the issues have been sorted out for the benefit of their readers.
The good news here is that this is not an ongoing trend that people should have to worry about too much (IMHO). As online users search for reliable sources, forum operators who don't offer this kind of service to their readers may find that they'll start to loose market share. And when that happens those forums will change the way they do things or make way for those forums that will. |
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