Cannot Type On Microsoft Word Mac
Oct 17, 2019 Updated Mac to Catalina and now cannot access Word I've been attempting to ACTIVATE my Word app on my desktop and it will not allow. It continues to say, 'Retry' without success. 2013-10-9 I have an old version of Microsoft Word X for Mac (Word:mac) from around 2003 or so. It recently stopped letting me type! I can open documents, edit them from the pull down menus, but cannot type, copy-paste, etc. Same machine I've always used (Imac pre-IBM chip). Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number. Apr 16, 2018 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. Do you see the error? Quit Word, and drag one of the files back to its default location and test again.
-->Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Symptoms
After you install a font into the Fonts folder in the operating system and start Microsoft Word for Mac, the font unexpectedly is not available in the Font dialog box, in the drop-down list, or in the Formatting Palette.
Cause
Third-party fonts are not directly supported in Microsoft Office for Mac applications. Some third-party fonts may work in one application and not in another. Other third-party fonts are installed in a 'family'. A family usually consists of the third-party font itself together with some or all of its variations (bold, italic, and so forth). Sometimes, a font may be displayed in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft Entourage, but you may be unable to use one of its variations, such as italic.
Office does not support custom fonts. This includes any fonts that were manipulated by a font or typography program.
Note
Microsoft Office for Mac technical support does not provide support for installing or configuring third-party fonts.
Basic font troubleshooting
If the following methods don't resolve your font issue, contact the font manufacturer or the website from which you purchased the fonts.
First, restart your computer, and then test the font again. Some installations are not complete until the computer is restarted. This also makes sure that all applications are restarted after the installation.
Method 1
Clear the font caches. To do this, quit all Microsoft Office applications. On the Home menu, click **Go **> Applications, and then click Apple's Font Book.
On the Edit menu, click Select Duplicated Fonts.
On the Edit menu, click Resolve Duplicates.
To remove all the fonts from the computer that Font Book just disabled, follow these steps:
- After the duplicates have been resolved, select each disabled font, click File > Reveal in Finder, and then drag it to the trash.
- You may notice that Font Book sometimes turns off the newer copy of the font instead of the older one. If you prefer the newer copy, drag the older one to the trash, and then re-enable the new one.
Restart the computer. Apple OS X will rebuild its font cache, and Word will rebuild its font cache from that.
For best performance in Word, try to run with all your fonts enabled all the time. Each time that Word starts, it compares its font cache with the system font cache. If the two don't match, Word will regenerate its own font cache, which can take a few seconds. If you have dynamically enabled fonts, the system font cache will appear different nearly every time that Word runs this comparison.
You must do this every time you install an update, because the Microsoft installer tries to restore the disabled fonts each time.
Method 2
Restart the computer in Safe mode. Then, restart the computer normally. For more information about how to restart your computer in Safe mode, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
2398596 How to use a 'clean startup' to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac
Method 3
Create a new user account to determine whether the problem is associated with an existing user account.
The font is damaged, or the system is not reading the font
If the font is not a custom font and does not appear in your Office program, the font may be damaged. To reinstall the font, see Mac OS X: Font locations and their purposes.
The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.
-->Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Symptoms
While using Word for Mac one or more Toolbars are missing and cannot be added.
Cause
This behavior can be caused by one of these things:
- The oval button in the upper-right corner of the document was clicked. This button 'toggles' display of toolbars on and off.
- There is an issue with the Normal template in Word.
- The toolbars or menus are modified.

Resolution
To resolve this problem, try the following methods.
Method 1: Make sure that tool bar display is not turned off
In the upper-right corner of the window click the oval button.
Note
When this button is clicked, it hides all the toolbars. A second click causes the toolbars to be displayed.
If the toolbars reappear, quit, and then restart Word to make sure that the appropriate toolbars are displayed.
If Method 1 did not resolve the problem, try Method 2.
Method 2: Reset the toolbars and menus in Word
You can reset the toolbars and menus in the Customize Toolbars and Menus option, any saved customization is removed, and all settings are reverted to the original default settings.
- Open Word.
- Go to View in the menu.
- Choose Toolbars.
- Select Customize Toolbars and Menus.
- Select Toolbars and Menus in the top of the Customize Toolbars and Menus window.
- Select the item in the list you want to reset (Menu Bar, Standard, Formatting).
- Click Reset.
- Click OK when getting prompt: 'Are you sure you want to reset the changes made..'
- Click OK.
Note
When View is missing from the menu, then you can also Control Click the Standard Toolbar and go to Customize Toolbars and Menus here.
If Method 2 did not resolve the problem, try Method 3.
Method 3: Create a new Normal template Note
When a new Normal template is created, any saved customization is removed, and all settings are reverted to the original default settings.
Step 1: Quit all programs
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To quit active applications, follow these steps:
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On the Apple menu, click Force Quit.
Select an application in the 'Force Quit Applications' window.
Click Force Quit.
Repeat the previous steps until you quit all active applications.
Warning
When an application is force quit, any unsaved changes to open documents are not saved.
It’s able to understand context and tone, for instance, knowing when to suggest formal language. Aside from Office, Grammarly works as a Chrome extension or as a general-use Windows desktopapp.For more advanced corrections, including suggestions on readability, vocabulary enhancement, and a plagiarism detector. Microsoft word for mac freezing after saved. It can also suggest alternate phrases for brevity and stronger language; in one example, it might suggest replacing the phrase “very convincing” with “persuasive,” or deleting unnecessary phrases like “at the end of the day.”As before, Grammarly is available, and the company says installation should take a few minutes.
Word 2007. To turn on the Print drawings created in Word option, follow these steps, as appropriate for your version of Word. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options. Microsoft word not opening mac.
When you are finished, click the red button in the upper-left corner and proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Word 2008 and 2011: Move the Normal.dotm template file to the Trash
- Quit all Microsoft Office applications.
- On the Go menu, click Home.
- Open Library.
Note
The Library folder is hidden in MAC OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.
- Select the Application Support folder.
- Select the Microsoft folder.
- Open the Office folder.
- Open the User Templates folder.
- Move Normal.dotm to the Trash.
- Start Word, a new Normal.dotm template will be created when you choose Quit Word in the Word menu.
Note
When you had Word 2004 on your Mac previously and you now have Word 2008 or Word 2011, also check if the Word 2004 Normal file is present on the system, if so, trash this Normal template file as well.
Step 3: Word 2004: Move the Normal template file to the Trash
- Quit all Microsoft Office applications.
- On the Go menu, click Home.
- Select the Documents folder.
- Select the **Microsoft User Data **folder.
- Move Normal to the Trash.
- Start Word, a new Normal template will be created when you choose Quit Word in the Word menu.