virus? fonts all scrambled

[Guest]

i accidentally posted this in the wrong place first go... so here's my second:

I'm using MS Office for Mac (OSX). Within the last few days I've had a heck of a time creating any sort of text document as the fonts I select change back to TNR at random. Then, when I try to correct the spontaneous shift, I find that the font I select is not what I get. I select Baskerville, I get Copperplate. Latest annoyance is that all possessives and contractions randomly convert to symbols, with the apostrophe being replaced by greek letters. I've also found that the icons on my desktop play music chairs, shifting places at will. My mac program (simple text) works fine, though. All selected fonts behaving themselves. So... the problem is isolated to MS programs (word, excel, ppt, etc).

Tried running Norton AntiVirus with latest update twice since having this problem... but to no avail. All files show as clean.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
D.

 

[Guest]

I'm having a similar problem with fonts. It started in the last week. It seems to be a space before the apostrophe that isn't supposed to be there. So far it's only in MS Word using Times New Roman.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Diane,

I'm cross-posting this message to a Mac group. It's highly unlikely to be a
virus, since Macs don't usually get them, but Office X is prone to glitches
of various types. You will probably need to post your OSX version and which
updates you have applied to Office X before getting significant aid--Office
X is up to 10.1.5, so there are several updaters required, which you can
download from Mactopia.com. Getting a different font than you selected
sounds vaguely like a familiar problem with a known fix. In the meantime,
use Google Groups to search the groups below for similar problems and
remedies, and for general troubleshooting advice and best practice for
installing updates. Also check the Mac page of www.mvps.org/word/FAQs,
which has some troubleshooting advice (also try to find the groups below
rather than depending on the cross-posting to be able to read any responses,
just in case.)

In general, for Mac-specific problems that involve system problems, software
interactions, or installation issues rather than manipulating Word itself,
you are probably better off posting in a Mac-specific newsgroup:

microsoft.public.mac.office
microsoft.public.mac.office.word (cross-posted to here)

FYI,
microsoft.public.mac.office.excel
microsoft.public.mac.office,powerpoint
microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Also exist.

DM

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Diane,

To sort out your fonts, try the following fix:

Find and delete the Office Font Cache (10) from your
~/library/preferences/microsoft folder.

You must restart after doing this to force a rebuild of the Font Cache.

Also, certain font problems were fixed by OS updates. Assuming you're in
Jaguar, you should be updated to OS 10.2.8. And take Dayo's advice about
updating Office to 10.1.5 if you haven't already. Then repair disk
permissions:

For OS 10.2.x or 10.3:
Go to Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities. Open up Disk Utility. Select
your hard disk, then click the First Aid tab. Click the button to "Repair
Disk Permissions".

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>