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Microsoft Word Will Not Open On My Mac

Apr 16, 2018  Word for Mac document stops responding when you try to open a document. Content provided by Microsoft. When you try to open a Microsoft Word for Mac document, Word for Mac stops responding. Additionally, you may have to use the Force Quit command to. Mar 21, 2016 My Microsoft Word won't open on my MacBook Pro. Technician's Assistant: Sometimes things that you think will be really complicated end up being easy to fix. The Mac Technician I'm going to connect you with knows all the tricks and shortcuts.

  1. Microsoft Word Will Not Open On Mac
  2. Microsoft Word Will Not Open On My Pc
  3. My Microsoft Word Program Will Not Open
  4. Microsoft Word Will Not Open On My Mac Pro
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Note

Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.

Symptoms

When you double-click one of these file types:

  • Word document (.doc or .docx)
  • Excel (.xls or .xlsx)
  • PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx)

You may experience any of these problems:

  1. The file icon is blank or displays an incorrect image.

  2. The file does not open.

  3. You receive this error:

    This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options control panel.

  4. You receive this error:

    <file name> not a valid Win32 Application

Cause

These problems occur when the association between the file and the corresponding application is missing.

Resolution

Before you continue with any of the methods in this section, we recommend that you check for multiple Office installations on your computer. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Type appwiz.cpl in the Search box, and then press Enter.
  2. Check the list of currently installed programs for multiple installations of the Microsoft Office suite.

If there are multiple installations of Microsoft Office installed on the computer we recommend that you follow the steps that are listed in Method 2 of this section. If there is only one installation of Microsoft Office on the computer, follow the steps that are listed in Method 1 of this section. Only follow the steps that are listed in Method 3 if you still experience the problem after you have attempted the first two methods or you have installed Microsoft Office Trial suite.

Method 1

If there is only one installation of Microsoft Office 2010 on the computer, follow these steps to repair Microsoft Office:

  1. Type appwiz.cpl in the Search box, and then press Enter.

  2. Select the Microsoft Office 2010 suite you want to repair and then click Change. Microsoft office 2011 mac os mojave.

  3. Select Repair, and then click Continue. You may have to restart your computer after the repair is completed.

Method 2

If you have more than one installation of a Microsoft Office 2010 suite on your computer we recommend that you uninstall the Click-to-Run based suites to avoid file type association issues. You will have to uninstall the Microsoft Office Starter, Microsoft Office Click-to-Run or Microsoft Office 2010 Trial suite and repair the traditional MSI (Microsoft Installer package) based installation of Microsoft Office 2010:

  1. Type appwiz.cpl in the Search box, and then press Enter.
  2. In the Currently installed programs list, select Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010, and click Uninstall.
  3. You will see a prompt requesting to uninstall your selection. Click Yes.
  4. Follow the uninstall instructions, and then restart the computer.
  5. Type appwiz.cpl in the Search box, and then press Enter.
  6. Select the Office 2010 MSI-based suite that you want to repair and click Change.
  7. Select Repair, and click Continue. You may have to restart your computer after the repair is completed.

Method 3

Note

This method may not be a permanent fix to the file type association problem that you are experiencing. We recommend that you follow the previous methods first and only try these steps if you continue to experience the problem.

If you only have one of Microsoft Office Starter, Microsoft Office 2010 Trial or Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 installed on the computer follow these steps to manually reassociate the file:

  1. Right-click the Microsoft Office file that you want to open.

  2. Select Open with, and then click Choose default program...

  3. In the Recommended Programs list, select Microsoft Office Client Virtualization Handler.

  4. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box, and then click OK.
    If you only have a Microsoft Office 2010 MSI (Microsoft installer package) based suite installed on the computer follow these steps to manually reassociate the file:

  5. Right-click the Microsoft Office file that you want to open.

  6. Select Open with, and then click Choose default program...

  7. In the Recommended Programs list, select the appropriate program to associate with the file.

  8. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box, and then click OK.
    Your file icon should now display the correct image and it should open in the correct Microsoft Office program.

More Information

The Click-to-Run and traditional MSI (Microsoft installer package) versions of Microsoft Office 2010 are not designed for use on the same computer. We recommend that you select one version to run on the computer to avoid problems such as those stated in this article.

For more information about Microsoft Office Click-to-Run and file associations, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

982434 An overview of Microsoft Office Click-to-Run for Office 2010

If you have followed the steps in this article, and you are still receiving the same error messages listed in the Symptoms section of this article, you may have permissions problems with your registry.Since it may not be possible to know what caused or led to the permissions problems, we suggest you consider restoring Windows to a previous state.

Restore system files and settings (Windows 7)https://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Restore-system-files-and-settings

How to repair the operating system and how to restore the operating system configuration to an earlier point in time in Windows Vista

How to restore Windows XP to a previous state

If your Excel files are still not opening, but the error has stopped after following these steps, you may have an additional problem to resolve.

We suggest you also check the content provided in this article:

Summary

When you try to open a Word document on Mac document, Word stops opening. If you are faced with this issue and are willing to solve it, then follow the 3 solutions. If you have data loss problem after fixing the Word not opening issue, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can do you a favor.

On this page, we have collected three practical solutions that can help fix the 'Word Not Opening' error on Mac. And if you mistakenly removed a Word file on Mac, let reliable Mac file recovery software as recommended here for help. Check out how to fix the not opening Word file to accessible again:

Workable SolutionsStep-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Repair DiskOpen Disk Utility > Select the primary hard disk on Mac and select 'First Aid' > Click 'Run'..Full steps
Fix 2. Remove Word PreferenceOpen 'Library' > Open 'Preferences' > Copy com.microsoft.Word.plist file to desktop..Full steps
Fix 3. Open and Repair WordStart Word > Click 'Open' on the File menu > Click 'Repair' on the Open button..Full steps
Fix 4. Recover Lost WordRun EaseUS Mac file recovery software > Scan mac drive > Restore lost Mac word file..Full steps

'Word 2016 on my Mac won't open. It flashes immediately by double-clicking and then closes unexpectedly. I didn't do anything or any change. How to fix it if Microsoft Word won't open at all?'

In addition to this situation, most users are also faced with these errors:

Microsoft Word Will Not Open On Mac

  • The application Microsoft Word quit unexpectedly
  • Microsoft Word cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Microsoft Word works with this version of Mac OS X

As Microsoft Word is widely used among people, owning some basic Word troubleshooting is recognized as an essential skill. Today you're going to learn three tricks in solving Word not opening on Mac. The given workarounds are applicable to all Word editions such as 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 2016.

1. Run Repair Disk Permissions

Step 1: On the 'Go' menu, click 'Utilities'. Start the Disk Utility program.

Step 2: Choose the primary hard disk drive for your computer. Then, click the 'First Aid' tab.

Step 3: Click 'Run' to repair the disk volume errors and permissions. When it finishes, click 'Done'.

2. Remove Word Preferences

Step 1: Open 'Library'. Usually, click 'GO' > 'Go to the folder', then type ~/Library

Step 2: Locate a file named as 'Preferences'.

Step 3: Find a file named as com.microsoft.Word.plist. Move the file to the desktop.

Start Word, and check whether the problem still occurs.

If the problem still occurs, exit Microsoft Word, and then restore the 'com.microsoft.word.prefs.plist' file to its original location. Then, go to Step 4.

If the problem seems to be resolved, you can move the file to the trash.

Note: If you do not locate the file, the program is using the default preferences.

Step 4: Exit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs. Then, Click the Word icon. On the left, click 'Preferences'.

Step 5: Click 'File Locations'.

Step 6: Select 'User templates'.

Step 7: Locate the file that is named Normal, and move the file to the desktop.

You can also find the file named as Normal through this way: 'Library' > 'Application Support' > 'Microsoft' > 'Office' > 'User Templates' > 'Normal'

2007

Start Word, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem seems to be resolved, you can move the 'Normal' file to the trash.

Microsoft Word Will Not Open On My Pc

3. Try to Open and Repair Word

Step 1: Start Word. On the File menu, click 'Open'.

Step 2: In the Open dialog box, select the file that you want to open. Click the down arrow on the Open button, click 'Open' > 'Repair'.

Recover Deleted and Missing Word on Mac

Do not worry if the 'Word not opening' issue causes data loss disaster, you can recover unsaved Word document on Mac from its Temporary folder and AutoRecovery save. While for a deleted Word document on Mac, the easiest way of recovery is using a third-party Mac data recovery software.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac also recovers Word document that is missing, deleted or lost due to formatting, virus infection and other misoperation, and the best part of using the software to recover Word is being able to preview the file entirety.

Step 1. Select the location where your important Word documents were lost and click Scan button.

My Microsoft Word Program Will Not Open

Step 2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will start immediately a quick scan as well as a deep scan on your selected disk volume. Meanwhile, the scanning results will be presented in the left pane.

Microsoft Word Will Not Open On My Mac Pro

Step 3. By Path and Type, you can quickly filter the Word files you've lost earlier. Select the target files and click Recover Now button to get them back at once.