Office 2008 for Mac: Office did not install correctly

Monday, February 22nd, 2010 12:51 pm

I don’t do a lot of work with Macs, but I just went through an ordeal in getting MS Office 2008 installed on a Macbook Air running Snow Leopard (10.6.2).  No matter how many times I uninstalled/reinstalled, it gave me an error:

Microsoft Office did not install correctly.

That sentence was the bane of my existence for the better part of my Saturday morning; but after a little bit of reading on Google and some general know-how, I made it work.  If you’re running into this problem, do the following steps:

  1. Uninstall Office: Go to Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office and run the uninstaller.
  2. Delete the preferences file: Go to Users/username/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 folder and delete the Microsoft Office 2008 settings.plist file.  Note: This was a step that I found on Google; while it’s apparently been successful for others, I had to delete the Office 2008 folder that contained the .plist file before I was able to get it to work. The installer will re-create this folder, so don’t be afraid to try this step!
  3. Empty the Trash: The OS may still try to access files from the Trash, especially when the installer is searching for previous versions.  This is just a precaution.
  4. Reinstall Office: Run the installer from the CD.  You’ll know it worked if it asks you for your CD key during the installation steps.

During my research, I found that people have experienced a variety of results with this procedure.  Some have been able to install without uninstalling the trial, and some had more problems than I did.  As with any troubleshooting, your results may vary, and you may have to make some things up as you go.  Good luck!

Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools/Remove Office

Filed under: Mac by Sam

10 Responses to “Office 2008 for Mac: Office did not install correctly”

  1. Jason, on March 13th, 2010 at 4:18 pm Said:

    It worked! You rock!

  2. Richonne, on May 3rd, 2010 at 12:52 am Said:

    You are amazing…thank you soooooo much! It finally worked after taking your advice.

  3. Julia, on May 18th, 2010 at 8:56 am Said:

    Sam,

    Will you marry me? YOu don’t know how many tears I shed before finding your page. I’m so happy and grateful!

  4. Duana Abraham, on July 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pm Said:

    Thanks for saving me what could have been hours of aggravation.

    Peace

  5. Humphrey, on July 8th, 2010 at 7:10 am Said:

    thanks, very helpful. Who said Macs are idiot proof? Had been purely using windows for more than a decade and this issue ended up being quite annoying. Then again a learning curve on any new OS is reasonable to expect. thanks again.

  6. Juliet, on August 1st, 2010 at 7:54 am Said:

    WOW! Thank you so much – recommend any frustrated to try these simple proceedures!

  7. Anne-Marie, on August 4th, 2010 at 6:08 am Said:

    It worked! I was sceptical, but it really works. Thanks!

  8. Kim, on August 11th, 2010 at 7:42 am Said:

    THANKS BUDDY!! IT WORKED

  9. stu, on August 11th, 2010 at 6:29 pm Said:

    nice work! this solved my problem. thank you!

  10. hashani, on August 18th, 2010 at 7:19 pm Said:

    Hey Sam,

    I looked up your page before I called microsoft helpdesk, and I have to say that you were faster help than they were. 3-5 minutes my behind!

    Anyway, when they were on the phone with me, they had me go ahead and try something else as well. I don’t remember exactly, but they told me that the issue was because I had used the trial version of the software before actually buying it. There were some leftovers in the system from the trial version that didn’t work with the full version.

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