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Question
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"Sudden problems with Microsoft Office 2011"

Ginnie M asked on
I've been running Mac OS Snow Leopard for nearly a year, along with Office: Mac 2011, when all of a sudden, two weeks ago, I can no longer open existing word or excel files (error that I receive is:  "The filename or path contains invalid characters (for example, /).)  I believe these problems began as a result of an automatic update deceived from Microsoft.

At this point, I cannot open any existing files, and cannot create any new files  (Word or Excel) (get the same error) when I try to save any documents.

To date, here's what I've tried to resolve my problems, with no success:

1) completely deinstalled office 2011, following detailed instructions posted in article #2398768.  Once completely deinstalled, I rebooted, and reinstalled Office without any patch kits.  Same errors.

2) Completely deinstalled Office 2011 (same as above), reinstalled and patched to 14.1.3 with no change in errors.

3) Deinstalled Office 2011 based on #1, rebooted, upgraded to OS Lion, rebooted, reinstalled Office 2011, patched to 14.1.3.  Again, same problems.

At this point, my Mac is a very expensive paperweight, as I can't open any existing files and can't create any new files.  I'm at my wits end, and have run out of options, short of completely rebuilding my machine from scratch.  I hope it doesn't come to that, and Microsoft can respond with a solution.

By the way, I work for IBM, where many of us are switching to Mac platforms out in the field.  This is becoming a very big problem, as if the applications are not stable on Mac, we will be prevented from using those platforms/solutions.

Help!
Ginnie McCarthy
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The answered status icon Answer

Hi Ginnie,

Then I it is time to break out the disk utilities because something may be amiss on your startup volume. If it were me I would use Drive Genius or DiskWarrior to rebuild the startup volume/directory, and then use Apple's Disk Utility program to repair permissions.
I do not work for Microsoft. If you get a good answer, consider answering a question in return.
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RachelDass replied on
i had the exact same problem and i just solved it a minute go by renaming my MACINTOSH drive. I initially renamed it as J\ now i change it back and i can save now my files again. hope this help goodluck!
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Aliboron replied on
 Well, the error message is probably accurate and we have seen this happen. Have you renamed your HD or one of the folders to a name containing invalid characters? Slashes and other characters like " ! ' \ etc. can not be used.

Certain glyphs  like " / ! ' \ * etc are not supposed to be used in path names, as they may have a different signification than what one can think. Microsoft has introduced a limitation with these in Office 2011 (it wasn't the case with Office 2008), in order to avoid compatibility issues in "mixed" environments.

Stay away form file or folder names including slashes, backslashes, etc. and you'll get around. I hated this when I upgraded from Mac OS 9 (which admitted the slashes in the names) to Mac OS X (which didn't accept them in the early versions) : many of my file names included dates in a dd/mm/yyyy form and they couldn't be copied from my old Mac to my new one! I had to change them all to a dd-mm-yyyy form!!!
MVP Word (FR) - mais office pour Mac essentiellement)
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http://faq.office.macintosh.free.fr
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The "Bug" was as a result  direct port of Office2007/2010 on PC side to Mac Office.

Windows(and DOS) PCs have never ever allowed characters AirBorn has given. Plus:
file name starting with Numbers
Super or Subscript Characters anywhere
Colons (:) anywhere

Unix which is the basis for OSX has the limitations.
But Apple OSes have basically, allowed / and some of the other Characters  an absolute no no is : and ::

It was discovered only after shipped. And it took a long time to remove the bug. It still doesn't allow :: : and / and \.

If you have named any files or folders or directories with any the strange strange characters listed by me or AirBorn remove them and substitute underscores  ( _ ). Numbers are allowed but can not be the first Character.  9_12_11Big bad John.docx is not allowed , Big bad John 9_12_11.docx is allowed.
If my reply has helped, mark accordingly - Helpful or Answer
Phillip M. Jones, C.E.T.
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Ginnie M replied on

Neither of the suspect descriptions above are applicable to my case.  No hard drive rename, nor directory renames/changes.  Only special characters I've used is Underscore.

I neven created a new user account (single word directory name), attempted to create a new file called test and still get the same errors.

Ginnie McCarthy
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The answered status icon Answer

Hi Ginnie,

Then I it is time to break out the disk utilities because something may be amiss on your startup volume. If it were me I would use Drive Genius or DiskWarrior to rebuild the startup volume/directory, and then use Apple's Disk Utility program to repair permissions.
I do not work for Microsoft. If you get a good answer, consider answering a question in return.
Be the first person to mark this helpful

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The answered status icon Answer
RachelDass replied on
i had the exact same problem and i just solved it a minute go by renaming my MACINTOSH drive. I initially renamed it as J\ now i change it back and i can save now my files again. hope this help goodluck!
Be the first person to mark this helpful

Abuse history