Office for Mac 2008

Online Help for Office 2008 is no longer available, but that's what the program looks for by default. If you go to Help> Word Help [or likewise for the other apps] then go to the lower left corner of the Help window & open the list you should still have access to locally installed Help files by selecting Offline Help.

First, make sure that your installation is fully updated... The last update for Office 2008 [12.3.6]. That as well as all prior updates are still available. Once all is updated run Disk Utility to repair disk permissions followed by a Restart of your Mac. Lack of updates could explain the issues you're having... especially if you've switched to a newer version of OS X.

Unless something has been changed on your Mac all of the built-in templates should still be available. Take a look in ~/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/Media/Templates to confirm whether the folders & their content is there.

Template you created can be stored anywhere you may have chosen to save them. The default location is ~/UserName/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates, so check there as well.

If you have moved/deleted anything or used some sort of utility to "clean up" your Mac it could further explain why the templates aren't showing up. Without any details, though, it's hard to suggest a specific explanation or provide a remedy.

If you can be more specific about the other issues perhaps there are some suggestions to be offered. Submit each issue as a separate question in the Community that focuses on the specific program involved.

Bob J.,

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.  I was able to find the built in templates (Yea!).  I have been unable to install any updates.  I even went back to 12.1.1 thinking that it had information that the program needed to build on.   The message I got said something about the installed program didn't have the necessary information to continue. I tried to run the disc utility, but I'm not sure I did it correctly.  I'm new to mac and I find I'm often missing the obvious on things.    

The program is working and so I guess I will continue to use it as is until it doesn't!

Thanks again for help from "The Community."

Csarp

     I went to painstaking effort to gather all this information for myself and thought everyone else would find it helpful.   After the multitude of failed updates to 12.0.0 and a miserable conversation with Microsoft Support for Mac who refused to respond to an invalid signature which they could fix: but wouldn't offer.   Only that I should either buy Microsoft Office 2011 or 2016.   Of course they want my money.

There are regulations about invalid signatures imposed by the FTC and Microsoft should really be reported to the Attorney General.

Here are the steps I took and I was able to get past all the **** and update all the way to 12.3.6 which is as far as you can go.   I was told that Office 2008 would be 'unstable' in El Capitan OS 10.11

Hope you find this useful:

Master Link for all updates:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/search?query=Office%202008%20Updates&p=

1).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6679

2).  Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7799

NOTE:  Follow these steps to execute this update otherwise you will get an error message stating the signature for this update is invalid.

a).  Go to Date & Time Preferences and uncheck set date automatically and then roll back your year to 2010.  Restart your Mac.   

b).  Disconnect your internet from your machine and/or turn off Wifi.   

c).  Open the Installer and run it and it will install successfully.

d).  Reconnect your internet and revert the Date & Time Preferences to set Date Automatically.  Restart your Mac

3).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.1 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-pk/download/details.aspx?id=21983

4).   Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.2 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23198

5).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.3 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=21851

6).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.4 update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=14172

7).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.5 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2535

8).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.6 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9578

9).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.7 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7597

10).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.8 Update

        N/A

11).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.1.9 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=22872

12).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.0 Update

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/973254

13).  Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (12.2.0)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17575

14).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8763

15).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.2 Update

        N/A

16).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.3 Update 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10578

17).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.4 Update 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7938

18).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.5 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35602 

20).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.6 Update 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36897

21).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.7 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2889

22).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.8 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5611

23).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 Update
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4150

24).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.0 Update
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26353

25).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.1 Update
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27332

26).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.2 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28400

27).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.3 Update

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29723

28).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.4 Update

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34692

29).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.5 Update

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35602

30).  Office 2008 for Mac 12.3.6 Update

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36897

BTW, there will be no "12.3.7, 12.3.8, 12.3.9...". Support for Office 2008 officially ended in April of 2010

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2008-macword/automatic-indentation-of-new-paragraphs-keeps-re/dbd477dc-e206-4a79-b99c-aa66addc4d46?auth=1

Vincent

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=17575

After updating to 12.1.0 don't need to install all those updaters. The incremental updaters were rolled into two updaters.

Updaters must be applied in order.

12.1.0 SP1

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=7799

12.2.0 SP2 requires 12.1.0 or higher be installed

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=17575


12.3.6  Requires 12.2.0 or higher be installed.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36897

Office 2008 still runs under El Capitan. Connecting might give you some issues. Entourage has not received any security updaters for several years.