Completely Remove Microsoft Office 2011 Mac

Learning has never been so easy!

It’s no great mystery why we’d want to uninstall Office 2011.

Before you start the procedure please make sure that all files you might still want/need are moved from the trash folder. Start Finder, go to Applications and delete the folder Microsoft Office 2011.; Navigate to the system library.NB! Please keep in mind that all users have their own library as well. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 doesn’t come with an uninstaller like it’s previous versions. Just a small clarification – I have the Office 2011 for Mac trial version which I want to completely and permanently remove. I also have Office 2004 installed which I want to keep. Do I need to do anything in particular to protect the files etc.

8 Steps total

Step 1: Quit Everything

The first thing you need to do before you can remove Office 2011 is to make sure none of its applications are running. The easiest way to do this is to simply use “Command + Tab” to switch between running apps.

If any are running, simply use “Command + Q” to quit them

Step 2: Remove the Office Folder and Dock Icons

Open your Applications folder and locate the “Microsoft Office 2011 folder. Click and drag it to the trash.

While you’re at it, you can also remove the Office icons from your Dock (if you have any pinned there). The simplest way to do this is to click and drag them out of the Dock.

Microsoft divides this into two steps. You could simply stop here Office would be basically uninstalled, but as we said before, there’s a lot of little files that Office writes all over you drive. If you want it all gone, roll up your sleeves and get to it.

Step 3: Removing the Preferences, Subscription File, and License

Once you remove the application files, it’s time to start removing all the little files spread throughout your system. One of the best ways to navigate your way through the Finder, is to use the Go menu.

To remove the preferences, open the Library in your Home folder. Click “Go,” hold the “Option” key, and click “Library.”

Navigate to the “Preferences” and arrange everything by Name. It’s probably a good idea to change your view in Finder to a list.

Select all the files (you can hold “Shift” to select a range of files) that start with “com.microsoft” and drag them to the trash.

Remember, these preference files contain customizations you’ve made for things like toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, and custom dictionaries. If you remove them and later reinstall Office 2011, you will need to redo your customizations.

While you’re in this folder, you can remove the subscriptions files. Open the “ByHost” folder, arrange everything by Name and drag anything starting with “com.microsoft” to the Trash.

When you install Office and you input your license info, it creates a file. Open “Computer” from the Go menu (you can use “Shift + Command + C”) , double-click to open your system drive (it might be “Macintosh HD” unless you’ve renamed it), then open “Library -> Preferences” and drag “com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist” to the Trash.

Completely remove ms office 2011 mac

Microsoft recommends you restart your computer at this point to remove any files that are cached in memory. This will be necessary before you can purge everything in the Trash.

Step 4: Removing the Application Support Folder and Receipts

With your computer restarted, open “Computer” again from the Go menu, then your system drive, and “Library -> Application Support.”

Drag the “Microsoft” folder to the Trash; you will need to enter your system password to complete this action.

Step 5: Removing Receipts

Next, while you’re still in that Library folder, open the “Receipts” folder and see if there are any files that begin with “Office2011_” (there probably will not be) and drag them to the Trash as well.

If you’re using using OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) or OS Lion (10.7), then you will need to Go to(“Shift + Command + G”) the Finder folder “/private/var/db/receipts.”

Step 6: Removing Custom Templates and Fonts

We’re almost done, there are just a few steps more to go. The next thing we’ll need to do is remove any custom templates you might have created. If you want to save these then you can simply relocate them to a safe location.

Open the “Library” folder from the Go menu once more by holding down the “Option” key.

Navigate to “Application Support -> Microsoft” and drag the “Office” folder to the Trash.

Step 7: Removing Fonts

Microsoft Office 2011 Mac Price

Next, you’re going to again reopen the “Computer” location, click on you system drive (Macintosh HD by default), and then “Library -> Fonts.”

Drag the “Microsoft” folder to the Trash. At this point, you can empty the Trash, unless you want to delete your Microsoft User Data folder in the next step.

Step 8: Moving or Deleting Your Microsoft User Data

Deleting your Microsoft User Data folder is optional. If you remove this folder and you will lose all your Outlook data, among other things.

This user data folder can be found in your Documents.

It is recommend that if you want to keep this data folder, you drag it to a safe location such as the Desktop or archive it to a cloud folder.

Regardless, upon finishing this last step, restart your computer once more and you’re done removing Office 2011 from your Mac.

I hope that Microsoft includes some kind of ability in Office 2016 for Mac that will allow you to uninstall or upgrade from the previous installation. Right now however, to completely remove Office 2011, this is your best, a bit annoying, course of action.

References

  • How to geek

3 Comments

  • Tabasco
    austin janey Apr 9, 2015 at 04:08pm

    Alternatively there is a mac app called appCleaner by freemacsoft that does most of the work for you it looks for associated files and grabs them then deletes them its pretty fantastic and will do clean uninstalls of pretty much any program not just office.

  • Mace
    AceOfSpades Apr 9, 2015 at 06:55pm

    Also available is a script from http://www.officeformachelp.com/office/install/remove-office/ see bottom of the page to download it.

  • Thai Pepper
    Priyal (Stellar Info Tech) Apr 14, 2015 at 10:03am

    Stellar Speedup Mac is another choice to remove Leftovers of any application including Office for Mac 2011. It cleans those files which weren't removed by the OS X at the time of uninstalltion. This is the free feature of the software.

-->

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 start Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac, or when you try to open a new presentation, you experience one of the following conditions:

  • The program closes unexpectedly.

  • Error message:

Resolution

How To Uninstall Ms Office 2011 On Macbook Air

To resolve this problem, follow these steps.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2008 or later

Step 1: Remove Powerpoint Preferences

  1. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  2. On the Go menu, click Home.

  3. Open Library.

    Note

    The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  4. Open Preferences.

  5. Drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist to the desktop.If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. Go to step 7.

  6. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, restore the file to its original location, and go to the next step. If the problem is resolved, drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist to the Trash.

  7. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  8. On the Go menu, click Home.

  9. Open Library.

    Note

    The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key while you click the Go menu.

  10. Open Preferences.

  11. Open Microsoft, and then drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.prefs.plist to the desktop.If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. Publisher for mac. Go to step 13.

  12. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, restore the file to its original location, and go to the next step. If the problem is resolved, drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.prefs.plist to the Trash.

  13. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  14. On the Go menu, click Home.

  15. Open Library.

    Note

    The Library folder is hidden in Mac OS X Lion. To display this folder, hold down the OPTION key whil you click the Go menu.

  16. Open Preferences.

  17. Open Microsoft, and then Office 2008 (or Office 2011).

  18. Drag PowerPoint Toolbars (12) or Microsoft PowerPoint Toolbars to the desktop.

    If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. Go to 'Step 2: Try PowerPoint in Safe Mode Boot.'

  19. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, restore the file to its original location, and go to 'Step 2: Try PowerPoint in Safe Mode Boot.' If the problem is resolved, drag PowerPoint Toolbars (12) or Microsoft PowerPoint Toolbars to the Trash.

Microsoft works mac converter. Step 2: Try Powerpoint in Safe Mode Boot

Restart your computer in the Safe Mode. For more information about how to restart your computer in the Safe Mode, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base

2398596 How to use a 'clean startup' to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac

Once in safe mode, test Powerpoint. If the issue continues to occur, proceed to next step.

Step 3: Remove and then reinstall Office

For information how to remove and then reinstall Office, see the following article:

If the issue continues to occur in Safe mode, proceed to Step 3.

Step 4: Use the 'Repair Disk Permissions' option

How To Reinstall Microsoft Office 2011 Mac Without Disc

You can use the Repair Disk Permissions option to troubleshoot permissions problems in Mac OS X 10.2 or later versions. To use the Repair Disk Permissions option, follow these steps:

  1. On the Go menu, click Utilities.
  2. Start the Disk Utility program.
  3. Click the primary hard disk drive for your computer.
  4. Click the First Aid tab.
  5. Click Repair Disk Permissions.

Note

Disk Utility program only repairs software that is installed by Apple. This utility also repairs folders, such as the Applications folder. However, this utility does not repair software that is in your home folder.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2004

  1. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  2. On the Go menu, click Home.

  3. Open Library, and then open Preferences.

  4. Drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist to the desktop.

    If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. Go to step 6.

  5. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, restore the file to its original location, and go to the next step. If the problem is resolved, drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.plist to the Trash.

  6. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  7. On the Go menu, click Home.

  8. Open Library, and then open Preferences.

  9. Open Microsoft, and then drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.prefs.plist to the desktop.

    If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. Go to step 11.

  10. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, restore the file to its original location, and go to the next step. If the problem is resolved, drag com.microsoft.powerpoint.prefs.plist to the Trash.

  11. Quit all Microsoft Office for Mac programs.

  12. On the Go menu, click Home.

  13. Open Library, and then open Preferences.

  14. Open Microsoft, and then drag PowerPoint Toolbars (11) to the desktop.

    If you cannot locate the file, PowerPoint is using the default preferences. The problem is not related to the preference files.

  15. Open PowerPoint, and check whether the problem still occurs. If the problem still occurs, quit PowerPoint, and then restore the file to its original location. The problem is not related to the preference files. If the problem is resolved, drag PowerPoint Toolbars (11) to the Trash.

Third-party disclaimer information

Completely Remove Microsoft Office 2011 Mac Update

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.

Completely Remove Microsoft Office 2011 Mac Downloads

The information and the solution in this document represent the current view of Microsoft Corporation on these issues as of the date of publication. This solution is available through Microsoft or through a third-party provider. Microsoft does not specifically recommend any third-party provider or third-party solution that this article might describe. There might also be other third-party providers or third-party solutions that this article does not describe. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, this information should not be interpreted to be a commitment by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot guarantee or endorse the accuracy of any information or of any solution that is presented by Microsoft or by any mentioned third-party provider.

Comments are closed.