Q. It seems that all the Microsoft product – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, have an issue with the fonts installed in my new G5. When I go to open any Microsoft application, I get a FONT by FONT message that each of my typefaces is corrupted. My fonts are fine – and work perfectly well with Illustrator, Xpress, and Photoshop. I’ve tried to find an answer on the Net – there are others experiencing this difficulty, but I don’t understand how they have worked things out.

A. A couple of months ago I wrote an article on fonts in OSX. Normally fonts are stored in your home folder’s Library/Fonts folder, the /Library/Fonts folder and the /System/Library/Fonts folders. Additionally, fonts are can also be stored in the Applications folder. (Fonts are available to users based on where they are on your Mac(s)).
In the case of MicroSoft Office there is a Fonts folder in the Office folder. (/Applications/MicroSoft Office X/Office/Fonts) These fonts become available when you launch a MicroSoft Office application – but will be ignored by other apps (unless Office is open.)
Most likely these are the Fonts that are reported as corrupt.
You could remove these fonts to avoid getting the errors but you would lose access to them. (in OS9 there used to be a program to repair the Office install – I’m not sure if their in a “reinstall” app on the install CD to reinstall the fonts.)
The most common problem with fonts on OSX are related to the “font caches”. You could download Font Finagler – which cleans up the various font caches. (http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fontfinagler/)…
By the way, you should routinely clean up your cache files to keep you Mac running smoothly. Look for AdobeFnt.lst files which you’ll find all over your Mac. You can safely delete these files as they are only temporary files.