Microsoft’s Office 2011 for Mac leaves behind files in a number of places. When removing it, say to upgrade or downgrade or just re-install, it is good to remove all the left overs and start fresh. Here’s the quick and dirty of what to do.

Start by closing all MS Office components. If you’re reading my blog, you probably don’t need me to give you step-by-step instructions to do this through Finder. You can just copy the following into a terminal and be done with it. (Disclaimer: there may be mistakes):

sudo rm -rfv /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011
sudo rm -rfv /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
sudo rm -rfv /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper
sudo rm -rfv /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.*
sudo rm -rfv /Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft
sudo rm -rfv /Library/Receipts/Office2001_   #may not exist
sudo rm -rfv /Library/Fonts/Microsoft
sudo rm -rfv /private/var/db/receipts/com.microsoft.office.*
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.*
rm -rfv ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
rm -rfv ~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft
rm -rfv ~/Documents/Microsoft\ User\ Data

You’ll have to re-do the last four lines as each user, if you have multiple users on your Mac. Once you’re done, remove the icons from the Dock, and (because this is Microsoft after all) reboot!

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