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!