iWork'08 problem with Leopard

[Karl]

I installed Leopard on my MacBook as well as on my sons iBook G4. A strange issue is happening:
none of the three iWork'08 apps is functioning on the main accounts. I get a message: "The application Pages unexpectedly stopped etc". ()translated from Dutch)
Extremely strange is that there are no problems on the 2 other accounts on my MacBook.
Normally under these circumstances, one thinks of incompatible login-items, but a restart in safe-mode does not help.
Reinstalling iWork doesn't either. (in Tiger there were no problems)

Can anybody help? The log gives the following information:
Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Invalid parameter not satisfying: (index >= 0) && (index < (_itemArray ? CFArrayGetCount((CFArrayRef)_itemArray) : 0))'

[Barry]

I installed Leopard on my MacBook as well as on my sons iBook G4. A strange issue is happening:
none of the three iWork'08 apps is functioning on the main accounts. I get a message: "The application Pages unexpectedly stopped etc". ()translated from Dutch)
Extremely strange is that there are no problems on the 2 other accounts on my MacBook.
Normally under these circumstances, one thinks of incompatible login-items, but a restart in safe-mode does not help.
Reinstalling iWork doesn't either. (in Tiger there were no problems)

Can anybody help? The log gives the following information:
Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Invalid parameter not satisfying: (index >= 0) && (index < (_itemArray ? CFArrayGetCount((CFArrayRef)_itemArray) : 0))'

Hi Karl,

This is an AppleWorks answer, but may be applicable to the iWork applications as well.

An application behaving badly in one user account but not in others would indicate a possible corruption of the application's Preferences file(s).

In OS X, applications keep preference documents for each user account that uses the application. The files have the suffic .plist, and are kept in the user's Library > Preferences folder.

You should find a .plist file for each of Pages, Numbers and Keynote, each with a name following this pattern:

com.apple.Pages.plist

If deleted, you will lose any custom settings you have made (that are recorded in this file), and the application will create a new, clean, prefs file with the default settings.

Some applications (notably AppleWorks) also create a folder within the Preferences folder to contain other preferences files. The iWork applications are probably NOT in this category.

(As you may surmise from the above, I'm not using iWork, and haven't ever launched the applications on my iBook. That consideration may enter into your evaluation of the suggestions above.)

Regards,
Barry

[Peggy]

I installed Leopard on my MacBook as well as on my sons iBook G4. A strange issue is happening:
none of the three iWork'08 apps is functioning on the main accounts. I get a message: "The application Pages unexpectedly stopped etc". ()translated from Dutch)
Extremely strange is that there are no problems on the 2 other accounts on my MacBook.
Normally under these circumstances, one thinks of incompatible login-items, but a restart in safe-mode does not help.
Reinstalling iWork doesn't either. (in Tiger there were no problems)

Can anybody help? The log gives the following information:
Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Invalid parameter not satisfying: (index >= 0) && (index < (_itemArray ? CFArrayGetCount((CFArrayRef)_itemArray) : 0))'

Hi Karl,

This is an AppleWorks answer, but may be applicable to the iWork applications as well.

An application behaving badly in one user account but not in others would indicate a possible corruption of the application's Preferences file(s).

In OS X, applications keep preference documents for each user account that uses the application. The files have the suffic .plist, and are kept in the user's Library > Preferences folder.

You should find a .plist file for each of Pages, Numbers and Keynote, each with a name following this pattern:

com.apple.Pages.plist

If deleted, you will lose any custom settings you have made (that are recorded in this file), and the application will create a new, clean, prefs file with the default settings.

Some applications (notably AppleWorks) also create a folder within the Preferences folder to contain other preferences files. The iWork applications are probably NOT in this category.

(As you may surmise from the above, I'm not using iWork, and haven't ever launched the applications on my iBook. That consideration may enter into your evaluation of the suggestions above.)

Regards,
Barry

The three iWork preferences in each user library are:
com.apple.iWork.Keynote.plist
com.apple.iWork.Numbers.plist
com.apple.iWork.Pages.plist

If deleting those doesn't work, you could try deleting the com.apple.iWork08.plist in HD > Library > Preferences. This is a single preference for all users & does contain the serial number. So, if you delete it you will have to re-enter the serial number.

Other basic troubleshooting that works for AppleWorks may also help. Make sure all three applications are in a folder named iWork '08 & that folder is in the first level of the Applications folder. Then run Software Update to see if you need the recent updater to bring the apps to x.0.1 (x being the whole version number). Then use Disk Utility to repair permissions.

[Karl]

Dear Barry and Peggy,
I uninstalled iWork'08 with CleanApp so that all files (including the pref files you mentioned) were destroyed. Than I reinstalled the app.
I did not succeed in launching it from my main account and had to go to another admin-account to do so. There everything works fine and I was able to enter my registration code.
Back into my main account I get the same error message over and over again.
Thanks anyway
Karl

[Barry]

Dear Barry and Peggy,
I uninstalled iWork'08 with CleanApp so that all files (including the pref files you mentioned) were destroyed. Than I reinstalled the app.
I did not succeed in launching it from my main account and had to go to another admin-account to do so. There everything works fine and I was able to enter my registration code.
Back into my main account I get the same error message over and over again.
Thanks anyway
Karl

You might want to post your issue in the Using OS X 10.5 Leopard forum at Apple Discussions. Include a translation of the full error message with your post as well as the log entry you posted here.

Regards,
Barry

[Karl]

Found a kind of solution walking ‘the hard way’:
As the problem was clearly related to incompatibilities (in my other MacBook accounts everything went smoothly) I did as follows:

A. The short way (i.e. what worked for me after suffering the long one)
1. go to the map /Users/yourname/Library
2. Select the maps “Safe Preferences” and “Services” and make them a .zip archive (“Services” you might not have since - with me - it contains only 1 file, ‘Spell Catcher Services.service’, a spinoff of the app ‘Spell Catcher’)

B. The long way
1. to bring some comfort in your life during the next two hours, do two things first:
a. go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the padlock -> password -> choose ‘Automatic login’ on your own account;
b. go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the tab ‘Login Items’, click on the “+” sign en select Applications/iWork’08/Pages

2. go to the map /Users/yourname/Library
3. turn every submap into a .zip archive (except those maps your Mac needs: no problem, you will be told)
4. trash the original maps and FLUSH
5. restart and see if ‘Pages’ startsup: it will !
6. unzip your first map (double click) and restart: log out WON’T DO
7. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your second map and restart
8. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your third map and restart
9. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your fourth map and restart etc. etc. ad nauseam, until ...
10.at a certain moment ‘Pages’ doesn’t restart and you get your well known error message
11.the last map is than probably the culprit , but you can’t be sure: as said, on my Mac, two maps together shared the responsibility;
12.unzip the remaining maps and restart
13. if everything works as expected,
14.undo step 1:
a. System Preferences/Accounts and click on the padlock -> password -> undo ‘Automatic login’ (if you want to);
b.go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the tab ‘Login Items’, select ‘Pages’ and click on the “-” sign

15.if you are no longer able to login in System Preferences/Accounts, than the “Allow user to administer this computer” option is unmarked
16.this can be obtained by restarting by means of your Leopard DVD and to install a root user. Handle with care!

[Peggy]

Found a kind of solution walking ‘the hard way’:
As the problem was clearly related to incompatibilities (in my other MacBook accounts everything went smoothly) I did as follows:

A. The short way (i.e. what worked for me after suffering the long one)
1. go to the map /Users/yourname/Library
2. Select the maps “Safe Preferences” and “Services” and make them a .zip archive (“Services” you might not have since - with me - it contains only 1 file, ‘Spell Catcher Services.service’, a spinoff of the app ‘Spell Catcher’)

B. The long way
1. to bring some comfort in your life during the next two hours, do two things first:
a. go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the padlock -> password -> choose ‘Automatic login’ on your own account;
b. go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the tab ‘Login Items’, click on the “+” sign en select Applications/iWork’08/Pages

2. go to the map /Users/yourname/Library
3. turn every submap into a .zip archive (except those maps your Mac needs: no problem, you will be told)
4. trash the original maps and FLUSH
5. restart and see if ‘Pages’ startsup: it will !
6. unzip your first map (double click) and restart: log out WON’T DO
7. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your second map and restart
8. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your third map and restart
9. when ‘Pages’ starts, unzip your fourth map and restart etc. etc. ad nauseam, until ...
10.at a certain moment ‘Pages’ doesn’t restart and you get your well known error message
11.the last map is than probably the culprit , but you can’t be sure: as said, on my Mac, two maps together shared the responsibility;
12.unzip the remaining maps and restart
13. if everything works as expected,
14.undo step 1:
a. System Preferences/Accounts and click on the padlock -> password -> undo ‘Automatic login’ (if you want to);
b.go to System Preferences/Accounts and click on the tab ‘Login Items’, select ‘Pages’ and click on the “-” sign

15.if you are no longer able to login in System Preferences/Accounts, than the “Allow user to administer this computer” option is unmarked
16.this can be obtained by restarting by means of your Leopard DVD and to install a root user. Handle with care!

Spell Catcher is know to cause problems with iWork '08 on Tiger, so it's not a surprise it's a bigger problem with Leopard. I would just try disabling Spell Catcher first & see if the problem goes away.