Why are some of my Font Book fonts no longer available in Word?

Question

Why are some of my Font Book fonts no longer available in Word?

Nancy Farlow 0

Some of my fonts are no longer available in Word. I don't know how long ago this issue began, but I have Word docs that no longer display the font that I originally used. How do I fix this to continue to use more of the fonts from my Font Book?

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Answer 1

Anonymous

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum!

Thanks for your question! This issue happens because Word for Mac relies on system-installed fonts, and some fonts from Font Book may not appear if they are not properly installed or supported. Office for Mac works better with .TTF fonts, so you might see if there is a TTF version of your font.

Microsoft has a detailed article explaining why third-party fonts sometimes fail to appear in Office apps and how to fix it: Third-party installed font fails to appear in Office apps

Here are key steps from the article:

Make sure the font is installed for all users, not just the current user.
Avoid using deprecated font types like PostScript Type 1; use OpenType (.otf) or TrueType (.ttf) instead.
Restart Office apps after installing or activating fonts.
If fonts still don’t appear, check for duplicates in Font Book and resolve them.

Important note: Office doesn’t support custom fonts that were manipulated by a font or typography program. Also, Microsoft Office for Mac technical support doesn’t provide support for installing or configuring third-party fonts.

Following these steps may restore most of your missing fonts in Word.
If the issue still persists, please feel free to give me more details about the font that you want to use in Word so that I can research more for you. Wish you a pleasant day!

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-11-20T00:52:54.6866667+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I had already completed all four steps listed in your answer. They did not resolve the issue. I still do not understand why I was previously able to use this exact font in Word and now cannot. I have tried this on both my MacBook Pro and iMac. Could it have anything to do with interim updates to MacOS and/or Word?
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Anonymous

2025-11-20T01:40:32.0733333+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,
I appreciate for your update to me.
May I know which Fonts that you want to use so I can do some research from my side.
Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-11-20T01:48:31.1366667+00:00

The font is called Yacarena Ultra FFP. I have both the .otf and .ttf versions installed in Font Book. Thank you so much for your help!
Anonymous

2025-11-20T04:14:16.35+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

Thank you for your patience.

I have run a test on my MacBook with Yacarena Ultra FFP font and I can use it in Word normally if I just install 1 version of it ( I choose .ttf) so, if you downloaded both .otf and .ttf versions, install only one to avoid conflicts. Here is Yacarena Ultra FFP font in my Word on Mac.

At first, I cannot find it in Word as you after installed it in Font Book, and I find out that I installed both version .otf and .ttf so it may cause this issue. Then I go to Font Book and choose Remove. Then I install only 1 version, and it allows me to use that font in Word.

After installing it, please remember to embed it in your Word: go to Word > Preferences (top menu bar) > select Save > under Font Embedding, check: Embed fonts in the file > Save the document.

I hope this can help you. And if it can solve issue for you, please kindly upvote it for others in our forum can find correct insights. Wish you a pleasant day!
Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-11-20T13:07:55.34+00:00

Thank you again for your help! I'm going to try this as soon as I have a break from my classes today.
Anonymous

2025-11-20T23:32:07.14+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

Thank you for your response.

I just wanted to check in and see how things are progressing with this issue.

Just take your time and let me know at any time.

Any updates you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-11-21T17:40:25.7766667+00:00

I've had no success at all. I've wasted too much time on this and am about to give up. I followed your instructions to a tee. No luck. I removed the font and deleted every instance of it from my MacBook. I downloaded a new copy of the font. I trashed the open type version and kept only the true type version. I reinstalled it in Fontbook. It still says "OpenType TrueType" as the format (screenshot attached) which seems odd to me. No luck. I rebooted my laptop. No luck. It just WILL NOT appear in my Word menu!!!! I am completely frustrated.
Anonymous

2025-11-23T08:54:11.97+00:00
Dear @Nancy Farlow,

I’m really sorry this has been so frustrating, fonts “disappearing” in Word can derail a day fast, and I absolutely don’t want that for you. Thank you for sticking with me while I work this through. I want you to know I’m treating this like it’s my own issue because I really want to help you.

Therefore, I contact a friend to try borrowing a MacBook from him to make sure that my previous testing did not only work with my Mac. What I’ve done so far (on two Macs):

I downloaded Yacanera Ultra FPP from dafont.com website, chose the TTF version only, and installed just that single cut (no duplicates).

Note: Please note that our support is limited to providing guidance based on official Microsoft documentation. Any third-party resources or references shared are intended solely for informational or consultative purposes. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, or continued availability of third-party content, and we recommend exercising discretion when referring to such materials.

In Word for Mac, I turned on Embed fonts in the file and tested with a new document.

I repeated the same steps on a colleague’s MacBook to make sure the behavior wasn’t unique to my own setup.

The outcome was consistent across both machines.

Here is the result on my colleague's Mac, and Word version is 16.78 (the MacBook used Chip M1):

Also, this is my Word version (on my Mac) in the first testing that I suggested: 16.102.3

So, in this case, please kindly download that font from dafont.com website and retry like my suggestions. And after installing it, please remember to embed it in your Word: go to Word > Preferences (top menu bar) > select Save > under Font Embedding, check: Embed fonts in the file > Save the document.

If you did not embed it, the font may still not appear. You can see the steps for embedding it in Word above in the image below:

If your current Word version still does not appear this font after retrying my suggestions, I recommend that you should uninstall and reinstall your Word app. But this is a little different, you have to reinstall them by downloading Office version from the Microsoft's website, please do not download Office from your MacBook's App Store. (see steps and link below):

Go to Applications > select Microsoft Word > choose Move to Trash.

Download Office directly from Microsoft website instead.

You can see this link for more details for it: Download, install, or reinstall Microsoft 365 or Office 2024 on a PC or Mac

In case that if you have already used Office that downloaded directly from the Microsoft's website:

You can try roll back versions > Uninstall your current version of Office > Go to the "Update history for Office for Mac" page and download the installer package for a stable version, such as 16.102, 16.101, 16.100, 16.99.

After reinstalling the Word app, you can retry my font suggestions.

I hope that my 2 tests on 2 Mac devices can help you to get more insights and I truly respect your time. Troubleshooting fonts can be unexpectedly time‑consuming, and I’m grateful for every minute you spend on this. That's why I’ll shoulder as much of the effort as possible, guiding each step and keeping it as light as I can, so you can get back to your work quickly. Please kindly try them in your free time and let me know the result. I'm still here with you.
Best regards.
Anonymous

2025-11-24T03:17:47.6766667+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

Just following up to see if there are any updates or if you need any information from my side, please feel free to let me know. I wish you a pleasant day!
Anonymous

2025-11-25T23:22:19.0266667+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

It’s been a while, so I just wanted to check in and see how things are progressing with this issue.

Have you had a chance to review the responses provided?

Any updates you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-12-08T00:39:22.0333333+00:00

Thank you for your persistence in helping me. I haven't had the time or patience to get back to this, but I finally forced myself to do it this evening. I have good news and bad news.

I deleted the font and downloaded it from the site you recommended. It then worked on my iMac (without reinstalling Word). I did the same on my MacBook (which is what I use at work where I need this font in the files I'm using) but it still didn't work. I then deleted all of my Microsoft apps, downloaded new copies of the entire suite of Microsoft apps from the Microsoft web site as you said to do, but the font still will not work on my MacBook. 😔

Does it matter where fonts are installed? Where does Microsoft find the fonts that it makes available? I noticed that many fonts that do show up on Word's font menu do not appear in Font Book, and there are many fonts in Font Book that do not appear in the Word font menu. This is true with Word on both my MacBook and my iMac. Could this have something to do with my issue?
Anonymous

2025-12-08T01:11:31.31+00:00

Dear @Nancy Farlow,

Thank you so much for your patience and continued cooperation while I’ve been working through this issue. I truly appreciate the time you’ve taken to follow up with me.

I understand how frustrating it must be that the fonts are still unavailable on your MacBook. After testing across multiple devices, including your iMac, the fonts install and work as expected. This suggests the issue may be specific to your current MacBook.

As a final step, I recommend creating a new user profile on your MacBook and then retrying the font installation using the same method. Here’s an official guide to help you set up a new profile: Add a user or group on Mac

If you need more visual steps of it, please see this link: https://www.maciverse.com/how-to-create-and-manage-user-accounts-on-macos.html

Please note that our support is limited to providing guidance based on official Microsoft documentation. Any third-party resources or references shared above are intended solely for informational or consultative purposes. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, or continued availability of third-party content, and we recommend exercising discretion when referring to such materials.

Once the new profile is created, please try installing the fonts and the apps again by my methods (not from Apps Store) and let me know if this resolves the problem.

Lastly, I hope for your understanding that I’m a Microsoft Q&A Forum Moderator, and my role has certain limitations. While I can’t directly fix the issue on your device due to security protocols, I still tried my best to find the best guidance and resources available to help you.

Wish you a good day!
Nancy Farlow 0 Reputation points

2025-12-08T02:42:05.23+00:00

Thank you for your continued persistence in trying to help me solve this issue. Where, specifically, should fonts be installed? I'm beginning to think this is the issue. If I create a new user profile on my MacBook, won't the fonts still be on my hard drive in the same places? Can you explain specifically what you mean by installing fonts? BTW, the font we've been discussing has been available all along for use in all of my Adobe apps on both computers. So the issue is limited to Microsoft apps.

What did you think of my final thought in my previous reply, as to why fonts in Font Book are not available in Word, and fonts in Word don't appear in Font Book. How do Font Book and Microsoft apps interact? Do Microsoft apps have font sources other than Font Book? If so, where are they?

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Why are some of my Font Book fonts no longer available in Word?

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