Q: How to fix run-time error 53 every time I open a file in MS Word, Excel, or PowerPoint on Big Sur? Since I installed Big Sur, I have run into this problem every time I open a document using Word or a worksheet using Excel or a slide show in PowerPoint:
Run-time error '53':
 
File not found: Library/Application
Support/Adobe/MACPDFM/MacPDFM.framework/Versions/A/MacPDFM


This is very annoying, as I have to dismiss this window up to four times in a row every time I open a document on these Microsoft Office applications. I searched everywhere, including the official Microsoft website, macOS tip websites, but the information was incomplete, obsolete and did not offer a practical solution.
Does anyone know how to fix this really annoying problem?

A: There's a much easier way:

*

*Open Word

*On the top of your Mac taskbar, click "Tools"

*Click on "Templates and Add-ins..." at the bottom

*Under Global Templates and Add-ins, selected the item "linkCreation.dotm"

*Clicked the little (-) button to delete the item

*Restarted MS Word and the problem should be resolved


A: Thank you, terminal command line in William Lai's answer worked!  In case helpful for others, the only thing different for me was that 2 of the directories were appended with ".localized".
/Users/your-user-name/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content.**localized**/Startup.**localized**/Word


A: After looking really hard for a solution, I finally found in a very obscure page the answer, which is quite simple and works with the latest Microsoft Word on Big Sur:

*

*Close all Office applications

*Go to /Users/your-user-name-here/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Startup/Word

*

*If the Library folder is initially hidden, press the "Command" + "Shift" + "." (period) keys at the same time to display it.



*Remove linkCreation.dotm

*Restart Word and problem solved

Unfortunately that does not solve the problem for PowerPoint or Excel because if I remove SaveAsAdobePDF.ppam inside the PowerPoint folder or the SaveAsAdobePDF.xlam inside the Excel folder will trigger another error on application launch.
To fix these errors, you need to:

*

*Remove the SaveAsAdobePDF.ppam and SaveAsAdobePDF.xlam from the PowerPoint and Excel folders next to the Word folder.

*Launch Excel and PowerPoint and go to the menu Tools -> Excel Add-ins... and Tools -> PowerPoint Add-ins..., respectively, and remove the Save as Adobe PDF add-in, by unckecking it and removing it with the "-" button and then click OK.

*Restart Excel and PowerPoint and the problem should go away. If not, try several times to remove those options from the Tools menu until the problem goes away. I had to repeat this procedure in PowerPoint until this got fixed.


A: So far none of the above has worked for me. Worse, the dialog appears to come up on a hidden window, so I have to:

*

*mouse to the Dock

*locate Microsoft Word (small icon)

*right click on the Microsoft Word

*select Show all windows

*navigate to the crude dialog (looks like something I saw in 1987)

*click END

*Repeat between 4 and 8 times for every document opened


A: Disable via Add-ins in Version 16+:


A: Open Terminal and paste the following:
cd '~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Startup/' && rm Word/linkCreation.dotm && rm PowerPoint/SaveAsAdobePDF.ppam && rm Excel/SaveAsAdobePDF.xlam && open '/Applications/Microsoft PowerPoint.app' '/Applications/Microsoft Excel.app' 

Hit enter, then in the windows that open (Excel and PowerPoint) click on the menu bar entry 'Tools', and in the drop-down, respectively 'Excel Add-ins...' and 'PowerPoint add-ins...'. In each program, select the entry 'Save as Adobe PDF' and click on the - button. Click on OK.
