mail not launching - "unable to load nib file: Mailviewer"

[trampt]

As far as troubleshooting Mac OS I'm a total newbie. Almost since I bought it Mail hasn't worked, but I've been using Entourage so it didn't matter. The only thing that is annoying me is Mail is my default program so when I click on any link it won't go to Entourage.

I stumbled across this by going to "show package contents" and found in the Mail contents folder.

**********************
Last login: Fri Oct 29 14:52:42 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail; exit
Keegan:~ cocorobot$ /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail; exit
2004-10-29 14:56:39.062 Mail[355] Unable to load nib file: MailViewer, exiting
logout
[Process completed]
**********************

I assume this is why Mail is not loading, however I have no idea how to fix it. Any ideas from you Mac gurus? :)

[BuonRotto]

If it's missing a nib file, it probably needs to be reinstalled. A nib file is a chunk of the application itself. Just leave everything in place on your Mac, and go to your restore CDs. You can either dig through them to find the Mail,app installer or you can use an application like Pacifist (http://www.charlessoft.com/) to find it for you and reinstall this one item.

Reinstalling will just write over the application itself so the data and settings you have (and which are stored separately from the app itself) will be left alone.

I have no idea how the nib would be missing, though maybe it's somehow been corrupted. Do anything interesting lately on your Mac?

[trampt]

That worked like a charm. Thanks so much for your help. :)