Advice needed: Word 2001 vs. Word 98 on a Mac - why does it keeprunning Word 98 after I install Word

[Michael Levin]

I was running Word 98 on a Mac with OS 9.2. I then installed Office 2001;
when I double-click on Excel documents, they open with the new Excel. But
when I double-click on Word documents, they still open with the old Word,
even though the new Word exists and can be run. Does anyone know how I tell
it to use the new Word app to open Word documents (like it does for Excel
and Powerpoint)? Please cc: to (e-mail address removed). Thanks!!

 

[Beth Rosengard]

I was running Word 98 on a Mac with OS 9.2. I then installed Office 2001;
when I double-click on Excel documents, they open with the new Excel. But
when I double-click on Word documents, they still open with the old Word,
even though the new Word exists and can be run. Does anyone know how I tell
it to use the new Word app to open Word documents (like it does for Excel
and Powerpoint)? Please cc: to (e-mail address removed). Thanks!!

 

[Beth Rosengard]

[Apologies for the last post. I hit Send by mistake.]

Hi Melvin,

First, the proper newsgroup to post to in the future for questions involving
Macs and Word is microsoft.public.mac.office.word and in general you should
not expect to receive a cc.

As for your problem, you need to rebuild your desktop. That *should* fix
the problem. However, there's no reason to keep Office 98 on your computer
(is there?) and I recommend you do a removal (which will wipe out both
Office 98 & 2001) and then a reinstall of Office 2001. Here's the
procedure:

-- If these files are important to you, back them up on external media for
later reinstallation:

Normal Template: Applications>Microsoft Office 2001>Templates
My Templates (your custom templates): same as above
Custom Dictionary: System Folder>Preferences>Microsoft
AutoCorrect List (Office ACL English): same as above
Preferences/Settings files for the other Office applications.

-- Download the Office 2001/98 Remover from
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/down
load/office2001/RemoveOffice.xml&secid=10&ssid=3&flgnosysreq=False>. DO NOT
use the remover from the Office 2001 CD; it is not up-to-date.

-- With all Office applications closed, run it. That searches your hard
disk, and particularly your System folder, to make sure everything is
removed.

-- Rebuild the desktop.

-- Reinstall Office 2001 from the CD and reinstall any of the Value Pack
items that you want.

-- Start each Office 2001 application once to cause it to initialize itself.

-- Download and install the "Microsoft Office 2001 Combined Update 9.0.4"
from Mactopia.com
(<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/default.asp#Office2001>).

-- Rebuild the desktop.

Hope this helps.

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>