Clipart *POOF*!

V

voxgrrl

I know that this topic has been addressed before, but I've tried a
bunch of things and nothing seems to work.

I have Microsoft Office v. x for Mac. Clipart in Word used to work
just fine, but a few months ago, it just stopped working. When I
Insert>Picture>Clip Art, the Clip Art Gallery icon bounces in the dock
for about a second, then disappears.

I have tried repairing disk permissions, running all the Norton
Utilities, trashing some of the preferences files from the Library that
were recommended, and reinstalling Microsoft Office, all to no avail.

Am I just stuck trying to reinstall Office again? If so, is there a
possibility that I didn't uninstall Office correctly before attempting
the reinstallation?

Help!

Thanks!
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Am I just stuck trying to reinstall Office again? If so, is there a
possibility that I didn't uninstall Office correctly before attempting
the reinstallation?

Reinstalling Office is rarely effective. This is especially true if you
don't run the Remove Office application (from the Value Pak folder of
the Install disk) first. Since you apparently did, that *may* be causing
a problem (but it's still not all that likely).

Try deleting these two files first (with ALL Office apps closed):

Applications:Microsoft Office X:ClipArt:personal:Clip Gallery User
Database

~:Library:preferences:Microsoft:Clip Gallery Preferences

(where ~ is your home directory).

Empty the trash, then start an Office App.
 
V

voxgrrl

Thanks for the response -- the Clip Gallery User Database appears
nonexistent, and trashing the Clip Gallery Preferences seems to have no
effect.

*sigh*

Thanks for trying!
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Thanks for the response -- the Clip Gallery User Database appears
nonexistent, and trashing the Clip Gallery Preferences seems to have no
effect.

The Clip Gallery User Database being nonexistent is a problem, assuming
you've tried to insert ClipArt.

Since you tried removing Office once, try again, running Remove Office
this time, then reinstall Office X. Make sure you run the Value Pak
installer to ensure that any optional components are installed. Then run
the 10.1.6 updater found at MacTopia:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx

Both prior to and after installing, repair your disk permissions.
 
V

voxgrrl

Short story: still not working. :(

Long story:

Here's what I did. Using the Remove Office app in the Value Pack, I
uninstalled Microsoft Office 2001 and Office v. x. Then I reinstalled
Office 2001 and the Office v. x Upgrade. So far, so good.

I started Word in Office 2001. Yay! Clipart! It works.

I started Word in Office v. x. Boo! No Clipart.

I found the Clip Gallery User Database. It was in the Office
2001:Clipart file. I deleted it. Still no Clipart in Word v. x.

I found the Clip Gallery Preferences and deleted it. Still no Clipart
in Word v. x.

I also deleted the Carbon User Preferences Database as per another
newsgroup's instructions. Still no Clipart in Word v. x.

I have a PowerBook G4 with 1.33 GHz processor and 768 MB SDRAM. I just
installed the OS X update (although I've had this problem long before).

Clipart continues to work in Word 2001, just not in Word v. x.

I could work around this, create my Clipart in Word 2001, and then cut
and paste into Word v. X, but the selection is limited and every time I
try to import new Clipart from the Microsoft site, it just sits there
on my desktop, not opening.

Thank you for your patience and your help.
 
V

voxgrrl

Oh, and I also downloaded the updater from MacTopia, and ran disk
permissions before and after each step noted above.
 
E

Elliott Roper

Short story: still not working. :(

Long story:

Here's what I did. Using the Remove Office app in the Value Pack, I
uninstalled Microsoft Office 2001 and Office v. x. Then I reinstalled
Office 2001 and the Office v. x Upgrade. So far, so good.

I started Word in Office 2001. Yay! Clipart! It works.

I started Word in Office v. x. Boo! No Clipart.

I found the Clip Gallery User Database. It was in the Office
2001:Clipart file. I deleted it. Still no Clipart in Word v. x.

I found the Clip Gallery Preferences and deleted it. Still no Clipart
in Word v. x.

I also deleted the Carbon User Preferences Database as per another
newsgroup's instructions. Still no Clipart in Word v. x.

Hmm. I'm coming to this a bit late. I'd guess that you and/or your Word
v.X might be a little confused about where those files should be.
Here, the files are:
/Applications/Microsoft Office X/Clipart/Personal/Clip Gallery User
Database

Note there should be about 355 files in /Applications/Microsoft Office
X/Clipart/ and the directories below it

Preferences should be in ....
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist where ~ is short for
/Users/voxgrrrl or whatever your username is.

But then Word v.X made a colossal bodge of where preferences and other
support stuff should have been.

It is possible that Word's v.X installer is too clever by half, and
noticing that you have 2001 as well as v.X has somehow managed to look
in the Classic environment for your clip art. In which case none of the
above is at all helpful.

Post back with a note to say whether you have another copy of the
clipart stuff in the same place as me.

As far as I can see, you are in a mess. To get Word's uninstaller to
work properly, you have to sacrifice a goat, and it only works on the
night of the full moon. The v.X installer sprays files all over your
system and the user directory of whoever was logged in to do the
installation. It may also fling fonts all over your disk depending on
whether it finds a particular Korean/Mongolian/Outer Slobbovian font in
your system font directory.

Oh, One last thing. In Word, after you find your clipart, go to
preferences->file locations
Is there anything in the location column to the right of clipart
pictures? If it is blank, like it is here, then clipart should be where
I said it was on mine (see above). If there is something there, and it
looks wrong, follow your nose with the modify button and navigate to
the clipart directory and hit choose.
(Having done that, I now have an entry in the locatioin field of file
location preferences, but it still works)

I have to tell you that I couldn't care less if I never saw clipart
again. It is one of the ugliest stupidest things to put in a Word
processor you could imagine. Its only purpose is to check that any
picture you do choose is different from anything in there, in case you
are branded as a Dilbert PHB of the Powerpoint generation and lose all
your street cred in one go.
 
V

voxgrrl

Oh, actually, I did find those files and deleted them, but the Clipart
is still not working. There just seems to be no hope for it.

My Office v. x was an upgrade purchase for Office 2001, so they are
supposed to get along just fine, but obviously that's not the case.

Quite frankly, I agree as to never dealing with clipart again, but it
becomes necessary sometimes for work, and I simply haven't had time to
figure out any other workarounds.

But you know what really chaps my hide? It worked fine for about a
year and then it just stopped one day. What kind of self-destruct
sequence does it have embedded in the script to make it do that? It's
a conspiracy, I tell ya....
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Elliott Roper said:
Hmm. I'm coming to this a bit late.

But you're on a roll said:
Preferences should be in ....
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist where ~ is short for
/Users/voxgrrrl or whatever your username is.

No, that's Word 2004, and only a list of recent files and window
positions are stored there. Other preferences are in the

~:Library:preferences:Microsoft:

folder.
But then Word v.X made a colossal bodge of where preferences and other
support stuff should have been.

Aside from putting the MUD folder in Documents rather than Application
Support, what's the problem? Putting preferences in Library:preferences,
as v.X does, is perfectly acceptable under the Aqua HIG, as is,
actually, putting the MUD folder in Documents.
It is possible that Word's v.X installer is too clever by half, and
noticing that you have 2001 as well as v.X has somehow managed to look
in the Classic environment for your clip art. In which case none of the
above is at all helpful.

That's not the case with my installation - I've got Office 98/01/v.X and
2004 all installed, and all run fine with each other, using their
individual ClipArt collections.
As far as I can see, you are in a mess. To get Word's uninstaller to
work properly, you have to sacrifice a goat, and it only works on the
night of the full moon.

It's worked every time I've tried it, as long as I haven't gotten *too*
creative with aliases/symlinks. Perhaps I've just been lucky in lunar
phases.
The v.X installer sprays files all over your system and the user
directory of whoever was logged in to do the installation.

"sprays"? AFAIK, the installer only puts files in the Applications
folder. It also puts a log file somewhere stupid. Fortunately that got
fixed in 2004. The Value Pak installer only puts things in the
Applications:Microsoft Office X folder.

FirstRun will then create the MUD folder in Documents, and put
preferences in ~:Library:preferences.

Perhaps I've forgotten something?
It may also fling fonts all over your disk depending on
whether it finds a particular Korean/Mongolian/Outer Slobbovian font in
your system font directory.

"all over your disk"? Isn't it only in the HD:Library:Fonts directory?
Where else are fonts flung?
I have to tell you that I couldn't care less if I never saw clipart
again.

Full agreement there!
 
E

Elliott Roper

JE said:
No, that's Word 2004, and only a list of recent files and window
positions are stored there. Other preferences are in the

~:Library:preferences:Microsoft:

folder.

Nah, that's where the phase of the moon comes in. I copied that from my
own machine which has never seen a 2004.
Aside from putting the MUD folder in Documents rather than Application
Support, what's the problem? Putting preferences in Library:preferences,
as v.X does, is perfectly acceptable under the Aqua HIG, as is,
actually, putting the MUD folder in Documents.

I had in mind v.X's charming idiosyncracy of placing user templates in
the Applications folder
That's not the case with my installation - I've got Office 98/01/v.X and
2004 all installed, and all run fine with each other, using their
individual ClipArt collections.


It's worked every time I've tried it, as long as I haven't gotten *too*
creative with aliases/symlinks. Perhaps I've just been lucky in lunar
phases.

It's a Southern Hemishpere thing.
"sprays"? AFAIK, the installer only puts files in the Applications
folder. It also puts a log file somewhere stupid. Fortunately that got
fixed in 2004. The Value Pak installer only puts things in the
Applications:Microsoft Office X folder.

FirstRun will then create the MUD folder in Documents, and put
preferences in ~:Library:preferences.
You have been in 2004 too long.
Perhaps I've forgotten something?


"all over your disk"? Isn't it only in the HD:Library:Fonts directory?
Where else are fonts flung?
That's the one. I was exaggerating. Like you said, on a roll.
Full agreement there!

voxgrrl, if you are still listening to this repartee, what happened
when you tried to adjust the file location preferences to point to your
clipart folder, and was it the right size (no. of files)?
 
J

JE McGimpsey

Elliott Roper said:
Nah, that's where the phase of the moon comes in. I copied that from my
own machine which has never seen a 2004.

Hmm... I'll have to look at that closer to see what interaction 2004 and
v.X have with that file.
<snip>
I had in mind v.X's charming idiosyncracy of placing user templates in
the Applications folder

That's a royal pain. Of course, my startup macro changes that location,
so I never have to deal with it.
You have been in 2004 too long.

Very possibly. I stopped using v.X, other than for testing, over fifteen
months ago, now.
 

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