extra items on install Office 2008

[jdrobnsn]

I have installed Office 2008, and am still trying to find my way around (I am a Mac newbie, with an MBP, previously using Parallels and Office XP)
In Finder, there are two entries for each office application, one followed by "-U", i.e., Entourage-U

Each item seems to launch the same application. The U series are about twice as big as the non-U apps.

What is the difference? Do I need both? Is one universal Binary? Why the big difference in size?

 

[jdrobnsn]

Oh... Live and learn. Ran the utility "Trim The Fat" which stripped out the non-intel code, which shrunk the app by about 1/2. Left the original app as the "U".

Pretty good utility.

 

 

[William Smith]

Oh... Live and learn. Ran the utility "Trim The Fat" which stripped out
the non-intel code, which shrunk the app by about 1/2. Left the original
app as the "U".

Pretty good utility.

But a very odd situation. Office 2008 is universal but you should have
to be none the wiser and not be seeing anything that suggests universal
or otherwise. Where specifically are you seeing these files?

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[jdrobnsn]

Before I used Trim The Fat, everything was fine- one entry per app. After I used Trim tehe Fat, the trimmed app had the correct app name, and the "old" universal app had -U suffix. Utility did not delete the old file. THe problem was that being freeware, there's not the documentation that says what it is going to do, and I had forgotten that I had run the utility. I deleted the -U files, and have fill office 2008 at about half the memory that it required before.





No, this was just another case of user error.

 

[John McGhie]

I don't understand?

How did you get the non-Intel code in there in the first place?

If you used the Installer, it should only have installed the Intel bits...

Cheers

Oh... Live and learn. Ran the utility "Trim The Fat" which stripped out the
non-intel code, which shrunk the app by about 1/2. Left the original app as
the "U".

Pretty good utility.

--
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[jdrobnsn]

Got me... I just put the DVD in the slot and started the installer. I have read about some problems with MS's use of Apple installer for Office. I doubt that I have come across a new fault...

 

[John McGhie]

Well, I think you might have

Yours is the only report of this issue I have seen so far, and I am afraid I
do not have an answer for it.

Sorry...

Got me... I just put the DVD in the slot and started the installer. I have
read about some problems with MS's use of Apple installer for Office. I doubt
that I have come across a new fault...

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Matt Centurión [MSFT]]

Office for Mac 2008 Installer will install both sets of code (Intel/PPC)
regardless of what machine type you are installing onto. This is common
behavior for the Apple installer and is important in the cases where you are
installing onto a drive that might be shared with Intel/PPC computers (such
as an external travel drive, Network Boot servers, and Shared Network
Application Folders).

I¹d like to tell you that it is ok to use utilities like ³Trim The Fat² to
remove the code that doesn¹t map to your processor, however I fear that
doing so might complicate upgrades and patches released for Office 2008 in
the future. These patches and upgrades will expect the full application and
sets of code to be there in order to run and if not, you will be unable to
apply them. This might also be true for other non-Microsoft applications
that make use of the Apple installer.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Matt
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

Date: 1/28/08 3:58 AM / From: "(e-mail address removed)"

 

[John McGhie]

Thanks Matt:

Very useful information.

Although, I wonder at the appropriateness of this installation design

Cheers

Office for Mac 2008 Installer will install both sets of code (Intel/PPC)
regardless of what machine type you are installing onto. This is common
behavior for the Apple installer and is important in the cases where you are
installing onto a drive that might be shared with Intel/PPC computers (such
as an external travel drive, Network Boot servers, and Shared Network
Application Folders).

I¹d like to tell you that it is ok to use utilities like ³Trim The Fat² to
remove the code that doesn¹t map to your processor, however I fear that
doing so might complicate upgrades and patches released for Office 2008 in
the future. These patches and upgrades will expect the full application and
sets of code to be there in order to run and if not, you will be unable to
apply them. This might also be true for other non-Microsoft applications
that make use of the Apple installer.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Matt
MacOffice Testing
Microsoft

Date: 1/28/08 3:58 AM / From: "(e-mail address removed)"

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[William Smith]

Thanks Matt:

Very useful information.

Although, I wonder at the appropriateness of this installation design

I think this makes sense for the simple reason that, while we don't
endorse it, Apple still has their migration tool to move users to new
machines. Some folks will want to move from an old PowerPC Mac to a new
Intel Mac. The dual binary will make this possible.

Also, Leopard is a single set of code for PowerPC and Intel as well.
That means I can take my external Leopard backup disk (created with
SuperDuper!) and attach it to my old standby G4 867MHz Mac while my new
Intel iMac is in for repairs and still be able to use Office 2008.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

It "also" means that if users USE the Migration Tool to migrate Office from
a PPC to an Intel computer, all hell breaks lose and they have to spend
HOURS tracking down and deleting the munged preferences

Having two versions of a binary on the disk, one of which never will and
never can be used, is simply BLOAT.

I would have thought Microsoft had taken enough hits on the subject of
Bloatware these past few years without actually making it worse by actually
producing software with vast wadges of unused binary in there.

But maybe you guys can afford more free disk capacity than me

Cheers

I think this makes sense for the simple reason that, while we don't
endorse it, Apple still has their migration tool to move users to new
machines. Some folks will want to move from an old PowerPC Mac to a new
Intel Mac. The dual binary will make this possible.

Also, Leopard is a single set of code for PowerPC and Intel as well.
That means I can take my external Leopard backup disk (created with
SuperDuper!) and attach it to my old standby G4 867MHz Mac while my new
Intel iMac is in for repairs and still be able to use Office 2008.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]