install office 2004-uninstall v.X?

[Elliot]

Does anyone have info re:need to/not need to uninstall v.X when upgrade to
Office 2004? Nothing in lit or disk. Thanks

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

I have yet to install my newly arrived Office 2004. I need time to read the
20+ page printed manual, make sure all my data, user dictionary, templates,
preferences etc. are backed up, that I run Repair Permissions beforehand,
turn off my anti-virus software, quit all other running programs, and do all
the other good things one does before installing Office 2004. (After, I'll
restart and run Repair Permissions before launching anything.)

That said, I got as far as page 3 of the printed manual and saw the
following note that responds to your question:

"Note: If an earlier version of Office is installed on your computer, you do
not need to remove it." That's followed by a "however" for folks with
Preview or Test versions of Office 2004.

I'd love to get the opinion of our MVPs on whether to do a simple upgrade or
to first uninstall Office X.


Respectfully, Norm

 

[Norman R. Nager, Ph.D.]

The expert opinion of the MVPs certainly would be helpful to a lot of folks,
but I decided (after assuring that my hard drive was backed up) to go ahead
and install Office 2004 while Office X was still in place.

I lost a few preferences, such as the column views in my Office
applications. There were a couple others, but minor. Everything went
exceptionally well.

I ran Repair Permissions before installation, immediately after, and then,
once more after re-start and before launching any Office applications. Not a
single problem emerged in either of the runnings of Repair Permissions
following Office 2004 installation.

The developers and beta testers did a great job in making a smooth
transition possible.

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Does anyone have info re:need to/not need to uninstall v.X when upgrade to
Office 2004? Nothing in lit or disk. Thanks

You don't need to, but unless you like testing different versions like MVPs
do, you'd usually want to. There's an (improved) Office Remover in Microsoft
Office 2004/Additional Tools/ folder. As usual, you should remove your
Custom Dictionary from ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft and any custom
Templates and Startup templates you might have from the Microsoft Office X
folder before doing so. (Also Normal template if you have any customizations
in it and haven't yet installed 2004 before removing X. There's a new
location for the default Normal - in MUD folder - but installing Office 2004
will import your previous Normal from X so you don't need to worry about
this if you install 2004 first.)

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Entourage you are using - **2004**, X
or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions otherwise.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I'd love to get the opinion of our MVPs on whether to do a simple upgrade or
to first uninstall Office X.

I would recommend following the advice in the booklet. I would also
strongly recommend using the Installer rather than the drag and drop
method. At the end of it, you'll be given a chance to delete previous
version(s).

Note that no MS installer/removal application touches your MUD folder,
so anything stored there, including your Entourage database, is safe.

Prior to installation, I'd suggest running the Disk Utility app's Repair
Permissions function. With v.X I recommend repairing permissions
afterward, too, but I don't believe it's necessary with 04.

I'd also suggest renaming your ~:Libraryreferences:Microsoft folder
before installing 04 to ensure that all files are created fresh. Note
that this will mean you'll lose some preferences.

Personally, I'd be perfectly comfortable deleting v.X after installing
04. I'll keep mine installed so that I can perform compatibility testing
when I develop applications (I also keep my installations of Office 2001
and 98).

If you do delete a previous installation, make sure that if you have
customizations in your Normal template, Personal Macro Workbook, etc.,
that you save them outside the Micorosoft Office v.X folder.

Your Personal Macro Workbook can be transferred directly to your
Microsoft Office 2004:Office:Startup:Excel folder.

Instead of using the previous version's Normal template, use the
Organizer to transfer any macros, autotext, toolbars, etc to the new
version.

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Norman, many thanks for the reports.

Dayo

The expert opinion of the MVPs certainly would be helpful to a lot of folks,
but I decided (after assuring that my hard drive was backed up) to go ahead
and install Office 2004 while Office X was still in place.

I lost a few preferences, such as the column views in my Office
applications. There were a couple others, but minor. Everything went
exceptionally well.

I ran Repair Permissions before installation, immediately after, and then,
once more after re-start and before launching any Office applications. Not a
single problem emerged in either of the runnings of Repair Permissions
following Office 2004 installation.

The developers and beta testers did a great job in making a smooth
transition possible.

Respectfully, Norm

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

I'd also suggest renaming your ~:Libraryreferences:Microsoft folder
before installing 04 to ensure that all files are created fresh. Note
that this will mean you'll lose some preferences.

That's also what I did. I'd much rather lose a few prefs than carry on old
and corrupted pref files to a fresh clean install of a newer version...


Corentin