Installing with new serial number

[writty]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

I only use Word and Entourage, and both have gotten so buggy that they're interfering with my livelihood. If I reinstall Office using one of the other three serial numbers, will that affect any of my existing documents? And will it help get rid of the bugs?

Thanks for any help you feel moved to offer this non-techie.

 

[Diane Ross]

I only use Word and Entourage, and both have gotten so buggy that they're
interfering with my livelihood. If I reinstall Office using one of the other
three serial numbers, will that affect any of my existing documents? And will
it help get rid of the bugs?

You can continue to use the same serial number. There is no activation for
Office Mac. A re-install will not affect your documents.

We don't generally advise doing a re-install to solve problems. Please
detail what problems you are having.

Testing in a new User will quickly tell you if the problem is system wide or
if it's your User's folder that contains the problem. Go to System
Preferences --> Create a New User in Accounts. Switch to the New User by
logging out/in or use Fast User Switching. Test Office there.

Let me know what you find in the new User.

 

[writty]

Thanks so much for your prompt and helpful response. My problem with Entourage is that it keeps telling me that one or another of the three accounts I use can either not receive or not send. When I go into the account and re-enter the same POP and SMTP information, it manages the task, but transfers to the problem to one of the other two accounts. I've tested Entourage in a new User, and it sent and received just fine.

With Word, when I format a paragraph, the entire document reformats. This is fairly easily addressed by simply pressing command-Z to undo, so it's more an irritation than a serious problem. I tend to think that this bug is built into Word, because I've encountered it on other machines, with other installations. But things started getting unworkable when the program refused to allow me to modify a style. Sometimes, the style would just remain stubbornly as it was, totally unresponsive to the modification. In other cases, the modification would be applied to one instance of the style in a given document (e.g., Heading 3), but only partially to the others (e.g., all the other Heading 3's not bolded). When I select the partially modified heading and reapply the style, that heading doesn't respond, but the partially modified version is applied to the paragraph of text following the heading (which was in another style, e.g. Normal), and replaces the single heading that was originally modified correctly with the partially modified version. Complete chaos.

In the new User, formatting a paragraph continues to apply itself to the entire document, but the style problems appear to have disappeared.

Now that we know the problem is in the User, how do I go about fixing it? If the fix is to switch over to the new User, how do I transfer all my identities, documents, etc. from the old one? Wouldn't doing so also risk transfering the problems along with the docs?

Thanks again for your help, Diane.

 

[Diane Ross]

Now that we know the problem is in the User, how do I go about fixing it? If
the fix is to switch over to the new User, how do I transfer all my
identities, documents, etc. from the old one? Wouldn't doing so also risk
transfering the problems along with the docs?

You can try to fix your current User first. However sometimes switching to a
new User is quicker.

I would try the preferences fix along with delete caches and see if things
improve. See this page for help:

Troubleshooting Your User Account for a Problem

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/test_user.html>

If you decide to go with the new User, you should be able to just move over
the Documents folder to have all your data. A few things in your User's
Library especially the Application Support and Safari folder could also be
copied over.

The problem you described with Word might get more attention in it's own
thread with "Word" in the subject. The microsoft.public.mac.office.word
newsgroup is the best place to get help with Word.

If you use a newsreader rather than the Mactopia interface to this newsgroup
you can download old messages and search for answers. If you are not
familiar with a newsreader, Entourage's basic newsreader already has the
Microsoft News server included. All you do is subscribe to the newsgroups
you want. See this article for help subscribing using the Entourage
newsreader:

<http://tinyurl.com/beds97>

 

[writty]

I tried all the troubleshooting tests—removing preferences, caches, etc. and logging out/in again … nothing helped my Entourage problem. So I figured I'd go the new user route. The obstacle now is that any time I try to do anything at all with the new user I created to test in the first place, I get a message saying that I don't have enough access privileges to make any changes. Who then does, pray? All the folders in this user have little red "no entry" symbols on them.

Sorry to be tedious, Diane. I very much appreciate your help.

 

[Diane Ross]

All the folders in this user have little red "no entry" symbols on them.

Did you give admin privileges to the new test user? If not you need to do
this in System Preferences.

No folder in the test user should have the red block sign. You will see it
in your old user when you are in the new user. However, if you have admin
privileges you can do a "get info" on that folder, click the lock at the
bottom, enter the password and add the new user with read & write
privileges.