Launching Office 2007

[Sandy Macdonald]

I am running Offfice 2007 on a Vista computer. When I press the Vista
'Start' icon and see a list of recently used application, I can't launch an
Office 2007 from the list, nothing happens when I click the icon.

If I list all programs and click on an Office 2007 application icon from
this complete list, then the applications launch properly.

What is happening? How can I fix this?

 

[gls858]

I am running Offfice 2007 on a Vista computer. When I press the Vista
'Start' icon and see a list of recently used application, I can't launch an
Office 2007 from the list, nothing happens when I click the icon.

If I list all programs and click on an Office 2007 application icon from
this complete list, then the applications launch properly.

What is happening? How can I fix this?

It's working just like it's supposed to. You can't "launch" Office 2007.
Office 2007 is a suite of separate programs. An easy way to launch
programs is to simply type the name in the search bar and hit return.

Example: type Excel in the search bar and Excel pops up at the top of
the list andis highlighted. Simply hit return and excel will open.

gls858

 

[jimmuh]

No, I don't think so. It seems as though Sandy is referring to the fact that
one or more of the shortcuts created by the MS Office 2007 setup procedure do
not work when they are placed in the top-level Start menu -- either by the
recent files process or by the Pin to Start Menu process. They also fail if
you right-click on them and place them in the Quick Launch toolbar. That is
most assuredly not how they are supposed to function.

I, and others, have posted here several times over the past few months about
this very issue. The only answer we have found (insofar as I am aware) is the
one that worked for me. You delete the MS Office shortcuts from all levels of
the Start / Programs menu, and you create new shortcuts directly to the
individual executables. Then those shortcuts, when placed in the top-level
menu or in Quick Launch, will work properly.

I do prefer using the Start Menu search function for launching most
applications, but even that function did not work for some of the original
shortcuts that appeared on my Vista Business systems after installing Office
2007. BTW, this wasn't a one-off experience for me. It has been the case on
EVERY installation of Office 2007 under Vista at our company.

 

[gls858]

No, I don't think so. It seems as though Sandy is referring to the fact that
one or more of the shortcuts created by the MS Office 2007 setup procedure do
not work when they are placed in the top-level Start menu -- either by the
recent files process or by the Pin to Start Menu process. They also fail if
you right-click on them and place them in the Quick Launch toolbar. That is
most assuredly not how they are supposed to function.

I, and others, have posted here several times over the past few months about
this very issue. The only answer we have found (insofar as I am aware) is the
one that worked for me. You delete the MS Office shortcuts from all levels of
the Start / Programs menu, and you create new shortcuts directly to the
individual executables. Then those shortcuts, when placed in the top-level
menu or in Quick Launch, will work properly.

I do prefer using the Start Menu search function for launching most
applications, but even that function did not work for some of the original
shortcuts that appeared on my Vista Business systems after installing Office
2007. BTW, this wasn't a one-off experience for me. It has been the case on
EVERY installation of Office 2007 under Vista at our company.

Guess I misinterpreted the post. IMO it wasn't very clear what she was
asking.

I was at a machine with Office 2007 and Vista and both of the methods
you mentioned worked just fine. Did you do a network install, or install
directly from the media. Did you install to a different location other
than the default?

I checked the target path and mine looked like this:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Microsoft Office
It was same for every pinned Office app. I thought that was a little
strange.

gls858

 

[jimmuh]

I can see why you would have thought normal behavior was being reported. I
was only aware of this because of the issues we've had with our 8 test
machines. None of them was installed from a network source -- all being
installed from disc, but definitely to the default / standard location.
(Otherwise, what kind of testing am I doing?) Don't know if that will turn
out to be pertinent or not, but we shall see!

As we know the Microsoft shortcuts are a little different from the
"roll-your-own" variety. But the combination of MS Office Pro 2007, OneNote
2007, and Visio Pro 2007 definitely always results in this issue, AFAICT.

 

[gls858]

Ok since you're top posting I'll follow suit. My guess is it's one of
the other programs you're loading since I don't load either of them. If
I had to make a wild guess I would pick OneNote. Here's what I would do
Load Office, check to see if the links work, load OneNote, check links,
load Viso, check links. that way you could isolate the culprit.

 

[jimmuh]

Heh. I'm an old timer. Have been "top-posting" since ARPANET and FIDO. Sorry.

I'm not trying to solve this problem right now. I've already been through
the installation variations with MS support and in a couple of old threads
here. At least in the case of the two systems on which I retried the
installations back in December / January the answer is not the combination of
MS applications. Perhaps I should have been more careful in my wording so
that you wouldn't think I was still working on the issue. But neither MS
support nor any of the MVPs could figure what was going on. A lot of people
have reported the issue. When you make your own shortcuts it becomes a
non-issues.

I'd rather see if someone might be able to help Sandy. I'm not sure that we
know for certain yet whether Sandy is reporting the same problem, and, if so,
has tried anything more to remedy it.

 

[gls858]

No problem I'm not one of those people that insist on bottom posting.
It's just a habit of mine I frequent one group where everyone and
I mean everyone top posts. The important thing is to communicate.

You may have fixed her problem. Many times, as I'm sure you know, there
will be one post with a question and you will not see that poster again.

I hope if the OP is still having a problem they will post back for more
help.

gls858