Lost another hour of work

[iware]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

Old habits die hard. I keep forgetting that I can't right-click in Excel or Word 2008 on Mac, or THE WHOLE APPLICATION CRASHES. I've been reporting this for, oh, I don't know, 6 months? I've emailed the error stack a bunch of times. Is this something that you are actually going to fix, or is the answer "it's something in your user account" the only one available? Because even if something is my user account, shouldn't the Office suite, which I've been buying the professional version of religiously for about 100 YEARS be able to handle it and not crash and lose my work?

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Intel

Old habits die hard. I keep forgetting that I can't right-click in Excel or
Word 2008 on Mac, or THE WHOLE APPLICATION CRASHES. I've been reporting this
for, oh, I don't know, 6 months? I've emailed the error stack a bunch of
times. Is this something that you are actually going to fix, or is the answer
"it's something in your user account" the only one available? Because even if
something is my user account, shouldn't the Office suite, which I've been
buying the professional version of religiously for about 100 YEARS be able to
handle it and not crash and lose my work?

I have no idea what is happening with your configuration. All I can say is
that for me, right clicking works (and has always worked) fine. I doubt,
therefore that it is an issue related to Microsoft. If there is something
"fishy" in your configuration (corruption, unsupported haxie, or other
patch) it is unreasonable to expect Microsoft, no matter how loyal you may
be, to fix something unique to your system.

If you can get more specific, like what application is open, what is the
document, what are you right clicking on, what do you expect the right click
to accomplish, than maybe somebody can help you narrow down the problem. If,
as you imply, it works fine in a new user account, but not in your main
account, then you'll just have to follow the standard trouble shooting
procedures to isolate and fix the problem.

 

[CyberTaz]

As Bob G. replied it is not - nor should it be - the responsibility of any
application program to alter your Operating System, pro or con. Neither is
any part of Office a system maintenance & repair utility any more than
Photoshop, FileMaker Pro, etc. Besides, what one developer considers a "fix"
may very well cause other programs to be "unfixed".

Further, Control/right-clicking is a functionality supplied by the OS in
conjunction with the device driver software. The program in which you're
using the technique simply calls for the service & tells the OS what to
supply in the contextual menu. IOW, the program is least suspect of causing
the crash. It's typically a failure elsewhere that causes the program to go
unresponsive or collapse because it is not getting the appropriate response.
I realize that isn't what you would prefer to hear, but that's the reality
involved.

I appreciate your frustration, especially if the problem has been nagging at
you for that long, but by the same token it's not something that's inherently
flawed in the Office programs. If it were there would be far more reports of
the problem here as well as elsewhere. I as well as many others I know of
have been using Office 2008 since it was in Beta & have never experienced
what you're reporting. Definitely not on any installation of Office 2008 I've
used. These installations have spanned both PPC & Intel Macs as well as Tiger
& Leopard using a variety of different Apple & 3rd party pointing devices.

I don't have any idea what you've actually tried & it isn't clear whether
you've actually run from a different user account or not, but that's the
first diagnostic step. You can also log in while holding the Shift key to
bypass startup processes to see if the problem persists. If not, it indicates
that something that normally launches on log in is what's causing the
interference - it's then a matter of determining which one it is. (If you're
using a 3rd party mouse its driver software could be the problem or it might
be something else entirely.)

If the crashing does continue under those circumstances this is the approach
I'd take:

A) Make sure Office is fully updated (12.1.5 is current)

B) Fetch the OS X Tiger 10.4.11 Combo Update from the Apple site & apply it.
The Combos are far more reliable than the "thin" versions supplied by
Software Update. While there check to see if there are any Hardware or
Firmware updates for your model of Mac - those don't always get relayed by SU
and can make a big difference.

C) Repair disk permissions & restart after applying any updates.

If the problem persists I'd boot from a different startup disk & run Repair
Disk or a utility such as Disk Warrior if you have it.

BTW - Just so it's clear, you're not communicating with MS here. This is a
user-to-user support group. The contributors here do not work for MS so it is
not within our capacity to "fix" anything even if it is broken. Likewise, we
have no reason nor obligation to deny flaws in MS product if they do exist.
In fact, we're usually the first to know & loudest to scream when problems do
surface. We're simply trying to assist those with questions & concerns as
best we can.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac

 

[RackZozing]

As Bob G. replied it is not - nor should it be - the responsibility of any
application program to alter your Operating System, pro or con. Neither is
any part of Office a system maintenance & repair utility any more than
Photoshop, FileMaker Pro, etc. Besides, what one developer considers a "fix"
may very well cause other programs to be "unfixed".

Further, Control/right-clicking is a functionality supplied by the OS in
conjunction with the device driver software. The program in which you're
using the technique simply calls for the service & tells the OS what to
supply in the contextual menu. IOW, the program is least suspect of causing
the crash. It's typically a failure elsewhere that causes the program to go
unresponsive or collapse because it is not getting the appropriate response.
I realize that isn't what you would prefer to hear, but that's the reality
involved.

I appreciate your frustration, especially if the problem has been naggingat
you for that long, but by the same token it's not something that's inherently
flawed in the Office programs. If it were there would be far more reportsof
the problem here as well as elsewhere. I as well as many others I know of
have been using Office 2008 since it was in Beta & have never experienced
what you're reporting. Definitely not on any installation of Office 2008 I've
used. These installations have spanned both PPC & Intel Macs as well as Tiger
& Leopard using a variety of different Apple & 3rd party pointing devices..

I don't have any idea what you've actually tried & it isn't clear whether
you've actually run from a different user account or not, but that's the
first diagnostic step. You can also log in while holding the Shift key to
bypass startup processes to see if the problem persists. If not, it indicates
that something that normally launches on log in is what's causing the
interference - it's then a matter of determining which one it is. (If you're
using a 3rd party mouse its driver software could be the problem or it might
be something else entirely.)

If the crashing does continue under those circumstances this is the approach
I'd take:

A) Make sure Office is fully updated (12.1.5 is current)

B) Fetch the OS X Tiger 10.4.11 Combo Update from the Apple site & apply it.
The Combos are far more reliable than the "thin" versions supplied by
Software Update. While there check to see if there are any Hardware or
Firmware updates for your model of Mac - those don't always get relayed by SU
and can make a big difference.

C) Repair disk permissions & restart after applying any updates.

If the problem persists I'd boot from a different startup disk & run Repair
Disk or a utility such as Disk Warrior if you have it.

BTW - Just so it's clear, you're not communicating with MS here. This is a
user-to-user support group. The contributors here do not work for MS so it is
not within our capacity to "fix" anything even if it is broken. Likewise,we
have no reason nor obligation to deny flaws in MS product if they do exist.
In fact, we're usually the first to know & loudest to scream when problems do
surface. We're simply trying to assist those with questions & concerns as
best we can.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
MVP Office:Mac

I have the exact same problem with Excel on Leopard. It's incredibly
frustrating. I've trashed my installation at least once and it still
happens.