MS office 2004 installed but applications not opening?? - please help!

[60764]

Hi,
After searching the newsgroup postings for similar problems, none of
the previous solutions seem to work for me and I am at a loss as to
what the problem could be. Until recently office:mac 2004 was running
fine on my 12" ibook 1.33GHz but due to unforeseen coffee spillage ,
I am now on a Macbook 2.0 GHz and office no longer works.

I did one install and by mistake used one of the product keys that I
had used before (whoops). Everything worked fine but after 24 hrs all
office applications stopped responding (the icon would appear in the
dock, bounce once and then dissapear). I thought that maybe it was
because I put in the wrong product key. So....I dragged the office
2004 folder to trash and tried a reinstall. Didn't work!. To cut a
long story short I have since then:

- Run remove office
- Booted from OSX installation cd and repaired disk permissions
- Run remove office
- Installed office:mac 2004 by drag and drop.
- Downloaded office update 10.1.3 (or whatever the latest one is)

Office is now installed, but when I try to run any of the office apps
they bounce a couple of times in the dock and just close again. No
error message...nothing.

Please give me hand, I am tearing my hair out

BTW. the MacBook has all of the latest updates on it.

Thanks fo your help.

Cheers

Andy

 

[CyberTaz]

If you have Office 2004,

is totally inappropriate (the actual version is 10.1.9) but that is for
Office X (v.10), *not* Office 2004 (v.11). Download the appropriate update -
which is 11.3.3 - apply it, repair permissions & see how that works.

Two other points to consider:

1- Did the MacBook have a Test Drive installed that *hasn't* been fully
removed using the Remove Office utility? if so that could be nagging you
now.

2- IMHO - *Do Not* boot from a different startup disk to Repair Disk
*Permissions*. I understand doing so can _cause_ permissions problems by
resetting them based on the OS version used to start up which are not the
same as the OS version actually being "repaired". Starting up from a
different boot volume is only necessary to run Repair Disk, which deals with
an entirely different can of worms than Repair Disk Permissions.

 

[philipbrudnicki]

i am encountering the same problem. no test drive on thte computer..
update from the microsoft website and repaired the permissions. only
msn messenger will load, the others hop for a few seconds and then
stop and never open.

 

[paddytomkins]

Problem installing on my MacBook Pro 17". I have removed the Test Run,
repaired permisions, wiped free space, used the drag and drop
installation, updated with latest MS Office update and STILL none of
the Office 2004 applications will launch. A double click get the
usual expanding icon then nothing. No request for the key, no icon in
the Dock, nothing. I've tried with my original and authentic disc
that I used perfectly on my old G4 17" and the original and authentic
Student and Teacher edition (with two licenses remaining on it) that
has happily installed on my daughter's 15.4" MBP. Short of
reformatting the whole disk I don't know where to go with this. Any
ideas will be gratefully received.

 

[Diane Ross]

Problem installing on my MacBook Pro 17". I have removed the Test Run,
repaired permisions, wiped free space, used the drag and drop
installation, updated with latest MS Office update and STILL none of
the Office 2004 applications will launch. A double click get the
usual expanding icon then nothing. No request for the key, no icon in
the Dock, nothing. I've tried with my original and authentic disc
that I used perfectly on my old G4 17" and the original and authentic
Student and Teacher edition (with two licenses remaining on it) that
has happily installed on my daughter's 15.4" MBP. Short of
reformatting the whole disk I don't know where to go with this. Any
ideas will be gratefully received.

Try deleting this file: ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Entourage.plist

Another option would be to re-apply the combo updater from Apple. Doing so
overwrites potentially problem-causing files.



Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo Update (PPC)


<http://wsidecar.apple.com/cgi-bin/nph-reg3rdpty2.pl/product=11795&cat=1&pla
tform=osx&method=sa/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.8PPC.dmg>



Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo Update (Intel)



<http://wsidecar.apple.com/cgi-bin/nph-reg3rdpty2.pl/product=11797&cat=1&pla
tform=osx&method=sa/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.8Intel.dmg>




--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[60764]

I have now tried to follow the advice of this thread.

1. removed office (Run x 2) (no installations of microsoft left)
2. Repair disk permissions (my mistake got the advice about booting
from cd from another thread in this newsgroup)
3. Drag & drop install
4. Installed 11.3.3 update before trying to open any application (boy
do I feel stupid, thanx CyberTaz)
5. Upon opening, the applications still just bounce in the dock and
then disappear.

As I type I am downloading Diane's link to Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo
Update (Intel). Hopefully it will work.

All of this effort is enough to drive a man to NeoOffice

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I have now tried to follow the advice of this thread.

1. removed office (Run x 2) (no installations of microsoft left)

If you have the Student/Teacher edition that comes with three license
keys--these are NOT one use only. You have as many installations of
Office as you need. You can just keep re-using the same key.

Windows Office has product activation, which registers your installation
to a certain computer, and you would need to de-activate that computer
to re-activate on a different computer with the same key. MacOffice has
nothing like that. Three license keys mean that three different people
on three networked computers can be using Office at exactly the same time.

 

[60764]

If you have the Student/Teacher edition that comes with three license
keys--these are NOT one use only. You have as many installations of
Office as you need. You can just keep re-using the same key.

Windows Office has product activation, which registers your installation
to a certain computer, and you would need to de-activate that computer
to re-activate on a different computer with the same key. MacOffice has
nothing like that. Three license keys mean that three different people
on three networked computers can be using Office at exactly the same time.

Sorry, I should have made myself clearer. I meant that I had run
remove office twice (just to be on the safe side) and there are no
installations of microsoft left on the hard drive. I do have S/T
edition and I don't have a problem with the product keys

Anyhow, I've now downloaded and tried to install Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo
Update (Intel) and it won't let me do it. I have 42.2 GB of free space
on the destination volume (Macintosh HD) and this is the error message
I get:

"Installing this software requires 847 MB of space. You cannot install
Mac OSX combined update (Intel) on this volume. This volume does not
meet the requirements for this update."

At the moment I'm a bit lost. Any assistance appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Diane Ross]

Anyhow, I've now downloaded and tried to install Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo
Update (Intel) and it won't let me do it. I have 42.2 GB of free space
on the destination volume (Macintosh HD) and this is the error message
I get:

"Installing this software requires 847 MB of space. You cannot install
Mac OSX combined update (Intel) on this volume. This volume does not
meet the requirements for this update."

At the moment I'm a bit lost. Any assistance appreciated.

I think you are at the root of your problem. OK, big sigh!

Apple doesn't consider this enough free space to operate the system. You
need to delete some items on the drive to free up some space.

Mac OS X works best when there is enough free hard disk space on the startup
disk. The exact amount needed depends on how the computer is used. This is
needed for virtual memory and other temporary files.

Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk

<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html>

Free up Hard Disk space

<http://creativebits.org/2004/11/os-x-free-up-hard-disk-space.html>

WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size
in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would
be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard
disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the
biggest sizes first

<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21149>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[60764]

I think you are at the root of your problem. OK, big sigh!

Apple doesn't consider this enough free space to operate the system. You
need to delete some items on the drive to free up some space.

Mac OS X works best when there is enough free hard disk space on the startup
disk. The exact amount needed depends on how the computer is used. This is
needed for virtual memory and other temporary files.

Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk

<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html>

Free up Hard Disk space

<http://creativebits.org/2004/11/os-x-free-up-hard-disk-space.html>

WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size
in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would
be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard
disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the
biggest sizes first

<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21149>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

Thanks for the links.

I have over 40 GB of free space on my Macintosh HD. Surely this should
be more than enough????? The MacBook came out of the box 2 days ago
and I've only installed essentials so far.

Maybe office:mac 2004 conflicts with some application that I have
installed?

 

[Diane Ross]

I have over 40 GB of free space on my Macintosh HD. Surely this should
be more than enough????? The MacBook came out of the box 2 days ago
and I've only installed essentials so far.

Maybe office:mac 2004 conflicts with some application that I have
installed?

If Apple combo balked because of space, you have to consider this first
before attacking the Office problems.

What is the size of the HD? I know that the OS needs a lot of breathing
room.

How much memory do you have installed?

What applications have you installed? Unless it's a haxie, most applications
get along OK with Office applications.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Eeewwww.... This is getting ugly... What that suggests is that the User ID
to which you are logged in, is out of quota on the drive (i.e. Does not have
sufficient permission to write any more data ...)

Since it's a brand new system, I think it's well past time you got Apple on
the phone

Cheers

Thanks for the links.

I have over 40 GB of free space on my Macintosh HD. Surely this should
be more than enough????? The MacBook came out of the box 2 days ago
and I've only installed essentials so far.

Maybe office:mac 2004 conflicts with some application that I have
installed?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[60764]

If Apple combo balked because of space, you have to consider this first
before attacking the Office problems.

What is the size of the HD? I know that the OS needs a lot of breathing
room.

How much memory do you have installed?

What applications have you installed? Unless it's a haxie, most applications
get along OK with Office applications.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

The HD is 80GB with 1GB RAM. Applications: Cyberduck, Textmate, MAMP,
Monolingual, NetNewsWire Lite

I shouldn't have used my quota, I am admin on the system.

Maybe I'll try and get hold of Apple today.

I'll report back when I know some more.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

 

[Diane Ross]

The HD is 80GB with 1GB RAM. Applications: Cyberduck, Textmate, MAMP,
Monolingual, NetNewsWire Lite

I shouldn't have used my quota, I am admin on the system.

Maybe I'll try and get hold of Apple today.

I'll report back when I know some more.

You need more RAM. It will be the best investment you make.

It sounds to me like you have enough space. Definitely contact Apple about
this.
--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
One of the top five MS Entourage resources listed on the Entourage Blog.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I can't see anything wrong with any of the other applications you mention.
But Monolingual may have caused a problem. Some parts of Microsoft Office
are dependent on CJK fonts to give certain Unicode characters for the user
interface.

It's a long shot, but that's the only thing in your list I thought might be
problematic.

Cheers

Monolingual

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[60764]

I can't see anything wrong with any of the other applications you mention.
But Monolingual may have caused a problem. Some parts of Microsoft Office
are dependent on CJK fonts to give certain Unicode characters for the user
interface.

It's a long shot, but that's the only thing in your list I thought might be
problematic.

Cheers



--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

I GOT IT WORKING!!!

I contacted Apple and they said to do an Archive and Install. I did
and then installed office:mac 2004. It works now.

Thank you very much for all your help MVPs

Cheers

Andy

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Congratulations!!

Wow!! Apple advised you to nuke the thing from orbit I guess they were
as perplexed as I was.

There comes a point when the range of possibilities becomes so huge you just
can't say for sure WHAT the problem is -- I guess you found that point

I GOT IT WORKING!!!

I contacted Apple and they said to do an Archive and Install. I did
and then installed office:mac 2004. It works now.

Thank you very much for all your help MVPs

Cheers

Andy

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[little_creature]

4. Installed 11.3.3 update before trying to open any application (boy

do I feel stupid, thanx CyberTaz)

That can easily happen to anybody. If you are uncertain or tired you can let
the Office application to do the work for you (just assuming that the
Office applicatio will start ;-)) Open any office application and go to
help>check for updates.
Have a nice day/ evening in my case