Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Binder 2000

[Bill Estep]

We have been using Binder 2000 (it's required by our Organization), which is
no longer included in its Office products. It has been working fine with
Office 2003 up until now. Once we install Office 2003 SP2 update, strange
things happen to Binder. We immediately notice the FILE menu is gone, along
with some other cosmetic changes. We tested the installation by following
the proper order of installing Office Products, and verifying that Binder
does work until O2k3 SP2 is added. Anybody have suggestions, solutions, or
a reliable way to report this bug? When I call tech support, I've had varied
non-help (one guy thought a bug was a virus!).

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

There's not really a 'bug' to report. What you are experiencing is beyond
the design specifications of the current product.

Your biggest challenge will be that Office 2000 is no longer supported, and
I'm fairly certain that -no- testing was done in an Office 2003 environment
using components from Office 2000 -- much less a component that was dropped
from the product because very few people actually used it. Your organization
may be the -only- organization in the whole world that actually has
'mandated' it's use.

However, your organization is now enjoying the challenges of mandating a
deprecated product and failing to deal with it in 2002 when Office XP no
longer contained that feature.

I'm going to guess that you'll have two choices:
(1) The organization does not install Office 2003 Service Pack 2, and
continues using Office 2000 Binder.
(2) The organization determines what is the primary feature(s) of Office
2000 Binder and learns how to achieve those same goals using the features
already in Office 2003.

I wish you the best of luck in resolving this issue, but, frankly, Bill --
don't expect much help from Microsoft.

 

[Bill Estep]

To say it's not a bug is a pretty big assumption, I feel. Are we saying they
did this on purpose? If they wished it this way, there should be some
indication in a readme or an KB article notifying everyone of the situation.
Based on the symptoms, I doubt very much they did it on purpose -- more like
"without any regard."

We've followed their instructions on getting older products to work with
newer products.

And, I doubt our Organization is the only one in the world using Binder, but
if it is, we're still a rather large one (think: Gov't)...

Anyway, if anybody else experiences this issue, please reply.

--
Bill Estep
Honolulu, HI

There's not really a 'bug' to report. What you are experiencing is beyond
the design specifications of the current product.

Your biggest challenge will be that Office 2000 is no longer supported, and
I'm fairly certain that -no- testing was done in an Office 2003 environment
using components from Office 2000 -- much less a component that was dropped
from the product because very few people actually used it. Your organization
may be the -only- organization in the whole world that actually has
'mandated' it's use.

However, your organization is now enjoying the challenges of mandating a
deprecated product and failing to deal with it in 2002 when Office XP no
longer contained that feature.

I'm going to guess that you'll have two choices:
(1) The organization does not install Office 2003 Service Pack 2, and
continues using Office 2000 Binder.
(2) The organization determines what is the primary feature(s) of Office
2000 Binder and learns how to achieve those same goals using the features
already in Office 2003.

I wish you the best of luck in resolving this issue, but, frankly, Bill --
don't expect much help from Microsoft.

 

[Lawrence Garvin \(MVP\)]

To say it's not a bug is a pretty big assumption, I feel.

Your feelings are noted, Bill. From your perspective, I can definitely see
why you would think it is a bug, after all the product is not doing
what -you- want it to do. However, the key question is: IS the product
failing to do something it was /designed/ to do?

Are we saying they did this on purpose?

No.. we're saying that there's a limitation on how much regression testing
can be done.

Consider gasoline -- as an easy analogy. A petroleum company comes out with
a new grade of unleaded gasoline. Do they test this gasoline in cars built
in the 1960s? Nope! Why not? Because those cars use =leaded= gasoline, and
the unleaded gasoline is not designed for use in those cars. Now, we know
from history that many cars designed for leaded gasoline -will- work with
unleaded gasoline. But imagine that this "new grade" of unleaded gasoline
just flat out doesn't work with your 1962 Corvair. Is this the fault of the
petroleum company? Or just a circumstance that happens because you own a 45
year old car?

Likewise, Office 2003 products were not /designed/ to be used in conjunction
with Office 2000 products. If they do, it's purely coincidental, and you got
lucky. A "new grade" of Office 2003 comes out -- Service Pack 2 -- and it
doesn't play nice with older (obsolete)versions of the software, or in this
case older (obsolete/abandoned) -components- of an older version of the
software.

I know its not the best answer... but there's a practical point of
permutations where it's just impossible in the time frame of computer
software to test a new feature on -every- 'older' version it -might-
possible be used with. Quite frankly, the odds that an organization would be
using Binder 2000 at all is pretty slim; the odds that they're using it with
Office 2003 installed is even slimmer! Heck, most organizations that used
Office 2000, much less Binder 2000, are /still/ using Office 2000!!!

If they wished it this way, there should be some
indication in a readme or an KB article notifying everyone of the
situation.
Based on the symptoms, I doubt very much they did it on purpose -- more
like
"without any regard."

Exactly. And not to their fault, it's just the nature of how computer
software products are developed and managed.

We've followed their instructions on getting older products to work with
newer products.

And, I doubt our Organization is the only one in the world using Binder,
but
if it is, we're still a rather large one (think: Gov't)...

Anyway, if anybody else experiences this issue, please reply.

 

[Bill Estep]

So, then, if your gasoline "theory" was applied to this situation, please
tell me why they have "Support for Microsoft Binder" as an option in the
Office 2003 installation?