Office 2004 - bug removal question

[Marc Wirbeleit]

Two things are driving me nuts about my Office X:

- When I command-tab out of Entourage, more often than not, the frontmost
window gets sent to the back. This is terribly annoying because most of the
time when I'm command-tabbing, I'm going to Finder to select a file I need
to attach to an e-mail I've just written.

- Office X won't let me put slashes in filenames and won't allow filenames
longer than 31 characters. I'll refrain from snide remarks, but clearly,
this is a bug, not a feature.

Does anybody know if these items have been addressed in Office 2004? If not,
there's really no reason for me to buy an upgrade.

Thanks in advance for any insights,

Marc

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

- When I command-tab out of Entourage, more often than not, the frontmost

window gets sent to the back. This is terribly annoying because most of the
time when I'm command-tabbing, I'm going to Finder to select a file I need
to attach to an e-mail I've just written.

Why are you command-tabbing to do that? Entourage X doesn't bring up a
window to browse for the desired file?

Anyhow, I haven't noticed that problem in Entourage 2004, but I don't
cmd-tab all that often, you might want to check on the entourage-specific
group as well.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage

- Office X won't let me put slashes in filenames and won't allow filenames
longer than 31 characters. I'll refrain from snide remarks, but clearly,
this is a bug, not a feature.

Office 2004 supports long filenames, over 31 characters. You still can't do
slashes in filenames. Nor in TextWrangler, though you can in TextEdit. I
think not supporting slashes in filenames is actually deliberate on the part
of MacBU, rather than a bug that got overlooked.

 

[Marc Wirbeleit]

Office 2004 supports long filenames, over 31 characters. You still can't do

slashes in filenames. Nor in TextWrangler, though you can in TextEdit. I
think not supporting slashes in filenames is actually deliberate on the part
of MacBU, rather than a bug that got overlooked.

You're right, it's almost certainly deliberate, but I still consider it a
bug since the application fails to recognizes certain characters the OS
supports. From a user's viewpoint, if Finder allows a character, there's no
reason any app shouldn't.

But I'm glad they at least fixed the 31-character limit.

Thanks for your insights -

Marc

 

[Marc Wirbeleit]

- When I command-tab out of Entourage, more often than not, the frontmost

Why are you command-tabbing to do that? Entourage X doesn't bring up a
window to browse for the desired file?

It does, but I'm a dragger, not a clicker. Plus, half the time, I don't even
know which specific folder the file I need is in, but it's open on the
desktop, so I tab, grab, tab back, let go.

(Actually, that might be a great GUI feature: Add all or just the first
three windows that are open on the desktop in the open... dialog.)

Anyhow, I haven't noticed that problem in Entourage 2004, but I don't
cmd-tab all that often, you might want to check on the entourage-specific
group as well.

So, crossposting to microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage - has anybody
encountered the above problem? Is it perhaps another undocumented feature
that just _feels_ like a bug?

Thanks in advance,

Marc

 

[Michel Bintener]

You're right, it's almost certainly deliberate, but I still consider it a
bug since the application fails to recognizes certain characters the OS
supports. From a user's viewpoint, if Finder allows a character, there's no
reason any app shouldn't.

But I'm glad they at least fixed the 31-character limit.

Thanks for your insights -

Marc

Hi Marc.
As you've already mentioned, one way to work around this problem is to
rename the file in the Finder. I don't think that it's a bug, though, I
think this is implemented since Mac Office is supposed to work as seamlessly
as possible with Win Office, and as far as I know, slashes (in file names)
are "forbidden characters" in Windows.

Michel

 

[Kolargol00]

- Office X won't let me put slashes in filenames

Aren't slashes forbidden in filenames under MacOS X?
The / character is the path separator under UNIX.

Regards,
Etienne

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Aren't slashes forbidden in filenames under MacOS X?
The / character is the path separator under UNIX.

Under MacOS, the slashes are allowed. They're actually converted to
colons when the file is saved, but MacOS displays them as slashes. For
instance, I created the text file

slash/test.txt

when I open the Terminal and do an ls, I see

slash:test.txt

IMO, even if it's allowed, it's bad practice to use the / character in a
OS X filename.

 

[CyberTaz]

re: "I'm a dragger, not a clicker"

Hopefully an occasional click is not too much of an inconvenience. If
not, try this:

When you Cmd+Tab, keep the Cmd key held down and click the Finder Icon
with your mouse. The finder window will come to the front, but the
email message window will stay in front of the Entourage app window so
you can drag your intended attachment as you wish. Then just click the
email widow to make it active again.

HTH |:>)