Office 2004 Installation problem on new 15 inch G4 PowerBook

[Art Prest]

I bought my daughter a new MAC PowerBook G4 for college. I have been trying
with no success to install Microsoft Office 2004 Student & Teachers Edition.
Note that this my first experience with a MAC and thus I am not very
familiar with a MAC. Note also that other MAC programs installed without a
hitch. On my first installation attempt I got an error message that "
Microsoft Word cannot load the Microsoft Office Shared Libraries. Move Word
back to the Microsoft Office folder." The problem was that it was in the
Microsoft Office Folder. I tried reinstalling Office and got an error
message "PMingLiU.ttf could not be read or written." This happened several
more times (this is a Chinese True Type font file). I finally dragged the
Office folder to the trash can. When I tried reinstalling, it appeared to
install but there were no folders or files to be found on the hard drive. I
could however launch Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from the CD-ROM. I tried
dragging the Office folder to the hard drive but that did not solve the
problem. All these attempts were done as an administrator.

My first experience with a MAC has not been pleasant. Please help me if you
can.

Thanks, Art

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

It seems like your Mac experience was pleasant enough until you ran into
Microsoft products? Sorry, I hope this didn't derail your Christmas
gift.

Anyhow, try repairing permissions, and then restarting the computer.
Go to /Applications/Utilities.  Open up Disk Utility.  Select your hard disk
and then click the First Aid tab.  Click the button to ³Repair Disk
Permissions.²
Tell your daughter about repairing permissions, as it is basic maintenance
that should be done every month or two.

If there is a Remove Office utility anywhere on the 2004 CD (it may be
hiding in a folder), I would run that before attempting to install again,
just to clear out any debris from the failed installations.

DM

PS. It's Mac, not MAC (MAC=Media Access Control)

 

[Art Prest]

Thanks Daiya for your "Mac" advice. After spending an hour on the phone with
a Microsoft tech support person, she concluded that I had a defective
CD-ROM. We tried all the tips that you listed but the installation would
stop at the PMingLiU.ttf file and indicate installation was complete. A
"drag & drop" installation attempt finally showed that no files after
PMingLiU.ttf were being installed thereby causing the problem.

Regards, Art

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for letting us know, glad you got that worked out, assume they are
sending you another disk. Another possibility *might* have been to do a
custom install that didn't include many fonts, to avoid the defective
one....tho I forgot the exact options offered in the installer.

DM