Office test drive to 'expire' when I've already bought the software

A

Andrea2000

Hi,

I just bought Mac Office (student ed.) And I've had it for at least a
week. I just got a notification saying my 'test drive' will expire
soon, and do I wish to buy? I have bought this software and can't
understand why it is telling me this? When it supposedly 'expires'
will it affect my use of this software? I put the 'test
drive' (which it seemed to load onto my computer on it's own?) in my
trash bin when I installed like the program told me to. I never
installed the test drive to begin with..so I am confused.

I have already written assignments with Word and am worried I'll loose
information. What should I do?

Thanks.
 
M

Michel Bintener

Hi,

I just bought Mac Office (student ed.) And I've had it for at least a
week. I just got a notification saying my 'test drive' will expire
soon, and do I wish to buy? I have bought this software and can't
understand why it is telling me this? When it supposedly 'expires'
will it affect my use of this software? I put the 'test
drive' (which it seemed to load onto my computer on it's own?) in my
trash bin when I installed like the program told me to. I never
installed the test drive to begin with..so I am confused.

New Macs ship with the pre-installed Test Drive. It's not necessarily a bad
thing, but it has caused a number of users a lot of grief, and you are one
of them. Which program told you to move the Test Drive into the trash?
Because that's exactly what causes the error you're experiencing. To remove
the Test Drive, you absolutely need to use the Remove Office tool
(Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Additional Tools/Remove Office), as
Office installs components in specific places on your system which do not
get deleted if you simply drag the app folder into the trash. Run that tool,
tell it to remove the Test Drive, and your full installation of Office
should work as advertised.
I have already written assignments with Word and am worried I'll loose
information. What should I do?

Don't worry about that. Even if the Test Drive were to expire and prevented
you from opening your documents, they would still remain intact and be
readable on other machines. But you won't even have to worry since the
proper removal of the Test Drive should take care of your problem.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
A

Andrea2000

Thank you!

When I installed Mac office, the installer told me to put it into my
trash can. That is really confusing if you are supposed to
uninstall...

The only problem I am having now it when I run the remover tool, I
only have two options:
Remove Microsoft X (Including test Drive)
And Remove Microsoft 2004 (Including test drive)

it won't give me the option of removing only the test drives?

If I uninstall the program entirely, won't I loose documents?

Thank you :)
 
M

Michel Bintener

Hi Andrea,

run the Remove Office tool and select the "Microsoft Office 2004 (including
Test Drive)" option. You should then be given an option to remove the Test
Drive only. If the tool only allows you to delete Microsoft Office 2004 (the
full version), you may have to reinstall Office from your CD (after the
removal, that is). And no, removing Office will not affect your Office
documents, such as Word or Excel files. It will even leave your Entourage
database intact, so don't worry, your data is safe. Then again, it can never
hurt to make backups on a regular basis. One final comment: if you really
need to uninstall Office 2004 entirely, remember to perform all the
necessary updates after the reinstall through the Microsoft AutoUpdate
application in your Applications folder.


Thank you!

When I installed Mac office, the installer told me to put it into my
trash can. That is really confusing if you are supposed to
uninstall...

The only problem I am having now it when I run the remover tool, I
only have two options:
Remove Microsoft X (Including test Drive)
And Remove Microsoft 2004 (Including test drive)

it won't give me the option of removing only the test drives?

If I uninstall the program entirely, won't I loose documents?

Thank you :)

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
D

Diane Ross

run the Remove Office tool and select the "Microsoft Office 2004 (including
Test Drive)" option. You should then be given an option to remove the Test
Drive only. If the tool only allows you to delete Microsoft Office 2004 (the
full version), you may have to reinstall Office from your CD (after the
removal, that is). And no, removing Office will not affect your Office
documents, such as Word or Excel files. It will even leave your Entourage
database intact, so don't worry, your data is safe. Then again, it can never
hurt to make backups on a regular basis. One final comment: if you really
need to uninstall Office 2004 entirely, remember to perform all the
necessary updates after the reinstall through the Microsoft AutoUpdate
application in your Applications folder.

It does remove any templates in the Office folder. Tip: put your templates
in your Microsoft User Data folder, where they won't be touched, and set the
Project Gallery to find them there.

--
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/>
 
K

Kurt

Michel Bintener said:
Hi Andrea,

run the Remove Office tool and select the "Microsoft Office 2004 (including
Test Drive)" option. You should then be given an option to remove the Test
Drive only. If the tool only allows you to delete Microsoft Office 2004 (the
full version), you may have to reinstall Office from your CD (after the
removal, that is). And no, removing Office will not affect your Office
documents, such as Word or Excel files. It will even leave your Entourage
database intact, so don't worry, your data is safe. Then again, it can never
hurt to make backups on a regular basis. One final comment: if you really
need to uninstall Office 2004 entirely, remember to perform all the
necessary updates after the reinstall through the Microsoft AutoUpdate
application in your Applications folder.
Hmm... I know I brought up how poorly MS has handled this problem, but
you'd think that they could at least update the read me file that comes
with each of the new test Drives they continue to have installed on new
Macs.

Hey, here's my million dollar fix that would save hours of MS tech
support. Add another Readme that addreses this specifically.

It's not financial reasons that would keep them from doing this...
It makes MS and the Mac team look inept.
 
C

CyberTaz

Hmm... I know I brought up how poorly MS has handled this problem, but
you'd think that they could at least update the read me file that comes
with each of the new test Drives they continue to have installed on new
Macs.

Hey, here's my million dollar fix that would save hours of MS tech
support. Add another Readme that addreses this specifically.

It's not financial reasons that would keep them from doing this...
It makes MS and the Mac team look inept.

Hmm... And how exactly do you *know* that MS hasn't done so, but that those
who do the installations simply haven't taken the time to use the newer
version... Let alone taken the time go back & *reinstall* those that were
already in the pipeline? The need to properly remove the TD is documented on
the MS web site for those who d/l it from there - if they take the time to
read it. Not absolving MS in *any* way for creating the abysmal situation in
the first place - it should have never occurred - but that doesn't make them
solely responsible for every malady ever to plague mankind :)

BTW - MS doesn't dictate what gets installed on new Macs in the first
place. My question would be: Knowing that the Test Drive issue is legendary
by now, why does Apple & the Apple dealer network continue to install it in
the first place?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
K

Kurt

CyberTaz said:
Hmm... And how exactly do you *know* that MS hasn't done so, but that those
who do the installations simply haven't taken the time to use the newer
version... Let alone taken the time go back & *reinstall* those that were
already in the pipeline? The need to properly remove the TD is documented on
the MS web site for those who d/l it from there - if they take the time to
read it. Not absolving MS in *any* way for creating the abysmal situation in
the first place - it should have never occurred - but that doesn't make them
solely responsible for every malady ever to plague mankind :)

BTW - MS doesn't dictate what gets installed on new Macs in the first
place. My question would be: Knowing that the Test Drive issue is legendary
by now, why does Apple & the Apple dealer network continue to install it in
the first place?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

I agree that Apple bears most of the blame with this. They make the
choice, as you say, to continue with these installations.
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

I agree that Apple bears most of the blame with this. They make the
choice, as you say, to continue with these installations.

I would imagine there may be some sort of legal contract in place.....?
Also, I would imagine there is some sort of master disk image that sets
up new computers--it's not like someone makes the individual choice of
which programs to install.

So I put the blame totally on MS for not including code to Remove the
Test Drive in the installer, or at least a warning in the installer.
However, I can understand why, after the problems appeared, it was not
feasible to make changes to the master installer that the CDs are
duplicated from. But they should have thought of it in the first
place. (If they are shipping CDs with updated versions of Office,
however, then the Test Drive fix should have been incorporated, no
excuses accepted)

Daiya

PS to Kurt: It would be greatly appreciated if you would snip irrelevant
material when you are bottom-posting, especially if you only write 1-2
lines of new text.
 
A

Andrea2000

Okay, I ended up uninstalling MS office 2004 along with the test drive
(I was never given the option to only uninstall the test Drive, which
I am not happy with), but left MS Office X.

Now when I open MS Word I get this message:

" An Unexpected Error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft
framework library."

What does this mean? I also see duplicate word, excel etc. icons in
my dock.

Should I uninstall "Both" MS Office 2004 and MS office X? And then re
install my MS office software?

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

Andrea
 
K

Kurt

Daiya

PS to Kurt: It would be greatly appreciated if you would snip irrelevant
material when you are bottom-posting, especially if you only write 1-2
lines of new text.

Sorry, top-posting usually frowned upon in most newsgroups.
 
M

Michel Bintener

To get rid of the framework error, apply all the updates that are available
for Office 2004, up to 11.3.3; that should take care of the problem. Use
Microsoft AutoUpdate in your Applications folder if you do not want to
update manually. As for the duplicate dock icons: just drag the superfluous
icons out of it. And when you say "duplicate", do you mean always the same
icons or simply one icon for Word v.X and one for Word 2004?


Okay, I ended up uninstalling MS office 2004 along with the test drive
(I was never given the option to only uninstall the test Drive, which
I am not happy with), but left MS Office X.

Now when I open MS Word I get this message:

" An Unexpected Error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft
framework library."

What does this mean? I also see duplicate word, excel etc. icons in
my dock.

Should I uninstall "Both" MS Office 2004 and MS office X? And then re
install my MS office software?

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

Andrea

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
D

Daiya Mitchell

Kurt said:
Sorry, top-posting usually frowned upon in most newsgroups.

Yes, but top-posting is beside the point here. I wouldn't and didn't ask
you to top-post. I'm just saying there is no need to quote 34 lines of
technical discussion of Word when you are responding to a non-technical
tangent in lines 35-37. I've always had the impression that appropriate
snipping and inline posting are acceptable everywhere.

Daiya
 
C

CyberTaz

Hi Michel -

I understood her post to say she *removed* 2004 & retained Office X - it
isn't clear whether she re-installed 2004 after the removal... Or is she
trying to retain _both_?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
A

Andrea2000

I understood her post to say she *removed* 2004 & retained Office X - it
isn't clear whether she re-installed 2004 after the removal... Or is she
trying to retain _both_?

Hi Bob,

Michel said "select the "Microsoft Office 2004 (including Test Drive)"
option. " which I did. I had Microsoft Office X on also, but didn't
know if I should leave it be. The update removed the " An Unexpected
Error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft
framework library." message (yay!) But I still have duplicate office
icons in my dock. Is this because I failed to remove the Microsoft
office X as well? The icons do not say if they are for X or 2004.

I don't know what MS Office 'X' is, the software I bought say
Microsoft Office: mac 2004 Student and Teacher Edition.
 
K

Kurt

Daiya Mitchell said:
Yes, but top-posting is beside the point here. I wouldn't and didn't ask
you to top-post. I'm just saying there is no need to quote 34 lines of
technical discussion of Word when you are responding to a non-technical
tangent in lines 35-37. I've always had the impression that appropriate
snipping and inline posting are acceptable everywhere.

Daiya

I humbly agree.
 
M

Michel Bintener

Hi Bob,

Michel said "select the "Microsoft Office 2004 (including Test Drive)"
option. " which I did. I had Microsoft Office X on also, but didn't
know if I should leave it be. The update removed the " An Unexpected
Error occurred while trying to load the Microsoft
framework library." message (yay!) But I still have duplicate office
icons in my dock. Is this because I failed to remove the Microsoft
office X as well? The icons do not say if they are for X or 2004.

I don't know what MS Office 'X' is, the software I bought say
Microsoft Office: mac 2004 Student and Teacher Edition.

Okay Andrea,

now it's getting confusing. There are two different Office suites for the
Mac platform, Microsoft Office v.X (which came out in November 2001) and
Microsoft Office 2004 (which came out in May 2004). Your previous post has
led me to believe that you have both Office suites installed on your system,
but that does not seem to be the case, does it? That issue aside, what I
wrote in my earlier post still applies: apply all the updates that are
available for Office 2004 and remove any superfluous icons from the dock.


--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
C

CyberTaz

Hi Andrea -

MS is simply an abbreviation for Microsoft - IOW, "MS Office X" and
"Microsoft Office X" are one in the same... Version X of Microsoft Office.

If you still have Office X installed as well as Office 2004 that might
explain the 2 sets of icons. Control+Click one of them & choose "show in
Finder" from the menu that pops up - that will show you exactly what that
alias points to if the alias is valid. If it isn't still "connected" you'll
get a gray Question Mark - just drag that icon away from the Dock & let it
go. It will simply evaporate in a puff of smoke.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 
A

Andrea2000

Bob And Michel:

Michel: Sorry to confuse you! Thanks for all of your help :)

Bob: You were right, they were simple duplicate icons to the same
program. Thank you for for telling me how to find out if they were
aliases or if I had two programs installed! They disappeared in a
puff of smoke just like you promised :)

Andrea
 
C

CyberTaz

You're certainly welcome - hope all continues to go well!

Good Luck |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 

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