OS X Leopard and Office 2004 Student Ed

[gav.w89]

I've completed an Archive and Install of OS X Leopard and to no
avail.... it hasn't fixed the problem
The same issue is still happening

 

[John McGhie]

Did you remember to re-install and re-update Office 2004?

After you Archive and Install the operating system, you then need to
re-install the applications.

When you have installed the applications, you then need to update them.

Until you have done that, it *won't* work, because the system doesn't yet
know that the applications are present

You could fix this by fiddling around with preferences, if you know how to
code .plists. But it's faster and easier just to bung the Microsoft CD in
the hole and let it do its thing

Cheers

I've completed an Archive and Install of OS X Leopard and to no
avail.... it hasn't fixed the problem
The same issue is still happening

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+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[gav.w89]

I've been watching this thread silently, and I have to admit it seemed
odd to me that anyone would suggest you do an re-install of your system
without first asking you to do a couple simple diagnostics to see what
is *causing* the problem to begin with. IMO, jumping the gun like that
is never a good idea.

Someone later suggested you create a new Mac OS X user account to see if
the problem persists there. That's an excellent diagnostic measure you
should take, because if the problem does not persist in a new account
you know that the problem exists in your /Users/you user account folder.
Then you can narrow it down further with a few more diagnostic measures.

The folks in comp.sys.mac.apps excel at problem diagnosis, so you may
want to post about your problem there. The trick is being patient enough
to do the diagnosis to find the problem. If you figure out the cause,
often the fix is relatively easy and fast. Its perfectly possible that
the deletion of one or two files can solve this problem for good!

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JR

YES!
Creating another account has indeed fixed the problem!!!!!!!!
All Microsoft Office applications are working correctly.

So what would be my best next step?
To move existing documents to the new account and delete the original
account?
Or is it possible to fix the problem in the original account?

Many Many Thanks again!

 

[gav.w89]

YES!
Creating another account has indeed fixed the problem!!!!!!!!
All Microsoft Office applications are working correctly.

So what would be my best next step?
To move existing documents to the new account and delete the original
account?
Or is it possible to fix the problem in the original account?

Many Many Thanks again!

Also now on the new account firefox and DVD Player work too (if that
could give any pointers to the source of the problem)

 

[Elliott Roper]

Also now on the new account firefox and DVD Player work too (if that
could give any pointers to the source of the problem)

You might have been bitten by subtle and not-so-subtle changes Apple
made to users and groups in Leopard. Tiger and Panther strayed from the
true unix way in giving every user their own group ID - the same as
their user ID. Leopard has returned to making ordinary users "Staff"
again. You can see this in Finder's "more info". Some files will show
sharing and permissions for "(unknown)".

I think, that depending on how you did the Leopard installation, you
retained your old ID and group, as did most of your personal files. A
new user would be group 20 (Staff)
If there are little pieces of magic files that various applications
need whose access is restricted by group Bad Thingsª may happen.

I got bitten slightly - some Pages templates are unusable in my
traditional user accounts, fine in new test ones. A few other things
too. After carefully backing up everything, I fiddled in terminal
(chgrp) (while playing Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice in iTunes for moral
support) Ñ ever so gingerly Ñ and fixed most things sort of. (A few
Pages templates are still pooched in my old account on two machines
already, and I can't see why)

I'm so attached to all the garbage accreted over the years I have not
done what I should have done, which is a clean erase and install of
10.5 followed by re-installing and re-updating every goddamn
application. That way everything that should will belong to Staff.
(There are so many places that files can hide, I can't be sure I have
chgrp'd everything I need to) I think the cure is worse than the
disease in my case. If you are new to Mac, without too much baggage,
you might consider doing the right thing if bits of your system
continue to behave unpredictably.

 

[gav.w89]

YES!
Creating another account has indeed fixed the problem!!!!!!!!
All Microsoft Office applications are working correctly.

So what would be my best next step?
To move existing documents to the new account and delete the original
account?
Or is it possible to fix the problem in the original account?

It's definitely possible to fix the problem in the original account. The
trick is to figure out what files are causing the problem. I would start
by doing this:

1. Log into your original user account.
2. Quit all Office applications.
3. Move these files, if they exist, to a new folder on your desktop (~
means your home folder: /Users/you):

~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.setupassistant.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office Settings (11)
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Entourage Preferences
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English]
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Entourage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Font Substitutes
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate.plist
~/Library/Preferences/OfficeSync Prefs
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Excel Toolbars (11)

4. Log out and back in.
5. See if the problem is still there.

If the problem is still there, I suggest downloading one of the many
cache cleaning utilities available (personally I use Cocktail), deleting
all "system" and "user" caches, and restarting the computer to see if
the problem persists.

If the problem is still there, reply to this post - there are a few more
diagnostic measures we can take, such as taking a look at the fonts you
have installed in this user account.

--
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JR

Okayy none of the files listed above existed in Library/Preferences

I also cleared the cache and that didn't work either

I looked at the Advanced Settings for the accounts and found that my
original account has User ID 501 and Group ID 501... Where as the new
accound has User ID 502 and Group ID 20.

Quote: "You can see this in Finder's "more info". Some files will
show
sharing and permissions for "(unknown)"."

That bit will need more explaining in order for me to find out the
information as I'm not sure where to find it!

 

[Elliott Roper]

I looked at the Advanced Settings for the accounts and found that my
original account has User ID 501 and Group ID 501... Where as the new
accound has User ID 502 and Group ID 20.

Quote: "You can see this in Finder's "more info". Some files will
show
sharing and permissions for "(unknown)"."

That bit will need more explaining in order for me to find out the
information as I'm not sure where to find it!

Select a file in Finder. Hit cmd-I. Turn down the 'more info' triangle.

All it does is demonstrate that groups get pooched on Tiger -> Leopard
upgrades.

Your old and new user IDs show that you are running as an Admin user
(501 is the first UID assigned at install time, by default an Admin
user.) This is a very bad idea from a security PoV.

In your shoes, I'd migrate my everyday use to the new 502 account,
making sure it is a 'standard' account. It will cause you an extra
password typing whenever you install new software and such, but if you
ever do something stupid like get trojanned, then the malware cannot
reach out to break your system or the files of other users.

Like I wrote earlier. It is a long and scary process changing the group
IDs of everything, without any guarantee that you will find them all,
or even if it will fix your problem. You already know that the new
account works. It is time to get pragmatic. And more secure.

 

[gav.w89]

Select a file in Finder. Hit cmd-I. Turn down the 'more info' triangle.

All it does is demonstrate that groups get pooched on Tiger -> Leopard
upgrades.

Your old and new user IDs show that you are running as an Admin user
(501 is the first UID assigned at install time, by default an Admin
user.) This is a very bad idea from a security PoV.

In your shoes, I'd migrate my everyday use to the new 502 account,
making sure it is a 'standard' account. It will cause you an extra
password typing whenever you install new software and such, but if you
ever do something stupid like get trojanned, then the malware cannot
reach out to break your system or the files of other users.

Like I wrote earlier. It is a long and scary process changing the group
IDs of everything, without any guarantee that you will find them all,
or even if it will fix your problem. You already know that the new
account works. It is time to get pragmatic. And more secure.

Brilliant thank you very much
Is it worth me deleting the original account or just running the two?

 

[gav.w89]

Brilliant thank you very much
Is it worth me deleting the original account or just running the two?

also font characters that weren't previously working are now fine on
the second account

 

[Elliott Roper]

Brilliant thank you very much
Is it worth me deleting the original account or just running the two?

You will need to keep the admin user account for installing software
and updates. Don't use it for everyday jobs. It is a bit of pain to go
through 'authenticate' dialogues once in while, but you get a warm
feeling from not having to worry all the time about a trojan sneaking
past you and wrecking your whole machine.

 

[Diane Ross]

Okayy none of the files listed above existed in Library/Preferences

Make sure you are looking in your User's Library. The ~ indicates User
folder.

 

[gav.w89]

On 1/3/08 2:07 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed),

Make sure you are looking in your User's Library. The ~ indicates User
folder.

Hmmm, perhaps i could have made that more clear, but I did try:

3. Move these files, if they exist, to a new folder on your desktop (~
means your home folder: /Users/you):

~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.setupassistant.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office Settings (11)
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Entourage Preferences
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English]
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Entourage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Font Substitutes
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate.plist
~/Library/Preferences/OfficeSync Prefs
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Excel Toolbars (11)

So, you should prefix your home folder path (/Users/you) to each of the
paths I listed. So for instance:

/Users/you/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.setupassistant.plist

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Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

I took those files out and still no success!
I got myself an external hard disk drive so a migration of files will
be nice and simple me thinks
I'm quite happy running the two accounts

Many thanks for all of your help again everyone

 

[gav.w89]

On 1/3/08 2:07 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed),
Okayy none of the files listed above existed in Library/Preferences
Make sure you are looking in your User's Library. The ~ indicates User
folder.
Hmmm, perhaps i could have made that more clear, but I did try:
3. Move these files, if they exist, to a new folder on your desktop (~
means your home folder: /Users/you):
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.setupassistant.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office Settings (11)
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Entourage Preferences
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Office.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English]
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Excel.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Word.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Entourage.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Font Substitutes
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate.plist
~/Library/Preferences/OfficeSync Prefs
~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Excel.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Excel Toolbars (11)
So, you should prefix your home folder path (/Users/you) to each of the
paths I listed. So for instance:
/Users/you/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.setupassistant.plist

I took those files out and still no success!

But did you repair the ownership of your entire home folder with the
chown command like I said?

I think if you'll do what I suggested in comp.sys.mac.system, you'll
have it all working again.

--
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

OMG! The problem has now returned!
But this time in the new account ARGHHHHHHHHH

I've just rebooted and now Microsoft applications are back to doing
what they were before whyyyy?
(This possibly may be the first time I've rebooted since the sudo
chown command)