PowerPoint 2004 Help window problem

[Joe]

I just encountered a problem with the PowerPoint 2004 Help window. The
window opens when I select PowerPoint Help and I can navigate the
window normally but there is no close button. The only way I can close
the help window is to quit the application and restart it.

I checked both Word and Excel and they have developed the identical
problem. This occurred sometime in the past 24 hours.

I upgraded from OS X 10.3.8 to 10.3.9 last night. I believe the problem
had already occurred but I am not absolutely certain.

Any help(!?) will be greatly appreciated.

-Joe

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Joe-

Did you run the Repair Disk Permissions utility after the update? If
not, do that first... if so, do it again. Then Log out/in & see if that
helps.

Should the problem persist there may be a corrupt preference file. Post
back with results as well as any other 'irregularities' you might
notice.

HTH |:>)

 

[Joe]

CyberTaz,

Thanks for the quick response.

Repair Disk Permissions and Restarts did not help.

New info:

The window name bar that is normally at the top of the Microsoft Help
window and includes the close button is missing and the Help window is
"anchored" against the bottom edge of the main Mac Menu bar.

The Help window can not be moved on the screen.

This machine is set up in multi-user mode and my user is the only one
that has this problem. (I am the administrator, BTW.)

I agree that one of my preference files is probably corrupt. Could it
be <com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist> in my Library folder? Is
this a preference file that I can delete that will be automatically
replaced at next start-up?

-Joe

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Joe-

I'm honestly not sure which it would be, but I don't think that would be it.
The help gui is shared among the office apps & I don't believe it actually
has a prefs file of its own. It might not even be a pref or plist in this
case.

Especially since the other accounts are OK it points to something at your
specific user level. Vaguely similar behaviors have usually been corrected
through permissions repair & reboots.

Hopefully the thread will be read by someone who has experienced something
along the same lines. I sure don't want to suggest anything I'm not
confident in.

You might try setting up an additional admin acct & se if the problem
follows you there. If I come up with anything I'll let you know.

Regards |:>)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for the pointer to the discussion over here, CyberTaz.

The window name bar that is normally at the top of the Microsoft Help
window and includes the close button is missing and the Help window is
"anchored" against the bottom edge of the main Mac Menu bar.

A guess: it isn't really missing the title bar. Someone else had a problem
where Help was squeezed up under something and they never realized it had a
close button (for months).

Try changing the resolution to something really weird (System Preferences,
Displays), which will resize all the windows and move them around. If this
is the same thing, then you should have access to the title bar.

I agree that one of my preference files is probably corrupt. Could it
be <com.microsoft.OfficeNotifications.plist> in my Library folder?

As far as prefs go, the fast way to test--rather than trying to guess which
one--would be to look in ~/Library/Preferences. There is a Microsoft folder
in there. Drag the entire Microsoft folder to the desktop. (Quit all
Office apps first!)

The Microsoft folder in Prefs holds all the app-specific preferences, just
by the way--the ones that are loose in the Prefs folder and start with
com.microsoft deal with interactions of the app and the OS.

Is
this a preference file that I can delete that will be automatically
replaced at next start-up?

Any prefs can be deleted (with the app quit) and will regenerate on
re-launching the app, so far as I know. That's a Mac standard from far
back, so I can't imagine the howls that would go up if there were precious
prefs that didn't regenerate.

 

[Priyanka Singhal [MSFT]]

The help window position preference is in user \ library \ preferences \
Microsoft \ com.Microsoft.office.prefs.plist
If this issue is because of this, help in all office apps would show this
problem. to regenerate this file:
1. quit all apps
2.drag this Preference file to finder
3. relaunch .

Thanks,
Priyanka

 

[Joe]

Priyanka,

Deleting the prefs file corrected the problem. I had a different
problem sometime back that also called for regenerating one of the
prefs files but there are so many I didn't want to begin prospecting
without some guidance.

Many thanks to you and everyone else who offerred their ideas.

-Joe