Problem in Word 2004: "Change All" produces "Not Applicable"

[Avi]

Hi all,

I'm running both Office X and Office 2004 on a 12" 1.5 Ghz Powerbook ,
OS 10.3.9.

I'm attempting to make Word 2004 the default application for all .docs.


I select any Word doc in the finder, and Command-I to bring up the info

screen. Word X is listed as the default application. I select Word 2004

in the "Open With" dialogue, and hit "Change All".

Rather than showing Word 2004 as the new default application, it says
"Not Applicable".

Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.

many thanks,
avi

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello avi-

The first 3 things that come to mind;

Do you have the Office 2004 Test Drive installed? If so, make sure you
remove it completely,

Have you 'activated'/registered Office 2004?

Have you recently Repaired Disk Permissions since installing/updating
'03?

Regards |:>)

 

[Avi]

Good tips, but sadly, no solution yet.

- Test Drive was not installed

- I'm using a fully purchased and registered copy of Office 2004

- I repaired Disk Permissions

and I'm still having the same problem.

Any other thoughts?

thanks again for any help,
avi

 

[CyberTaz]

Am at a bit of a loss as I only upgraded to Word X in order to
fast-track into the release of '04 & have been using it exclusively.
Have you saved any new files created in '04? If so, what does Get Info
show on them? If not, save at least one file with '04 & see if that
makes any difference. Also, take a look at Word>Preferences & see if
any compatibility settings might be interfering. Doesn't seem likely,
as both versions use the same file structure.

Although it probably isn't the case, make sure that neither X or '04 is
running when you attempt to change the default application.

Unfortunately I am @ work in PC-hell so I can't play around to find out
more, but if it doesn't get resolved earlier, I'll try to research it
further tonight. In the meanwhile, one of the MVPs running both
versions may very well come along with a fix.

Good Luck |:>)

 

[Avi]

Thanks again - I have been using '04 for a while, and have many files
that have been saved and/or created in '04.

I have had no trouble with files that were created or saved in Word
'04: they can be set to default to '04 when opened.

It's only the 'change all' command that is giving me trouble.

Thanks for your efforts! And I'm also hopeful that one of the MVPs will
have an idea about this strange but frustrating problem...

all the best,
avi

 

[Avi]

Thanks Beth - will try your suggestions and reply!
cheers,
avi

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I'm running both Office X and Office 2004 on a 12" 1.5 Ghz Powerbook ,
OS 10.3.9.

I'm attempting to make Word 2004 the default application for all .docs.


I select any Word doc in the finder, and Command-I to bring up the info

screen. Word X is listed as the default application. I select Word 2004

in the "Open With" dialogue, and hit "Change All".

Rather than showing Word 2004 as the new default application, it says
"Not Applicable".

Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.

Under Ownership & Permissions, at the bottom of Get Info, what does it tell
you, including full Details? Who's the owner?


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Avi]

OK all,
Next set of clues:

- Tried moving Microsoft prefs (with all office apps closed): no
change.

- Did some more testing: When I try to 'change all' to Word '04, and
the text flips to 'not applicable', that same 'not applicable' is then
the default app for ALL word docs. I can change them all to Word X no
problem, just not to Word '04.

- Tried changing .pdf files from Acrobat to Preview and back: no
problem. Works fine.

- When I tell an INDIVIDUAL file to 'always open with' Word '04, it's
no problem - works fine. In fact, files that I have changed to 'always
open with' Word '04 stay that way, even AFTER I've gone into another
file and done a 'change all' to Word X. All files switch over to open
with Word X, except the ones I've changed individually to Word '04.
They don't change. Weird, huh?

- As for ownership and permissions, all word files show up with me as
the owner (and my login is the admin). For 'Group', it always says
'staff'. Owner, Group, and Others all have Read and Write permission.

With any luck, this should thicken the plot in a productive way...

cheers,
avi

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

OK all,
Next set of clues:

- Tried moving Microsoft prefs (with all office apps closed): no
change.

- Did some more testing: When I try to 'change all' to Word '04, and
the text flips to 'not applicable', that same 'not applicable' is then
the default app for ALL word docs. I can change them all to Word X no
problem, just not to Word '04.

- Tried changing .pdf files from Acrobat to Preview and back: no
problem. Works fine.

- When I tell an INDIVIDUAL file to 'always open with' Word '04, it's
no problem - works fine. In fact, files that I have changed to 'always
open with' Word '04 stay that way, even AFTER I've gone into another
file and done a 'change all' to Word X. All files switch over to open
with Word X, except the ones I've changed individually to Word '04.
They don't change. Weird, huh?

- As for ownership and permissions, all word files show up with me as
the owner (and my login is the admin). For 'Group', it always says
'staff'. Owner, Group, and Others all have Read and Write permission.

With any luck, this should thicken the plot in a productive way...

Instead of just choosing "Word 2004" in the "Open With" dropdown, click
Other... at the bottom of the dropdown and _navigate_ to Word 2004 where
it's located on your computer. I think that it's remembering a different
Word 2004 (did you ever have the Test Drive?) that no longer exists on your
computer, and doesn't yet know about the real one. (Because you've never
located it there yet and/or you have a corrupt LaunchServices file. If this
doesn't work, I'll tell you next where you can remove that file if you
remind me which OS you are in - they keep changing the file and location in
each major OS.)

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Avi]

Hi Paul,
I have indeed navigated to Word '04 - it didn't appear in the initial
list.
I'm running OS 10.3.9.

 

[Avi]

Sorry, to be perfectly clear: I HAD already tried navigating to Word
'04 - that didn't help.

 

[CyberTaz]

Based on;

In fact, files that I have changed to 'always
open with' Word '04 stay that way, even AFTER I've gone into another
file and done a 'change all' to Word X. All files switch over to open
with Word X, except the ones I've changed individually to Word '04.
They don't change. Weird, huh?

Based on this, I tend to think Paul is definitely on the right track &
that this is an OS X issue. He's in a better position to take it from
here, although one question does come to mind.

Do you or _did_ you have any Norton/Symantec utilities installed, by
any chance?

Regards |:>)

 

[Avi]

Norton? Not in years. And definitely not on this Mac.
cheers,
avi

 

[Avi]

Hi Beth and Paul,
Sorry for the delay - don't want the thread to go cold!
For some reason your responses here were hidden in the middle of the
thread, and I didn't see them for a day.

Sadly, I have deleted both LaunchServices prefs, logged out and back
in, and the problem is unresolved.
Should I try removing and re-installing Office 04?
Perhaps I should just remove Office X?
I don't really need them both, but was reluctant to remove the old
version while I was still having weird anomalies with the new one...

thanks again for your patience with this weird problem...
avi

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Hi Beth and Paul,
Sorry for the delay - don't want the thread to go cold!
For some reason your responses here were hidden in the middle of the
thread, and I didn't see them for a day.

Sadly, I have deleted both LaunchServices prefs, logged out and back
in, and the problem is unresolved.
Should I try removing and re-installing Office 04?
Perhaps I should just remove Office X?
I don't really need them both, but was reluctant to remove the old
version while I was still having weird anomalies with the new one...

thanks again for your patience with this weird problem...

Nothing's irrevocable. Since you want to use 2004, use office Remover to
remove Office X. Log out and in. If everything's fine now, great. if not use
Office Remover to remove Office 2004, reinstall it and update it. If still
no good, report back.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Avi]

Hi Paul,
I've decided for a variety of reasons to reinstall the OS, upgrading to
Tiger. I've done a number of OS upgrades - spanning two powerbooks and
operating systems from 9 to 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3 - all with archive and
install.

So this time I've backed up via Super Duper, as well as copying my Home
directory to a separate firewire drive, and I'm zeroing the HD and
installing from scratch. I'll bring my documents over and troubleshoot
software as I install it.

I'm assuming this will fix my LaunchServices problem (as well as
creating many others!) but I'll let you know what happened.
thanks again for all your help,
avi