Problems reinstalling Office 2004 G4 PowerPC

[nyrunner]

Hi! I uninstalled Office 2004 from my G4 (os x v 10.4.11) because I was
suddenly unable to open Entourage. When I attempted to reinstall Office 2004
from the Assistant it says that it needs to quit and asks if I want to report
the problem to microsoft (of course I selected yes!). I also tried to drag
and drop the Office folder to the Apps folder on my hard drive - this
resulted in an icon indicating that Office was on my drive. When I tried to
launch Word or any other Office app all I got was a flash of the name on the
menu bar and then it disappeared - nothing was launched!

I am desperate for suggestions as I am in the middle of writing my thesis!

Thanks!

 

[Diane Ross]

Reinstalling rarely fixes issues like you mentioned. I would do these steps:

1. Use "Remove Office" to completely remove Office from your drive.

2. Apply the Apple combo updater. Combo updaters will install on the same
version as they¹re applying‹no need to roll back or do a clean install.
Tiger:

Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC)
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateppc.html>

3. Install Office 2004 from CD and Update! Restart between each update.

Updater: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.0 Update released June 24, 2008
(This is a combo updater. This update includes all the improvements that
were released in previous Office 2004 updates.) 59mb

Updater: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.5.1 Update released: Tuesday,
August 12, 2008 15mb. Requires 11.5.0 be installed.

Microsoft Downloads Links
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/downloads/mactopia_dl.html>

The remove process and install should not remove any of your data, but it is
always advised that you backup before doing any process of this type. There
are rare cases where $#@! Happens. Backup your Documents folder.

Most likely your original problem was a bad message. When launching
Entourage, hold down the Shift key to disable any schedules from firing.
By holding down the Shift key at startup - like "Extensions Off" when
starting up your Mac. This allows Entourage to launch without crashing in
situations like this. Check your Outbox for a bad message. It could also be
a message you are trying to download. You could then turn off Preview Pane
and check the server looking for the suspect message.

If you have POP accounts, you'd do it by using your Webmail account or use
Allow Online Access in the Options window of the account settings. Next,
select the server icon now appearing in the Folders List and turn off
Preview Pane. Delete the message.