Problems with Office apps after archive and install

[Erin Harty]

I had to do an archive and install (without preserving users and
network settings) on my G4 (OS 10.2.8), and ever since, I've been
unable to get several Office apps to work correctly.

In Word, I get an error about not being able to open the Visual Basic
Editor, and the custom dictionary being unavailable. In Entourage, I
"do not have write access to the application folder." In Excel,
there's an error accessing the system registry.

I've tried moving things from my previous system folder back into the
current system folder, but it only seems to have made things worse.

At this point, I feel like the best thing to do would be to wipe
everything to do with Office X off the computer and reinstall it, but
I have no clue how to do that... help!

Erin

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Here's how you remove and re-install Office X, which might be your best bet:
Insert the Office X CD, then open the Value Pack. Click the Value Pack
Installer. Check "Remove Office", then click "Continue". Run the "Remove
Office" utility. When done, re-install Office X from the CD.

Then, download and install the latest Office X updates, which are 10.1.2,
10.1.4, and 10.1.5 (10.1.3 is unnecessary). They¹re available from
Microsoft.
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx#OfficeX>

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur [MVP]]

Hi Erin,

I had to do an archive and install (without preserving users and
network settings) on my G4 (OS 10.2.8), and ever since, I've been
unable to get several Office apps to work correctly.

In Word, I get an error about not being able to open the Visual Basic
Editor, and the custom dictionary being unavailable. In Entourage, I
"do not have write access to the application folder." In Excel,
there's an error accessing the system registry.

I would say you have nasty permissions issues adn a corrupted Carbon
Registration Database....

I've tried moving things from my previous system folder back into the
current system folder, but it only seems to have made things worse.

At this point, I feel like the best thing to do would be to wipe
everything to do with Office X off the computer and reinstall it, but
I have no clue how to do that... help!

Before you do that, try repairing permissions with Disk Utility and then
go to your user folder/Library/Preferences/Microsoft and delete the
Carbon Registration Database
The file will be recreated the next time you launch Office. Hopefully,
the problem will be solved.

Corentin