Reinstallation problems w/Office X for Mac!

[Jean S. Barto]

Hi folks--

Hope someone here on the newsgroup can help me with this.

I had a lot of computer problems this week, and I was instructed to do an
*erase and reinstall* of Mac OS 10.2. I backed up everything I thought I
should, but I probably neglected to back up anything from MS Office X or MS
Office 2001 (located on my *Classic* hard drive). So, when it came time for
me to reinstall Office X, it's naturally looking for a previous version of
an Office program (Word or Entourage, for example) on my hard drive to
complete the installation.

Although I now have a new CD key from Microsoft, like I said, I get a prompt
that instructs me to *browse* for a previous version of the software--such
as Entourage or Word--and when I attempt to do that, those entries are
grayed out and I cannot select them--meaning that I can't complete
reinstallation of the Office X programs.

The earliest version of a MS for Mac application that I have now is Office
98, and that is also an *upgrade* version, not a standalone version. I
sold/gave away my standalong MS Word 4 or 5 program a very long time
ago--and so I don't have a *standalone* version of *any* MS Office for Mac
product.

Is there a way I can get Office X working for me again without buying the
programs again (Word X for $229 and Entourage X for $99)? I tried to get
help from Microsoft earlier today, but all three times I was put on hold for
10 minutes and then disconnected--guess the Mac product specialists don't
work on Sunday. I *did* back up my *Previous System Folders* (two of
them)--are there items in there that would work for me to recover these
programs and get my Office X stuff working again?

Hope someone can help with this!

Thanks in advance,

Jean in VA

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Is there a way I can get Office X working for me again without buying the
programs again (Word X for $229 and Entourage X for $99)? I tried to get
help from Microsoft earlier today, but all three times I was put on hold for
10 minutes and then disconnected--guess the Mac product specialists don't
work on Sunday. I *did* back up my *Previous System Folders* (two of
them)--are there items in there that would work for me to recover these
programs and get my Office X stuff working again?

Take a look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313286

 

[Gerry]

Is there a way I can get Office X working for me again without buying the
programs again (Word X for $229 and Entourage X for $99)?

Yes, most likely.

I tried to get
help from Microsoft earlier today, but all three times I was put on hold for
10 minutes and then disconnected--guess the Mac product specialists don't
work on Sunday.

My suggestion is to call repeatedly and wait as long as necessary.
It's inconvenient (aka "service" in the "new world order"), but is
cheaper than $229 + $99.