Various 2008 Microsoft and Template Folders... Help Me Understand??

[Bill Weylock]

First, I have been reading threads about the crashes and have followed two
pieces of advice. I just don¹t know how best to put things back together.

I was having all sorts of crashes with Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2008. I
have already been through the database nightmare with Entourage with the
help of a great MS tech on the phone. I had to reinstall 2004, use it to
rebuild the database, and then let 2008 import it. Now Entourage is solid.

As for Word, I renamed my Normal template, which was in my
home/documents/Microsoft User Data folder. Then I launched Word, which did
create a new normal.dotm, but in user/libraray/application
support/microsoft/office/user templates. Nothing new was created in
home/documents/Microsoft User Data.

Following advice in another thread, hoping to stop the crashes in other
office programs, I also moved the Microsoft folder to my desktop from
home/library/preferences/.

Although I haven¹t done much work yet in any of the programs, at least Word
no longer crashes with an error every time I quit it. That¹s very
encouraging.

So I feel good about this, but I want (if possible) to get back my toolbars
and other settings from the old Normal template (which I also have backed up
with a duplicate just in case). And I am wondering if I should simply delete
the old Microsoft folder I removed from home/library/preferences.

Where should I put the old Normal template so that Word will access it? What
should I do with the old Microsoft folder? Any other suggestions?

Thanks very much!

I would be happy for a referral to a posted document or other thread if this
has already been explained a thousand times.


Best,


- Bill



Leopard
Office 2004
Windows XP Pro SP2
Office 2003
Imac 2.8Ghz
ThinkPad T40
AT&T Tilt

 

[JE McGimpsey]

As for Word, I renamed my Normal template, which was in my
home/documents/Microsoft User Data folder. Then I launched Word, which did
create a new normal.dotm, but in user/libraray/application
support/microsoft/office/user templates. Nothing new was created in
home/documents/Microsoft User Data.

As it should be - Applications/Support is where Normal.dotm, Word08's
Normal template, now resides.

Renaming your old one (in the MUD folder) was necessary because Word08
"helpfully" tried to read in settings from the old one.

Following advice in another thread, hoping to stop the crashes in other
office programs, I also moved the Microsoft folder to my desktop from
home/library/preferences/.

Although I haven¹t done much work yet in any of the programs, at least Word
no longer crashes with an error every time I quit it. That¹s very
encouraging.

So I feel good about this, but I want (if possible) to get back my toolbars
and other settings from the old Normal template (which I also have backed up
with a duplicate just in case). And I am wondering if I should simply delete
the old Microsoft folder I removed from home/library/preferences.

Custom toolbars are stored in templates - in your case, probably the old
Normal template. Use the Organizer (Tools/Templates and Add-ins...,
click the Organizer button) to bring them into your *new* Normal.

If you're not going to use Office04 any longer (or if you don't mind
resetting Office04 preferences), you can delete the old MS folder.

Where should I put the old Normal template so that Word will access it? What
should I do with the old Microsoft folder? Any other suggestions?

DON'T try to access the old Normal directly from Word08. It's far safer
to use Organizer.

Once the new Normal.dotm is created, you can move the old Normal back
into the MUD folder to use with Word04 if you choose to.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Bill,

small addendums--

Custom toolbars are stored in templates - in your case, probably the old
Normal template. Use the Organizer (Tools/Templates and Add-ins...,
click the Organizer button) to bring them into your *new* Normal.

If you want to test these specific instructions for us, feel free:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/MacWordNormal.html#Restore

If you're not going to use Office04 any longer (or if you don't mind
resetting Office04 preferences), you can delete the old MS folder.

I'd hold onto it for a bit--it's got your AutoCorrect and Custom
Dictionary, to mention two things you might want to copy into
home/library/preferences/microsoft/office 2008 so that Word 2008 will
use them.

Daiya

 

[JE McGimpsey]

If you're not going to use Office04 any longer (or if you don't mind
resetting Office04 preferences), you can delete the old MS folder.

I'd hold onto it for a bit--it's got your AutoCorrect and Custom
Dictionary, to mention two things you might want to copy into
home/library/preferences/microsoft/office 2008 so that Word 2008 will
use them.[/QUOTE]

Ah - good catch!

I never stored them there. I kept my Custom Dictionary in the MUD
folder, along with a text file containing all my text-only autocorrects
which my startup add-in then loaded whenever I started Word.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

I agree with the others. Your old settings were the cause of your problem.
If you bring them back (no matter how you do it) you will bring back the
problem.

The old Normal template is in a different format from the Word 2008
Normal.dotm and it stores different content. Word 2008 will never "use" it.
But it will try to import settings from it if you force it to, and that is
likely to produce the problems you had all over again.

J.E. mentioned using the Organiser to copy toolbars and stuff across.
That's relatively safe if you do it using Word 2008. I won't guarantee that
you won't get crashes when you bring your customised toolbars back in, but
you should not.

When customising toolbars, it is extremely important NOT to customise the
built-in toolbars. If you do, you will NOT be able to copy the built-in
toolbars into a new template. This is a restriction engineered to avoid the
problems you have been having.

So unless you created your own toolbars with new names, you will not be able
to bring your old toolbars into Word 2008: attempting to do so would cause
crashes.

However, you "could" use Word 2004 to open your OLD Normal template.

1) Create new differently-named toolbars in Word 2004.

2) Then copy your modifications to the new toolbars you created, using Word
2004.

3) Then quit Word 2004.

4) Then start Word 2008 and use Organiser to copy your new toolbars from the
Word 2004 Normal template into Word 2008's Normal.dotm.

That should work, and is safe enough to try

BTW: It doesn't matter where you put your Word 2008 templates. Application
Support is where they are "supposed" to be, but you can put them wherever
you find convenient. Simply use Word>Preferences>File Locations>User
Templates to tell Word where they are!

I ALWAYS move my Templates folders immediately after installing Word.
Because I am in there a lot, and during beta testing I want to make quite
sure they do not get damaged. Some of my templates date back to 1992 and
collectively they represent maybe a million dollars worth of investment, so
I look after them better than I look after my girlfriend (just ask her...)


However, users who want to install haxies that interact with Word should be
aware that these may "expect" the Normal.dotm to be in its default location,
and develop some interesting side-effects if it is not.

Hope this helps

First, I have been reading threads about the crashes and have followed two
pieces of advice. I just don¹t know how best to put things back together.

I was having all sorts of crashes with Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2008. I
have already been through the database nightmare with Entourage with the
help of a great MS tech on the phone. I had to reinstall 2004, use it t
rebuild the database, and then let 2008 import it. Now Entourage is solid.

As for Word, I renamed my Normal template, which was in my
home/documents/Microsoft User Data folder. Then I launched Word, which did
create a new normal.dotm, but in user/libraray/application
support/microsoft/office/user templates. Nothing new was created in
home/documents/Microsoft User Data.

Following advice in another thread, hoping to stop the crashes in other
office programs, I also moved the Microsoft folder to my desktop from
home/library/preferences/.

Although I haven¹t done much work yet in any of the programs, at least Word
no longer crashes with an error every time I quit it. That¹s very
encouraging.

So I feel good about this, but I want (if possible) to get back my toolbars
and other settings from the old Normal template (which I also have backed up
with a duplicate just in case). And I am wondering if I should simply delete
the old Microsoft folder I removed from home/library/preferences.

Where should I put the old Normal template so that Word will access it? What
should I do with the old Microsoft folder? Any other suggestions?

Thanks very much!

I would be happy for a referral to a posted document or other thread if this
has already been explained a thousand times.


Best,


- Bill



Leopard
Office 2004
Windows XP Pro SP2
Office 2003
Imac 2.8Ghz
ThinkPad T40
AT&T Tilt

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Saving the AutoCorrect File from Office 2004:

For 2004, it's here:
home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Microsoft Office ACL [English]

Move it to here:

home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008/Microsoft Office ACL
[English]

(I just did this yesterday--Office 2004 did not import it for some reason).

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I don't know how Retrospect works. Bill, since at present you don't have
2004 installed, you could try the procedure below, but in Word 2008
first. I opened my 2004 Normal in Word 2008 (use File | Open to open any
template)--I got dialogs about macros, which I just clicked open to, and
when the 2004 Normal was active, I'm pretty sure I was seeing my
customized Tools menu from 2004. So you might be able to drag and drop
icons from your customized default toolbar to a new custom toolbar in
Word 2008.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Bill:

I would avoid bringing any preferences or .plists back.

Word 2004 will re-create them when it starts.

If you bring them back, they may be out of synch with the current state of
the computer and send us around the circle again...

Cheers

John -


It helps enormously! And it answers a question I had not yet asked: why
Organizer (which I was used to using for style transfers without noticing
the Toolbars tab) did not see any toolbars in the old Normal.

Being more orderly than bright, I deleted all of the 2004 applications. I
do, however, have Retrospect backups that will be able to restore 2004
without reinstalling.

If I grab the MUD and application files, should that be enough? Would I also
want to grab a preferences folder or a plist file?

Thanks again, as always!


Best,


- Bill

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Bill Weylock]

Thanks Daiya ­ for this and the other help. I always wondered what ACL stood
for....

Would have replied to that message, but Entourage helpfully rearranged the
threads as soon as I clicked, losing you somewhere in usenet.


Best,


- Bill

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks Daiya – for this and the other help. I always wondered what ACL
stood for....

Glad to help.

I learned ACL early on, because my AutoCorrect List is possibly more
valuable to me than anything in the Normal template.

 

[Bill Weylock]

Same here, except for the toolbar that I foolishly customized without
renaming Formatting.

Glad to help.

I learned ACL early on, because my AutoCorrect List is possibly more
valuable to me than anything in the Normal template.

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2003 - Windows XP Pro SP2