Word 5.1a install?

[Norm]

Hope this is the correct newsgroup for 5.1a question?

I use both Word v.X and Word 5.1a.

Trying to reinstall Word 5.1a on a G3 Mac running OS 8.6 from the
original install discs.

Two questions:

1. During the install (from my original install discs and a copy I made
of them at purchase time), it hangs during the install of the "Commands"
disc. Does same thing for both original discs and the copy. I suppose
both discs could have failed but I'm wondering if there is some other
problem I should be looking for?

2. When I do these installs, it hangs and I do a forced restart I find
an "Install Temp" folder in my system folder with a System folder in it
of about the same size as my OS 8.6 System folder. Make sense?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[Hans M. Aus]

Hope this is the correct newsgroup for 5.1a question?

I use both Word v.X and Word 5.1a.

Trying to reinstall Word 5.1a on a G3 Mac running OS 8.6 from the
original install discs.

Two questions:

1. During the install (from my original install discs and a copy I made
of them at purchase time), it hangs during the install of the "Commands"
disc. Does same thing for both original discs and the copy. I suppose
both discs could have failed but I'm wondering if there is some other
problem I should be looking for?

2. When I do these installs, it hangs and I do a forced restart I find
an "Install Temp" folder in my system folder with a System folder in it
of about the same size as my OS 8.6 System folder. Make sense?

Thanks for any tips.

Why do you want both?

 

[Norm]

Why do you want both?

OP responding to question:

Because I'm giving the G3 to a friend and I'm reinstalling the OS (OS
8.6) and Word 5.1a after wiping hard drive.

And FWIW, I still have Word 5.1a on my OS X Mac which I use from time to
time in Classic. I prefer it to Word vX but I've decided it is much
easier just to stay in OS X and use Word vX.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hope this is the correct newsgroup for 5.1a question?

As correct as any, except that this group tends to have heavy users of Word,
who do upgrade. You might find more people actually running 5.1a on a
general Mac newsgroup. Or some might come along here, I don't know.

I really thought Office 98 is the earliest version that's supposed to run in
Classic, or OS 9. But anyhow--back in the day when programs were simpler,
it often worked to just copy files from one disk to another, no installer
needed. Perhaps you should try that, since you have it installed in Classic
on one machine.

I also wonder, since neither set of discs works, whether it's worth the
trouble to try running the installer from a different medium--e.g., copy it
to hard drive, then run it.

DM

I use both Word v.X and Word 5.1a.

Trying to reinstall Word 5.1a on a G3 Mac running OS 8.6 from the
original install discs.

Two questions:

1. During the install (from my original install discs and a copy I made
of them at purchase time), it hangs during the install of the "Commands"
disc. Does same thing for both original discs and the copy. I suppose
both discs could have failed but I'm wondering if there is some other
problem I should be looking for?

2. When I do these installs, it hangs and I do a forced restart I find
an "Install Temp" folder in my system folder with a System folder in it
of about the same size as my OS 8.6 System folder. Make sense?

Thanks for any tips.

[different post]

 

[Beth Rosengard]

I pinged Clive Huggan about this and he will respond in greater detail later
when he has more time (he was on his way to a meeting), but ...

He is pretty sure that the installation cannot be done from floppies, just a
direct transfer from another hard drive. Stay tuned for more (unless
Elliott has a clue ­ how was the snow, Elliott <g>?).

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
(If using Safari, hit Refresh once or twice ­ or use another browser.)
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

Hope this is the correct newsgroup for 5.1a question?

As correct as any, except that this group tends to have heavy users of Word,
who do upgrade. You might find more people actually running 5.1a on a
general Mac newsgroup. Or some might come along here, I don't know.

I really thought Office 98 is the earliest version that's supposed to run in
Classic, or OS 9. But anyhow--back in the day when programs were simpler,
it often worked to just copy files from one disk to another, no installer
needed. Perhaps you should try that, since you have it installed in Classic
on one machine.

I also wonder, since neither set of discs works, whether it's worth the
trouble to try running the installer from a different medium--e.g., copy it
to hard drive, then run it.

DM

I use both Word v.X and Word 5.1a.

Trying to reinstall Word 5.1a on a G3 Mac running OS 8.6 from the
original install discs.

Two questions:

1. During the install (from my original install discs and a copy I made
of them at purchase time), it hangs during the install of the "Commands"
disc. Does same thing for both original discs and the copy. I suppose
both discs could have failed but I'm wondering if there is some other
problem I should be looking for?

2. When I do these installs, it hangs and I do a forced restart I find
an "Install Temp" folder in my system folder with a System folder in it
of about the same size as my OS 8.6 System folder. Make sense?

Thanks for any tips.

[different post]

And FWIW, I still have Word 5.1a on my OS X Mac which I use from time to
time in Classic. I prefer it to Word vX but I've decided it is much
easier just to stay in OS X and use Word vX.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Norm,

I don't know of any other newsgroup that would be a better source of help
with Word 5.1a. But it's becoming a rarer commodity.

For those of us who think that 5.1 almost had it right, queries like yours
produce heavy sighs of nostalgia. As Elliott Roper has been known to say,
"Word 5.1a was such an improvement on its successors...".

You didn't have virus software running, did you?

Daiya was right. Here's some more information on that theme, though...

There is no particular reason why Word 5.1a shouldn't install in OS 8 --
it's not until OS 9 that problems start if you use the Install discs. (I was
wrong in saying to Beth earlier today that the installation can't be done
from floppies -- on checking past posts I find that was with OS 9.) Having
said that, most people with problems trying to do it in OS 9 had the same
experience as you.

Whether or not *both* floppies have developed defects (they may well have),
your best solution may be to sidestep the issue and transfer all your Word
5.1a files from the Mac that has them to the other -- in other words,
avoiding the installation-from-floppy process.

If you do a Google of "Word 5.1" in Advanced newsgroup searching for the
microsoft.public.mac.office.word newsgroup
(http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=Word+5.1+group:microsoft.public.mac.
office.word&start=90&safe=off&lr=&hl=en&), you'll see a very helpful post
from "Barbaross" on Jun 4 2004. The conclusion is "Using the 'Word 5'
Installer floppies is almost more trouble than it's worth."

Re your comment "I still have Word 5.1a on my OS X Mac which I use from time
to time in Classic. I prefer it to Word vX but I've decided it is much
easier just to stay in OS X and use Word vX", I was dissatisfied with the
versions that followed 5.1a until in 2001 I acknowledged that with all my
clients on the PC I simply *had* to upgrade myself. I started to write some
notes to remind myself of the main new features. They have kept growing in
the 4 years since, and are now about 150 pages long (mercifully they are
arranged dictionary-style). Although I now use Word 2004, the origins of the
notes are a 5.1a user's perspective, so you might find some elements useful.
They are titled "Bend Word to Your Will", and are available as a free
download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/Bend/BendWord.htm). I will have an update
there in a few weeks' time, with much more about Word 2004.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================

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[Elliott Roper]

I pinged Clive Huggan about this and he will respond in greater detail later
when he has more time (he was on his way to a meeting), but ...

He is pretty sure that the installation cannot be done from floppies, just a
direct transfer from another hard drive. Stay tuned for more (unless
Elliott has a clue ­ how was the snow, Elliott <g>?).

Hiya Beth. It was great. I have since been eating lemons to get the
perma-grin off my face.

Floppy install should not be a problem, although just copying the
application from one working machine to another is far easier.

That 'missing' library might be important. It is so long since I used
old Mac OS I have forgotten. If the original questioner wants to mail
me direct, I might be able to dredge up a copy.

 

[Norm]

Hiya Beth. It was great. I have since been eating lemons to get the
perma-grin off my face.

Floppy install should not be a problem, although just copying the
application from one working machine to another is far easier.

That 'missing' library might be important. It is so long since I used
old Mac OS I have forgotten. If the original questioner wants to mail
me direct, I might be able to dredge up a copy.

OP here:

Thanks for all the input. Really do appreciate.

FWIW, the main reason I was trying to do a floppy install from original
discs is that I am continually getting strange out of memory errors that
I had never had in the many years or so of using Word 5.1a under OS 8.6.
So I figured maybe my finder copy "install" of Word 5.1a was the culprit
and I was trying to repeat the install procedure that I had done long
ago.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

That 'missing' library might be important. It is so long since I used

old Mac OS I have forgotten. If the original questioner wants to mail
me direct, I might be able to dredge up a copy.

It's the Word 6 guy with the missing library, not the 5.1a one.

DM

 

[Elliott Roper]

It's the Word 6 guy with the missing library, not the 5.1a one.

Thanks Daiya. I had just mailed Norm (5.1a) direct. He must think I'm
doopid!
I do have various old Macs lying about, so if it is just a Mac library,
(I never bothered with Word 6), I'll see if I can find it.