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aehaas · Mar 11, 2008, 12:40 PM

Post continued and resolved issues:

aehaas

turtle777 · Mar 11, 2008, 01:03 PM

Did you just start a new thread instead of posting a reply ?

-t

64stang06 · Mar 11, 2008, 02:21 PM

Well, I cannot run the updater on my version of Office. Tried the auto update as well as a manual download. Moved the folder to /Applications and still nothing. Anyone else with this issue? Office 2008 Special Media Edition from the Black Friday sale.

Art Vandelay · Mar 11, 2008, 03:20 PM

Seems ok from what I've seen. However, I barely use Office.

Btw, Office 11.4.1 is out too. They really need to offer a cumulative update for Office 2004. After a fresh install of 2004, you have to run seven (11.3.5, 11.3.6, 11.3.7, 11.3.8, 11.3.9, 11.4.0, and 11.4.1) separate updates to get it current.

Cold Warrior · Mar 11, 2008, 03:46 PM

I've copied a couple posts about the updater from the Official Office 2008 thread to here. The former is getting long in the tooth, and is cumbersome for more finite discussions (such as this). Use this thread for discussion of the updater, and feel free to create new Office 2008-related threads as needs arise.

-Q- · Mar 11, 2008, 04:25 PM

Took forever to install the update. Applications seem to open at about the same speed. Excel files (about 75K rows) open much faster.

Nothing else seems different, but only a cursory usage so far.

Cold Warrior · Mar 11, 2008, 07:42 PM

Finally got around to installing. Like Q said, it took a long time for the installer to complete. Entourage and Word seem to open at the same speed, either cold or warm starts. PowerPoint and Excel open faster. Let's hope Excel is more stable, per MS's release notes. I had been getting the copy/paste-related crashes very frequently.

rickey939 · Mar 11, 2008, 09:35 PM

Why is Word so much slower to open than the other apps?

Cadaver · Mar 11, 2008, 09:39 PM

PowerPoint opens much faster. Too bad I use Keynote 10x more (well, too bad for MSFT that is).

Word still has several bugs that are easy to reproduce. Nothing fixed as far as I can tell.

pendragon · Mar 12, 2008, 08:26 AM

I too was of those who could not install the 12.0.1 updater (no Office 2008 was found to update).

So I called M$ and after a 30 second hold was transferred to the proper person. After failing to consummate the install via Safe Boot, we created a new User (with Admin privileges) and retried. Still no joy.

At this point the tech had me remove selected files from ~/Preferences, Application Support, & Library, and then reinstall Office 2008. (Alas, I was too busy at the time to document exactly which files were being trashed.)

And again, for the third time, an install of the updater was attempted. But this time- Bingo. Eureka. Success.

Why the updater “wouldn’t” is but a guess and shame on M$, but the tech support was as good as it gets--nearly an hour of patient, courteous, and expert assistance.

FWIW, my experiences with Office 2008 have otherwise all been favorable, though I did not install Entourage and seldom use Excel, so it may be that issues with those apps have so far eluded me.

chabig · Mar 12, 2008, 08:39 AM

Does the updater make the Office files non-executable?

Art Vandelay · Mar 12, 2008, 12:41 PM

Anyone getting the update through MS AutoUpdate? I'm installing Office 2008 here throughout the campus and not one install has found the update automatically.

Cold Warrior · Mar 12, 2008, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by chabig

Does the updater make the Office files non-executable?

What do you mean?

rickey939 · Mar 12, 2008, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

Anyone getting the update through MS AutoUpdate? I'm installing Office 2008 here throughout the campus and not one install has found the update automatically.

Nope, none here. I've tried on 13 new fresh installs since late last night and nothing through end of business today....

steve626 · Mar 13, 2008, 11:19 PM

You can download the updater from the Microsoft web site.

I have noticed two bugs in Office 2008.

One is that when downloading ppt, xls, and doc files using Safari (from web sites), they get .pot, .xla and .dot extensions added to those normal ones. This appears to be widespread with Safari (based on posting on various forums I've seen), but not seen with Firefox. I wrote an Automator script to fix the errant extensions.

A second bug results when using Excel 2008 (updated with this latest updater -- not sure if this happened before the updater) and opening an Excel file created with Office 2003. The following message appears: "File error: data may have been lost." However the message seems to be harmless as all the data seems to be there.

These types of bugs should have been seen with rudimentary testing and seem indicative to me of poor quality control.

-Q- · Mar 14, 2008, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by steve626

A second bug results when using Excel 2008 (updated with this latest updater -- not sure if this happened before the updater) and opening an Excel file created with Office 2003. The following message appears: "File error: data may have been lost." However the message seems to be harmless as all the data seems to be there.

I saw that one once, but haven't been able to reproduce it with any of my other 2003 spreadsheets. Not sure what it was about the one that did trigger it that makes it different than the others.

JKT · Mar 16, 2008, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

What do you mean?

The installer of the first release created its files with a user ID of 502 (even if that ID didn't exist on the system). A potential security flaw:

brunerd � Office 2008, 502, and you

Betalogue � Blog Archive � Office 2008: Vital application files are owned by non-admin user ID 502

Cold Warrior · Mar 16, 2008, 02:05 PM

The updater supposedly fixes that issue.

Adagioblue · Mar 23, 2008, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by steve626

A second bug results when using Excel 2008 (updated with this latest updater -- not sure if this happened before the updater) and opening an Excel file created with Office 2003. The following message appears: "File error: data may have been lost." However the message seems to be harmless as all the data seems to be there.

Originally Posted by -Q-

I saw that one once, but haven't been able to reproduce it with any of my other 2003 spreadsheets. Not sure what it was about the one that did trigger it that makes it different than the others.

At least this is what I have found, after installing the 12.0.1 update. All my thousands of hyperlinks are gone, in every doc that I have opened since the update. I have read that it does the same to imbedded .jpg files, but I have not yet opened any of my files like that.

If your file has nothing imbedded, you won't get the message. If you get the message, you may have to look, but I'll bet you have lost something.

FWIW: G4 Dual 1.25GHz, Leopard 10.5.2, home computer - only user.
I had no problems with any of the installations. Used stand alone download to update, not auto update.

kennedy · Mar 31, 2008, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

Btw, Office 11.4.1 is out too. They really need to offer a cumulative update for Office 2004. After a fresh install of 2004, you have to run seven (11.3.5, 11.3.6, 11.3.7, 11.3.8, 11.3.9, 11.4.0, and 11.4.1) separate updates to get it current.

Soooo, what's the more reliable Office right now: 11.4.1 or 12.0.1?