[ANN] Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0) released

On 05/14/08 6:24 AM, "Diane Ross" <dianerossmvps.org> saith :

> Microsoft released Office 2008 SP1 Update (12.1.0) today just four months
> after its initial release and a little over a month since its Microsoft
> Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 update. This is a major release and includes
> nearly 50 bug fixes and improvements for Entourage. This update is available
> through AutoUpdate or you can download from Mactopia.

Auto update found no update.

Law Office of Max Manshel

On 14/05/2008 10:24 PM, "Diane Ross" <dianerossmvps.org> spake thus:

> <http://tinyurl.com/3fukme>

I always wondered whether tinyurl could generate rude words. Now I know :)

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger

On 15/05/2008 8:46 PM, "Max Manshel" <Max.ManshelVerizon.net> spake thus:

> Auto update found no update.

Hmm, mine did. You don't still have the old 2004 version of AutoUpdate lying
around do you? It's version 1.1.2 and sits in the Applications folder. The
2008 version is 2.2 and hides in

/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0

(not very obvious, but I guess they don't expect you to launch it manually).

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger

On 5/15/08 4:42 PM, "Nigel Stanger" <nstangerinfoscience.otago.ac.nz>
wrote:

>
>> Auto update found no update.
>
> Hmm, mine did. You don't still have the old 2004 version of AutoUpdate lying
> around do you? It's version 1.1.2 and sits in the Applications folder. The
> 2008 version is 2.2 and hides in
>
> /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0
>
> (not very obvious, but I guess they don't expect you to launch it manually).

The idea is you run it from the help menu, which is becoming more of a
standard on the Mac for such things

--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
jwelchbynkii.com

Nigel Stanger wrote:

> (not very obvious, but I guess they don't expect you to launch it manually).

They are expecting you to launch it from the Help in the Menu bar.

--
Diane

>> Auto update found no update.
>
> Hmm, mine did. You don't still have the old 2004 version of AutoUpdate lying
> around do you? It's version 1.1.2 and sits in the Applications folder. The
> 2008 version is 2.2 and hides in
>
> /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0
>
> (not very obvious, but I guess they don't expect you to launch it manually).

NO 2.2.0 is in /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0
 I reported to MSBU

MaxManshelgmail.com

On 16/05/2008 11:26 PM, "John C. Welch" <jwelchbynkii.com> spake thus:

> The idea is you run it from the help menu, which is becoming more of a
> standard on the Mac for such things

Oh, is THAT where it is? I've gotten so used to the Help menu being useless
that I don't look at it any more.

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger

Nigel Stanger wrote:

> Oh, is THAT where it is? I've gotten so used to the Help menu being useless
> that I don't look at it any more.

Help is now available online and offline. The online will have more updated
info. This will allow new features to be added to help and make it more
useful.

BTW, when you select Help in any Office application, the search box is not
for Office Help, but it will show you menu items. Very useful to find items
that have been moved. :-)

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/help_in_entourage_2008.html>

--
Diane

This update appears to have introduced a bug: Word will no longer open stationery documents either when they're double-clicked in the Finder or when it's told to do so by AppleScript. It will open them from the Open... dialog. This is a nuisance, because I use AppleScript quite a lot.

I can work around the problem for one of my stationery documents by replacing it with an alias to the template, because the stationery is blank (I just use it to have a load of styles and so on available). However, other stationery documents, based on the same template, contain text.

MacBook Pro and desktop Intel Mac, 10.5 with latest updates.

Any suggestions? Is there something fundamentally wrong with my approach?

Thanks

Jeremy

On closer inspection, it seems that the documents the new updated version of Word refuses (silently) to open except from the open dialog are those saved as "Word Document Stationery (.doc)".

Documents which have been saved as .dotx and then had the Finder's "Stationery" checkbox enabled work fine.

I still think it's a bug, though...

Jeremy

Jeremy Roussak wrote:

> Any suggestions? Is there something fundamentally wrong with my approach?

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx?CTT=PageView&clr=99-0-0&target=0b9aa
757-50ab-443b-8b0e-3a50ece1d5451033>

In case the above link does not work:
<http://tinyurl.com/6qfyrt>

Corentin has posted some scripts to help with the problem:

<http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/?p=175>

--
Diane

Diane,

Thanks very much. I'm glad to hear I'm not imagining things!

Jeremy

On a different note, when and why did the function argument separator in
Excel change from "," to ";"? I spent ten minutes yesterday swearing at
Excel because it kept telling me there was an error in what as far as I was
concerned was a perfectly correct formula. I eventually figured it out when
I popped up the Formula Builder and found it was lumping all my supposedly
separate arguments (separated by commas) into the first argument. Looking
more closely at the function tooltip, I noticed semicolons between the
arguments, and so I was able to fix it.

Did Excel 2007 do the same thing (we still only have 2003 here)? I couldn't
see anything obvious in the online help or preferences about this; it's such
a fundamental change that I would have expected it to be better advertised.
Existing worksheets automagically convert themselves when you open them, so
it's the sort of thing I might not have discovered for quite some time.

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger

On May 23, 2008, at 5:05 AM, <tidbits-talktidbits.com> <tidbits-talktidbits.com
 > wrote:

> On a different note, when and why did the function argument
> separator in
> Excel change from "," to ";"? I spent ten minutes yesterday swearing
> at
> Excel because it kept telling me there was an error in what as far
> as I was
> concerned was a perfectly correct formula. I eventually figured it
> out when
> I popped up the Formula Builder and found it was lumping all my
> supposedly
> separate arguments (separated by commas) into the first argument.
> Looking
> more closely at the function tooltip, I noticed semicolons between the
> arguments, and so I was able to fix it.
>
> Did Excel 2007 do the same thing (we still only have 2003 here)? I
> couldn't
> see anything obvious in the online help or preferences about this;
> it's such
> a fundamental change that I would have expected it to be better
> advertised.
> Existing worksheets automagically convert themselves when you open
> them, so
> it's the sort of thing I might not have discovered for quite some
> time.


See this explanation from one of the programmers:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/616008222931?r=716003532931#716003532931


David Silbey History Alvernia College
silbeysilbey.net

That's actually very useful to know. I just installed Office 2008, but I haven't had to build any calculations that require arguments. Guaranteed, it would have driven me crazy, too. Filemaker made the same change about 3 years ago with the introduction of Filemaker 7, so perhaps they're copying that. Microsoft has built their business copying Apple's technologies. I suspect, though, that there is a technical reason because commas are used for lots of things, whereas semicolons, not so much.

Ack, regarding the commas vs. semicolons thing, I just discovered it gets
worse. Excel now saves comma-separated text files as semicolon-separated :(

I think I'm going to have to switch to Australian for a little while ---
yep, that fixed it. Boy I hope this gets fixed soon (it has been reported as
a bug already). At least I can change the currency back to something
sensible :)

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger