• Office 2011 Dmg Not Recognized Windows 7
• Mac Dmg Not Recognized
• Office 2011 Dmg Not Recognized Mac

item.175193

Chris Ruprecht

I changed the permissions to 000 on the MacOS/Office365Service file, and Word and Excel promptly crashed a few minutes after being started.
So I removed Office from my machine completely. I got a Mac to get away from Microsoft after all. Pages does a pretty good job opening Word files, and I hardly ever need to use Excel files. I guess Numbers will have to do.
And I never send Word files to anybody anyway, it's always only PDFs.
And when I want to build really good looking documents, I use TeX and TeXInfo - no word processor can match TeX.

item.175208

Mac can't recognize.dmg closed edit. This question was asked before but closed. I can download the.dmg but Mac OS 10.8 does not recognize it. Edit retag flag offensive reopen merge delete. Closed for the following reason question is not relevant or outdated by Alex Kemp. Download and install or reinstall Office for Mac 2011. Support for Office for Mac 2011 ended on October 10. See Download and install or reinstall Office 365 or Office 2016 on your PC or Mac for install instructions. And double-click the OfficeMacHB1PK2011.dmg.

Dan Y

Warren McBride wrote:

The info I can find on Office 2011 is that this problem with office365 services was fixed in the .2 update back in Feb. I think it was. I have the .5 update and office365service does not run when I run any office app.

I have the 14.3.5 update installed (OS 10.6.8), and Office365Service starts up when Excel is started, then disappears 10-ish minutes after Excel is quit, as a previous poster experienced.

Watching Activity Monitor, if the process is still running and Excel is started again, Office365Service gets a brief blip in CPU activity. I haven't seen any associated problems, but it's indeed annoying, since I have no intention of ever using Office365.

item.175268

Jul 20, 2017  DMG files are mounted by your system, like a sort of virtual hard drive. When you’re done installing the application, it’s a good idea to unmount the DMG in Finder when you’re done installing: just click the “Eject” arrow. Then you can feel free to delete the original DMG file: you don’t need it anymore. Install Programs from DMG Files on Mac Open the DMG File You can open the DMG file by double clicks or Disk Image Mounter feature (from the sub-menu of Open With) in its right-click menu. Or you can use Attach feature of iSunshare BitLocker Genius to access the DMG file. Sep 21, 2007  Installation Process. Find the downloaded file, which usually ends up in your Desktop or Downloads folder. Double-click the.DMG file to mount it. A new Finder window showing its contents should appear. If the window also contains a shortcut icon to. How to install dmg on macbook.

MacInTouch Reader

I bought Office 2011 home version recently, and I've had lots of irritation with an Office 365 window appearing at various times, asking for registration (i.e. for the professional version), with no Quit button
- I've found you can quit this window with command-Q (this doesn't quit the office application that triggered the 365 window).
I also sometimes use my work's Sharepoint site (I usually avoid it, I think it's a horrible system!) Prior to office 2011, links (viewed in Safari) would just download, but once I installed Office 2011, I started getting the Office 365 registration window again whenever I clicked on a document.
- I managed to get rid of this window and revert to the previous behaviour by disabling two Sharepoint plug-ins in library/internet plug-ins, by moving them into a 'Disabled plug-ins' folder. (This is the top level library folder, not the user one.)

item.175297

MacInTouch Reader

Warren McBride wrote:

..I have the .5 update and Office365service does not run when I run any Office app.

This is my experience too with OS 10.7.4

item.182409

Bruce Borich

I'm having a problem with Microsoft Word. It's Office 2011 on a 1 1/2 year-old Mac Pro running 10.7.

Logged into my account, Word behaves fine, no trouble.

Logged into my wife's account, all documents open apparently blank. If you select all the text is selected. Change the font and the text appears. Obviously the same copy of Word in both accounts.

What is the problem? This really annoys my wife. She's a book publisher and gets Word docs all the time.

Thanks, Ric, for a great resource.

item.182427

Bill Lear

Bruce, any chance that her copy of the Normal style has, for some reason, white font color? You might select some of the invisible text and look at its formatting to see if it's white.

item.182433

G S

In response to Bruce Borich (Word document text is white or blank upon open): I've seen this before as a font issue.
Try downloading Onyx (titanium.free.fr) to clear the font caches, and also, open Applications > Font Book - File Menu > Validate Fonts to check for corrupt of problem fonts.

item.182524

Paul Mackenzie Smith

I had a similar-sounding issue on a client's machine yesterday. He was sent a document in Times New Roman, which I could read fine on my Mac but appeared totally blank on his machine, and, yes, when the font was replaced by another, it became completely legible.
I checked in FontBook, and he had two versions of Times New Roman enabled, one in the Library/Fonts/Microsoft folder, and one in ~/Library/Fonts. No problem, I thought, just disable the one in his user Library, and that should resolve the issue. It didn't.

I then Googled around, and found a suggestion that the fonts in the user Library should actually be deleted (or at least, removed). This did the trick.
It is apparent, therefore, that MS Word thinks that if a font is disabled in FontBook it should load it anyway, then not show it!

item.182757

Tony O

Re: Paul Mackenzie Smith's Office font troubles -

I've had weirdness with Times New Roman, and also the Verdana font from Microsoft, causing application launch failures (most recently with Adobe Illustrator CC, but also with Office 11).

Taking a cue from the Extensis knowledge base, when this happens, I reset FontBook's db cache; in 10.6 and up, you just restart the Mac in Safe Mode, login, then restart back to normal login. Does the trick every time.

Hope that helps in the future. :)

item.182825

Joe Toth

Tony O wrote about Office and Fonts:

'I reset FontBook's db cache; in 10.6 and up, you just restart the Mac in Safe Mode, login, then restart back to normal login.'

TinkerTool System (http://www.bresink.com) can delete and rebuild the font caches of both OS X and Microsoft Office (versions X, 2004, 2008, and 2011). This process logs out the active user after deleting the caches but does not require a restart.

item.183481

Antonio Tejada

I'm hoping the MacInTouch community can come to the rescue once again: At my office, which runs a heterogeneous network (100Mbps, 3/4 Windows, 1/4 Mac, Windows Server), PowerPoint for Mac 2011 saves unbelievably slowly to the server.

Performing a 'Save As' of a 15MB presentation takes 6 seconds. This seems totally reasonable given the size.

But after changing but a single character of text, performing a normal 'Save' takes 40 seconds. On bigger presentations, saving can reach ridiculous times.

The only clue I've found is that
PowerPoint makes lots of small writes in 512-byte blocks.
But I honestly have no idea whether that's unusual, and whether it actually is the root cause.

Microsoft's reply, that

'Actually, I think this is the expected behavior. PowerPoint doesn't know what sort of device you are saving to. PowerPoint tells Mac OS X to do the saving and Mac OS X does the rest. '

is of course preposterous. If it were true, it would affect all applications equally, but this is specific to PowerPoint (even the other Office apps behave fine).

Does anyone have any ideas about how we might fix this? Our current workaround of using the Finder to copy the file to the local drive, and then copying it back, is of course error-prone and contrary to the principle of working on the server. Thanks!

item.183538

MacInTouch Reader

The equation editor on my copy of Word 2011 has somehow become broken and useless. This is the 'new' editor invoked by the 'Insert equation' command, not the old editor invoked by the 'Insert object' command. When I use the 'Insert Equation' command, it shows a place to enter the equation, but the Ribbon shows only an equation Icon at the right end of the Document Elements bar, not the whole ribbon of Equation Tools that it shows on my wife's MacBook Pro. Both versions of Word are updated to 14.3.9, and both my desktop Mac Mini and my wife's MacBook Pro are running OSX 10.6.8. Clicking on the PI icon for equation editing in the Document Elements bar on the MacMini does not open the Equation Tools ribbon.

Any idea what might be happening? I have checked preference settings, but can't find any obvious differences.

item.183643

David Charlap

An anonymous MacInTouch Reader wrote:

'The equation editor on my copy of Word 2011 has somehow become broken and useless. This is the 'new' editor invoked by the 'Insert equation' command, not the old editor invoked by the 'Insert object' command. When I use the 'Insert Equation' command, it shows a place to enter the equation, but the Ribbon shows only an equation Icon at the right end of the Document Elements bar, not the whole ribbon of Equation Tools that it shows on my wife's MacBook Pro..'

Are you editing in Draft view?
Click on the View->Print Layout menu-bar item. The Equation Tools ribbon panel should now be visible when you have clicked on the equation.

In draft view, the equation editor isn't available and you have to use mathml character substitution to insert equation elements.

item.183652

MacInTouch Reader

Office 2011 Dmg Not Recognized Windows 7

Thanks. I thought I was missing something.

Switching [from] Draft mode did the trick. I hadn't thought of that, because the old Equation editor did work in Draft mode, and in Word the new Equation function shows a highlighted 'Type Equation Here' zone in Draft mode, fooling me into believing that it would work.

item.188467

Babbette Duboise

I also experienced this on Monday this week. I didn't go through Powerpoint or Word, I went through the Microsoft website.

Templates are still there, but all the links to clip art are dead. Perhaps it will come back. I can't imagine Microsoft letting all those dead links floating around.

I also searched for news on clip art. Zip. So maybe it's a glitch.

item.188433

John Feinberg

Ever since Office X (or maybe even longer), the clip art feature in Office had a button that would take you to a Microsoft web site that let you browse additional pictures. You could perform text searches, pick items you liked, and then they'd download automatically back into office. When I tried it today, the link it used was invalid.

Is the online clipart feature in Office gone? Say it isn't so! If it is still available, can someone post a working link?

Powerpoint 2011 sends me to this non-working URL when I hit the online clip art button:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/

item.188535

Brian Weiss

That link takes you to an article about the clip art site, not to the clip art site; and nowhere in the article is there a link to the site.

item.188466

MacInTouch Reader

A Google search turned up Microsoft's 'new, improved' clip art site:

Don't know why it isn't available directly from Office

item.188533

John Feinberg

Regarding the non-working online clip-art button in Office 2011, I'm using the 'permanent' version of Office 2011.

item.188497

Mark Miller

I'm curious if you have the version of Office 2011 that you could still purchase permanently, or the newer version that you're 'renting'? I see that the links in my version (the version that I purchased permanently) are also wrong.

Office 2013 has all the links to the clip art. As a matter of fact, you don't get any clip art installed. You have to search for everything back at Microsoft online. So, it makes me wonder if the version of 2011 that you now 'rent' has the correct links.

item.188549

Michael Rutledge

The updated 'new and improved' Office online clip art can be found at this link.

item.195191

Jeff Schaffer

A few months ago I lost the ability to open Excel files from the file menu (or using command-O). The open file dialog comes up, but all the files are gray and unselectable. I can open the files by double clicking them in the Finder or using a Dock shortcut, but not from inside Excel. I don't have this problem with Word, just Excel.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I was hoping one of the Office autoupdates would fix it, but no joy so far.

item.195236

Bob Van Lier

Jeff Schaffer wrote

..but all the files are gray and unselectable.

Near the bottom of the open dialog, be sure that All Readable or All Office Documents is enabled from the pop-up list. Office remembers the last file type selected, and perhaps this has been set to file types that you don't have.

item.195240

Jay Beck

I may not have the solution but here is an idea for a possible direction to look into:
Using Get Info on a file, and looking at the 'drop down' choices associated with 'Open With', you can set the app that will open a file type by default. Perhaps you accidentally set this to an app that is no longer available, or perhaps somehow to 'blank'. There may no longer be a correct association in the Finder's database for how to handle the Excel file extension.
Actually, Excel handles several file type extensions -- does your problem occur for all of them?

item.195256

David Charlap

Jeff Schaffer wrote:

'A few months ago I lost the ability to open Excel files from the file menu (or using command-O). The open file dialog comes up, but all the files are gray and unselectable. I can open the files by double clicking them in the Finder or using a Dock shortcut, but not from inside Excel. I don't have this problem with Word, just Excel.'

It sounds to me like your installation got corrupted somehow. If you have your original install media, I would uninstall/reinstall Excel and see if that solves your problem.

item.195275

Jeff Schaffer

I did more research on my Excel->File->Open File problem.
It turns out that the files I can't open from the dialog are .xls files created by exporting reports from Quicken 2007!
I can open .xls files saved from Excel itself, however.

I used to be able to open the Quicken 2007 export files from Open File.. somewhere, presumably during one of the Autoupdates, I lost the ability. Very strange!

Looking at Get Info for an xls file I can't open, next to one I can:

* Preview for the Quicken export shows a generic document icon but a spreadsheet icon for the file I can open

* Permissions shows admin/read only for the Quicken export but staff/read & write for the file I can open (entries for me and everyone are identical)

Otherwise, all the Get Info information is consistent between the files. I can double click either one to open it, but the Quicken export is grayed out in Excel's Open file dialog, even with Enable->All Readable or Enable->All Documents selected.

item.195354

MacInTouch Reader

Regarding Jeff Schaffer's issue (not) opening Excel files by double clicking, I believe this was in fact added as a feature at some point. Unfortunately, a cursory Google search doesn't back up my memory. I think the issue was the use of Office files as an infection vector using macros. At some point, to limit the chances of users infecting themselves by double-clicking, say, an email attachment, Office only allowed you to open certain older versions using the Open dialog box.

I believe I ran in to this when I was updating a bunch of very old Word 5.1 files (in order to preserve formatting I had to open them in Word X, save in its native format, then open in Office 2008 and update to .docx; going straight to .docx *did not* preserve formatting, a reminder that compatibility among different Office versions is nebulous at best.)

Mac Dmg Not Recognized

Hopefully this jogs someone's memory, or helps someone find documentation of the affected file types/versions.

item.195381

Jeff Schaffer

MacInTouch Reader described an Office behavior where Excel (for example) would not allow a file to be double clicked but if you started Excel, used the open menu under file, navigated to the file and selected it, Excel would successfully open it.

My problem is the exact opposite. I can double-click one of these files exported from Quicken 2007 and open them successfully, but if I navigate to the same file from within Excel, the filename is displayed in gray and cannot be selected and therefore Excel cannot open it in this way.

item.195386

Michael Schmitt

Re: Jeff Schaffer's discovery that Excel 2011 doesn't want to open spreadsheets exported from Quicken 2007:
I confirm your findings.

The problem is that while OS X no longer uses the classic Creator and Type codes to associate files to applications, Excel still does.

Excel will open spreadsheets with the correct Finder Type, or if they have no Type but have a valid extension. But it won't open files with an incorrect Type, even if they do have a valid extension.

That's what is happening here. Quicken is exporting the file with Creator: TEXT, Type: ????.

What should it be? The correct type for XLS workbooks is XLS8. The creator for Excel is XCEL.

But what Quicken is exporting is not an XLS file. It actually is a Symbolic Link (slk) file, which is type TEXT.

As far as I can tell, this can't be corrected through simple Finder manipulation. Your choices include:

- Drag file to Excel to open, then re-save it, so that Excel will write the file with the correct Finder type.
- Use the Xcode setfile utility to update the Type.
- Use a third party utility that can change the Finder type. For example, Quick Change.

Let's count the bugs:
1. Quicken 2007 is setting the wrong extension; it should be slk.
2. Quicken 2007 has reversed the Creator and Type. It should be Creator ????, Type TEXT. Let's all report this to Intuit; I'm sure they'll get right on it. ;-)
3. Excel should allow open of any file with an Excel extension.
4. Using the Finder to change which application opens a file doesn't change the file's Creator and Type, nor create an UTI extended attribute. It just changes it in the Finder's Launch Services database.

item.195367

David Charlap

Jeff Schaffer wrote:

'It turns out that the files I can't open from the dialog are .xls files created by exporting reports from Quicken 2007! .. Preview for the Quicken export shows a generic document icon but a spreadsheet icon for the file I can open .. Otherwise, all the Get Info information is consistent between the files. I can double click either one to open it, but the Quicken export is grayed out in Excel's Open file dialog, even with Enable->All Readable or Enable->All Documents selected.

This bit of information is very helpful. I wonder if Quicken is applying Excel's type-code (part of the old type/creator system for file associations inherited from classic Mac OS.)

If you have installed Xcode, open up a Terminal window and run the GetFileInfo command against the files and note the type/creator codes.

If they differ, you can try using SetFile on a copy of the problem file to set its type to the same type used by the Microsoft-created files. It may be that Office is using the file-open dialog configured to filter by the type code.

Also, you may want to make sure the file extension is correct (.xls vs. .xlsx vs. something else.) According to a discussion thread on Microsoft's support site, MS Office requires the file-extension to be correct if the file is to open correctly. (Ironically, if the comments on that thread are correct, the Windows version doesn't care and looks in the file itself to determine the type.)

item.195447

H Thorpe

Has anyone tried a Quicken 2015 file export to Excel?

item.195465

Office 2011 Dmg Not Recognized Mac

Lawrence Rhodes

Michael Schmitt said,

'The problem is that.. OS X no longer uses the classic Creator and Type codes to associate files to applications.'

As I understand it, Apple did indeed omit the creator code mechanism when it rewrote the Finder in Cocoa for Snow Leopard. (I think this was one of their worst decisions.) But the type code still works, last time I checked. The Finder preferentially uses the filename extension for file icon display and default application, but it will use the type code if there is no extension.

For instance, RTF files, which are text, display all the RTF codes in plain text in QuickLook if their type code is 'TEXT' but display properly formatted if their type code is 'RTF ' (again in the absence of filename extensions). As an old Mac guy, I eschew filename extensions.

To read or change type codes easily, I prefer the open source iLikeYouMore. QuickChange insists on messing up the file's last modified time when it changes creator/type codes, something Apple doesn't do when you change the (equivalent) filename extension.

item.195440

Jeff Schaffer

Thanks to David Charlap and Michael Schmitt for your excellent analysis.

I'll try Michael's suggestion to use Quick Change and see if it fits my work flow: Each weekend I do the bills and update investment data. Then I export four Quicken 2007 reports, which I open and apply the data to two large spreadsheets for my own historical tracking and analysis needs. It was simple to press cmd-O, select a file and go to work. (For the record, this worked fine until sometime earlier this year.) It's a little harder and for some reason more disruptive to my efficiency to switch to finder find the file, double-click and then go.

'Let's all report this to Intuit; I'm sure they'll get right on it.'

Michael, priceless! Cracked me right up!

item.195455

David Charlap

Michael Schmitt solved Jeff Schaffer's problem with Quicken and Excel. He also wrote:

'The problem is that while OS X no longer uses the classic Creator and Type codes to associate files to applications, Excel still does. .. '

More accurately, OS X doesn't use the type/creator codes as the primary way of associating files with applications. It will still use them if the higher-priority mechanisms (filename extension, UTI attribute, etc.) are unavailable.

Give it a try if you like. Save a spreadsheet from Excel in Excel format. Use GetFileInfo to see that there is a type/creator set. Now delete the extension. Do it from a Terminal window (e.g. mv myfile.xls myfile), because removing an extension from the Finder will only hide it but not actually remove it. You will notice that the file still shows an Excel icon (although it may be different from what it used before) and double-clicking it will still launch Excel.

Of course, doing this on all your documents is a bad idea. Although files without extensions but with valid type/creator codes will launch properly, an operation that causes the codes to be lost (e.g. file transfer via FTP or via a non-Mac file system where its '._' file gets deleted) will break the association with its app. And if you copy the document to a computer without the app installed, the recipient won't know what app you need to open it with.

item.195920

Colleen Thompson

I've got a friend who just replaced the hard drive in his MacBookPro3,1. It's running Mavericks, although not in a very spiffy fashion. He reports trouble with Microsoft Office:

MS Office will not run (except to 'read only' the existing files) after being moved from one hard drive to another. It wants a Product Key, but to make it worse, MS Tech support says that the 2011 upgrade from 2008 is designed to only go in once, to one computer, and that the Key is not accessible by anyone, and there is nothing they can do about it except sell me a subscription or a new copy of the program.

Upon being asked if he still had the key or not, my friend replied:

Don't have the key for 2011. It was probably a download, and my search through old emails did not reveal anything. But the Microsoft tech support person said that it does not transfer between hard drives anyway with or without a key.

I commented that that was really obnoxious, and he agreed.

Now, I have done numerous migrations for other clients from one computer to another, and usually Office will ask for the serial number again. So if you can't find your key you are indeed out of luck. But the fact that you can never reinstall or reactivate it on a new drive or computer? That just doesn't sound right. None of my experience involves 2011 upgrades, but still..

item.195940

Gary Louie

Colleen writes about MS Office 2011 non-transferability..
I recently upgraded my iMac HDD by CCC cloning the HD to a new SSD (minus some large media files, which went to another drive). I was a bit surprised when launching MS Word off the new SSD, and it asked me for the Product Key. I would've figured cloning the drive would be enough. As it happens, I did get Office 2011 in a retail box and had the key handy, and it accepted it and works fine now. AFAIK, none of my other software required such re-registration. And I would say that an SSD -almost- makes Word tolerable speed-wise.

item.195942

Graham Needham

*All* retail editions of Microsoft Office 2011 (full, upgrade, Business, Home & Student, University, optical disc, download card, digital download) *except* the Volume License edition come with an 'activation key' i.e. serial number. This is either printed on a card in the box or received in an email confirmation. If you have an Office 365 subscription this 'key' also needs to be entered into your Microsoft account online.

The Volume License edition never asks for a serial number. All other editions will. Like other 'activation' software if you change hardware/computers it needs to be reactivated i.e. you need to re-enter your serial number.

Colleen then states

'But the fact that you can never reinstall or reactivate it on a new drive or computer? That just doesn't sound right. None of my experience involves 2011 upgrades, but still..'

This is just Microsoft support drones reading from a script. This *is* the case with some versions of Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows (if you read the license agreement of those it does indeed state something to the effect of 'one *install* only, cannot be *reinstalled*'). See here. This is *not* the case with *any* version of Office 2011 for Mac.

This all boils down to, the usual, if you have software *keep the serial number somewhere safe*. If you lose the serial number it's probably tough luck. This is not new or Microsoft's fault. This is how it's been for years.

item.195947

Chris Ruprecht

I have upgraded my HDD several times and was always able to re-enter the 25-character key and everything works fine. Don't lose those keys though!

item.195955

Ron LaPedis

Unfortunately, to solve Colleen Thompson's friend's problem, he or she needs to go back in time and keep all software serial numbers in his or her favorite password manager. I use STRIP, but SplashID works well too. Whenever I buy new software, the version, store, purchase date, media that it came on, and any serial number information goes into my password manager. Doing this has saved my bacon many times.

item.195950

David Zatz

In my experience, the solution to any key issues with Microsoft is to call Microsoft. The few times I have needed to do this in my life, they were very nice, understanding, and forthcoming with new numbers.

Losing the key is bad, but they should have the name on file and be able to recover it or create a new one.

Adobe, on the other hand, when I had a hard drive go bad and called them for a new activation, they told me I'd already used up both my activations, and that's all I get in one lifetime. No, I can't buy another for an older version. Ironically, if I had *not* paid but installed a 'cracked' version, this would never have been a problem.

And they expect me to use a subscription setup.. well, as long as my old licenses work, I'll stay with Adobe. After that, I'm gone, though Heaven knows how I will replace Dreamweaver; efficient/tight-coding WYSIWYG page-editors are nonexistent.

item.195964

Jeff Fishbein

Funny, I've just been going through the same thing with my wife's old/new laptops, and a copy of Office purchased by her employer.

One of the pages on the Office website -- sorry, don't have the link -- said that academic copies can not be transferred, but at least implied that others can.

She called activation support, which told her the serial number she had was for Office 2010, which is incredible helpful, since there never was an Office:Mac 2010. But, we did find that if you have the original disc -- not a download -- that it installs and self-activates, no sweat.

Good luck.

item.195966

George

Colleen Thompson reports problem activating Office 2011 on new hard drive; Office 11 acquired from Office 2008 upgrade, probably by download.

I upgraded my personal copy of 2008 to 2011 by download. I've had no unusual trouble moving it to new drives in old computers *and* to new computers.

Then I use and recommend Password Wallet, a Mac and Win program from Selznick. I stored the original 2008 & 2011 Microsoft 'credentials' there, and it's an easy click to insert them on demand.

There are free alternatives, such as KeePassX. I know there's a big Apple fan base for 1Password and LastPass. Store your credentials there if that's what you use. I just don't want to store the passwords I need to be safe 'from' the Internet on the Internet.

Go further. Keep a read/write DMG with not only your local 'Wallet,' but Screenshots and/or .txt copies of the software credentials you'll receive (inevitably) by email from many online purchases. Back all that up (encrypted) to one of those tiny keychain USB drives, and your passwords and credentials will always be safe -- and handy.

Finally, just yesterday I was researching data from the mid-1990s, when we were using Lotus 123. Excel 2011 won't convert/import .123 files.

LibreOffice 4+ pops them right open.

I've used Open and Libre & paid for the Mac-centric NeoOffice variant, and always gone back to Office (Excel). With Microsoft's push to Adobe-style subscription, Libre 4 is definitely worth an extensive test.

And, yes, I clicked and sent a 'donation.'

item.196004

Tracy Valleau

For this reason, many people used to perform a “clean install”: wiping your hard drive (after backing it up, of course), installing the latest version of OS X, and then either using Setup/Migration Assistant to restore your applications and data, or manually copying over your data and reinstalling programs. Mountain lion installed 10.47.50 pm.dmg lyrics. This feature was eliminated in the.)But a new debuted with Lion (OS X 10.7) and continues with Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8)—instead of a bootable installation DVD, you download the latest OS X installer to your Mac and install it from the same drive. (The Mac OS X 10.2 installer actually option, which preserved your original OS in a special folder while installing a completely new, fresh copy of 10.3. As with Lion last year, many Mac users are asking two related questions: (1) Can you perform a clean install of Mountain Lion?

RE: Office 2011.. just wait - it gets worse. You can re-enter your key only so many times. Then it will say that you've used up your activations.

Next it will offer you the chance to call up a robot system, and go thru an extremely tedious process involving reciting and entering nearly a hundred (total) characters.. which may, or may not work.

At the end of that process, the robot will ask how many computers has this been actived on? Answer with any number (one, is my honest answer, but I've tried other numbers) and the robot will simply hang up on you, leaving you with unactivated software.

Next you need to phone and talk to a human being. Unfortunately, they don't give you that phone number, and you have to go find it. (It's (800) 642-7676.)

There you have to explain your situation and go thru the entire hundred digit process all over again.

They will profusely apologize 'for the inconvenience'.. and your Office suite will work again.

Unless you are like me. Two days later, with no changes to my system what so ever, the software refused to run again.

So I did the same thing all over again (this takes about 30 minutes each time.)

And this process cycles repeatedly. I've had to go thru it at least 6 times.

That is simply unacceptable for a paying customer. Not even Adobe is that bad.

Now, gritting my teeth, and swearing a lot, I bought a Office 365 subscription for $50.

Right: held hostage on software I already paid for, I paid again !

Now Microsoft has me in their subscription clutches just like Adobe.

Frankly, this kind of corporate tyranny needs some kind of serious consumer backlash. I think it borders on extortion.

item.196007

Bradley Price

Office 2011 is oddly tied to the specific hard drive upon which it is installed. When I installed an SSD in my macBook Pro and restored via SuperDuper clone, Microsoft Office was the only thing that needed re-registration. Fortunately, I have the key stashed in 1Password.

I barely use Microsoft Office anymore, sticking with Pages/Numbers and Google Drive for most work. I am leaving Office on there as insurance only, as it's no fun to use, even with the SSD speed bump. No matter where I am, Word and Excel make me feel like I'm in a cramped cubicle.

item.196009

MacInTouch Reader

Here's what I learned last year when doing an Office 2011 reinstall:
When you enter the activation key, Office phones home with both the activation key and the serial numbers or other unique indentification numbers for both the processor and drive in your computer.
The Microsoft home office will approve the installation as long as your activation key has not been used on too many unique processor/drive combinations.
'
The license for my copy of Office allows installation on a desktop and a laptop by a single user. Microsoft allows the activiation key for this type of license to be used three times.

I installed Office on my iMac and MacBook soon after it came out, then later replaced my iMac and reinstalled Office with no problem. Can't recall whether I used Time Machine, CCC, or a clean install when setting up the new iMac, but I needed to use the activation key to get Office running on the new computer. Didn't know it at the time, but activating Office on my new iMac used up my three allowed installs.
Last year, I replaced the HDD in my MacBook with a OWC SSD and used CCC to copy the contents onto the new drive. The speed with the new SSD was great but, unlike the previous reinstall on my new iMac, I couldn't get Office to accept the activation key and launch. Instead, it kept rejecting my activation key with an error message saying I needed to contact Microsoft customer service. That's when I did an internet search and found out that each installation is locked to a unique processor/drive combination and that there was a three-install limit per key. I called MS, explained to their satisfation that I was not a software pirate and was merely upgrading hardware. They gave me a new activation key. Don't know if it's a single use key or a the standard three-use key because I've only used it once.

item.196011

Simon Wagstaff

Ron LaPedis wrote,

..SplashID works well too..

SplashID interrupt request. Invoke SplashID interrupt handler.

tl;dr: experience with SplashID leads me to conclude it's not a good product.

item.196020

Daniel Cohen

I'm having a slightly different problem. I have a retail edition of Office for Mac 2011, licensed for three Macs.

I enter my product key from the CD sleeve, and I get told that it is not valid. I have double-checked, and it is certainly the correct key. They say to contact Microsoft Customer Service, but there does not seem to be a phone number (I am in the UK).

Note that the message says 'not valid', not that there have been too many activations. The latter just might be true as I have fitted an SSD in my Mac Pro.

item.196031

MacInTouch Reader

I had this happen, too, and I will do you all one better! I have a Mini Server 2011 and I have the spare drive that is basically just a direct internal backup (mirror). Office 2011 will not even run when booted off of the other hard drive in the same system and it reports the same issue that Colleen had. I have to say that this is the worst case of buyer's remorse that I have ever had and this even includes the infamous Word 6 from Office 4.2.1 (anyone else remember that piece of junk that almost single handedly destroyed the Mac?).

Ironically I bought Office 2011 because I wanted to avoid the subscriptionware Office 365 and yet, strangely enough, after installing 2011 I found an application called 'Office365Service' is created inside the Office directory inside the Microsoft Office 2011 Folder found in the applications folder. I bought 2011 before it was to be discontinued specifically to avoid 365 and yet I still end up with '365 residue'.

I am very glad that I hung onto my Office 2008. BTW, the greatest version of MS Word for the Mac ever was version 4.0e. I think that was Microsoft's greatest software ever written for the Macintosh platform.

item.195993

Stephen Hart

Ron LaPedis wrote:

'Unfortunately, to solve Colleen Thompson's friend's problem, he or she needs to go back in time and keep all software serial numbers in his or her favorite password manager.'

Or go old school and use a 'folder.' I keep copies of all registration e-mails, and images of all on-box serial numbers (remember boxes?) in a folder. The only downside is that if the original is only a sticker, you have to type from the image.
I often save the images of serial number stickers in a pretty large size for easy reading.

1Password, etc. can be used, but their real forte is autotyping complex passwords you use often.

item.195981

Skot Nelson

Re:

This all boils down to, the usual, if you have software *keep the serial number somewhere safe*. If you lose the serial number it's probably tough luck. This is not new or Microsoft's fault. This is how it's been for years.

No, it's different. I still have my serial number for Photoshop 3.x but I never *had* to re-enter it, even when I moved computers: once installed, the Migration Assistant would merrily pull it along.

The issue is activation tied to specific hardware which I don't particularly enjoy. What if I have a hard drive that I use as a boot drive for two separate desktop machines? You're making me activate it twice? Why? What gives? I already did this.

[Same thing happened to me with FileMaker Pro 9. Changed the hard drive volume name, and it wouldn't work any more. Found hacks to re-activate it. Worked for a bit, then never worked again. Started looking for alternatives to FileMaker (but didn't find any). -Ric Ford]

item.196045

A Kaleberg

If you bought a downloaded version of Microsoft Office 2011 from Amazon, you can find your key by first going to Your Account and then to Your Games and Software Library.

item.196088

Seth Elgart

Ric Ford said:

Same thing happened to me with FileMaker Pro 9. Changed the hard drive volume name, and it wouldn't work any more. Found hacks to re-activate it. Worked for a bit, then never worked again. Started looking for alternatives to FileMaker (but didn't find any).

I had a similar thing happen when I tried to install FileMaker Pro 9 on a new MacBook Pro about a year and a half ago. Nothing I did would let me install and activate it. I eventually contacted tech support and they said that because of various changes on their end they'd have to send me a link to a new installer along with a new serial number. Once I had that I was able to reinstall and all was well.

Ironically, the only thing I still use FileMaker for is for a database of my serial numbers. Works great!

item.196091

Daniel Cohen

Sorry to have wasted your time, folks. It turned out that, though I had recorded the product key on my first installation, and had read it from the CD this time, and the two were the same, it seems that on both occasions I had misread one character. A detailed look with a magnifying glass discovered this, and I have now succeeded in activation.

item.196096

Robert Gere

I do tech support for individual Mac users and one of my clients likes new toys so he gets a new Mac at least once a year. After the last migration, Office 2011 balked at the license number and presented a number to call. An automated response tree inquired as to 'how many times has this software been installed' The question was not how many Macs currently have it installed, just how many times. The answer was 3 previous installations (sequentially, all uninstalled) and bang, I got the hang up. Calling support was a joke with the support person refusing to even discuss it as the 'original 90 days of support' had expired and for $45 I could open a case and pay them to tell me no, they can't do anything about it. I did my best to maintain a long rant with the representative hoping to at least cause Microsoft some grief and cost some money by sharing a bit of the pain they caused me.

item.196097

Samuel Herschbein

Ric Ford said:

Same thing happened to me with FileMaker Pro 9. Changed the hard drive volume name, and it wouldn't work any more. Found hacks to re-activate it. Worked for a bit, then never worked again. Started looking for alternatives to FileMaker (but didn't find any).

FileMaker's old activation was a disaster. FileMaker does listen to its users and developers, they changed it after so much negative feedback. I haven't had any activation issues in the three versions I'm using: 11, 12, and 13.

And a plug for FileMaker: Of all the large-scale software I use like Office and Adobe, FileMaker is by far the most robust and bug free. FileMaker continues to add new features that make it more powerful and lower development time.

item.196098

Samuel Herschbein

Stephen Hart said:

.. 1Password, etc. can be used, but their real forte is auto-typing complex passwords you use often.

I use 1Password to keep all my software licenses, I think it does an excellent job. I just copy and paste. If software comes with a license file, that can be added to 1Password.

In a dystopian future where I can only use one piece of 3rd party software, it would probably be 1Password.

item.196055

Graham Needham

A few disclaimers first:

* I worked for Microsoft (UK Mac team) between 1998 and 2000.
* I don't like software 'activation' and 'subscription' schemes (I've regularly contributed to the recent 'Adobe subscription' thread on MacInTouch).

I am a Mac consultant and I've come across some of these Microsoft Office problems before and have found the answers for my clients (or myself) so I'm posting here as part of the MacInTouch community to stop the spread of 'FUD' and provide, hopefully, helpful information/answers.

Skot Nelson took my statement about 'This is how it's been for years' literally. Obviously, in the length of time that software has been around, software activation is fairly recent but the first Mac activation software (that I know of) was Adobe Creative Suite 3 and that was back in 2007, so 7 years is indeed 'This is how it's been for years' (for some products).

The various software activation schemes that exist differ in how they work. The workings are also generally not publicly available as that would aid the pirates. I personally don't like activation schemes and in my opinion they are wrong with the onus being on the user to prove ownership and cause more problems than it's worth, but this is how it is and Macintouch can help discuss and answer questions about such.

Microsoft's activation does two specific things to try and prevent piracy:

1. Multiple installs using a single serial number
2. Installation on what might appear to be a different computer (changing the hard disk is an obvious flag)

Either way the activation system will block the install and you need to contact Microsoft to verify the legitimacy of your ownership of the software. We all know this is a pain in the butt and not how it should be, but it is what it is. In *all* cases, you do *not* need to repurchase Microsoft Office or purchase the Office 365 subscription. If you have a receipt/invoice and a serial number, Microsoft will issue a new serial number/activation code. However, this is where the most problems occur, simply because Microsoft is a godawful company and their support, especially for Mac products, is so poor. Be firm and resolute and make sure you have that proof of ownership before calling.

There's some useful official Microsoft information specifically about Office 2011 licensing and activation here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2390723

Tracy Valleau - according to the above support article the number to call for telephone validation support in the USA is (866) 825-4797

Daniel Cohen - the telephone number for validation support in the UK is 02031 474930.

Daniel Cohen - Microsoft routinely invalidates some 'product keys' (serial numbers) via software updates/service packs because they may have been leaked/compromised and/or posted on software pirating web sites. If you can prove ownership of the software they will give you a new product key (serial number).

MacInTouch Reader - Office365 is just a subscription 'service'. Over time the Office 2011 software from a retail box, download or Office365 (but not Volume License) is exactly the same and (now) installs exactly the same software components so it installs an Office365 management app regardless of whether you have a subscription. If you don't have a subscription you don't need to use that management app. If you don't have an iCloud account you don't use the iCloud System Preference yet that 'residue' is installed with OS X.

MacInTouch Reader - Office 2008 is end of life and no longer receives security updates, please use it with extreme caution. In addition, Entourage 2008 uses Apple's webkit so it's potentially even more dangerous if Entourage is being used on an unsupported OS (currently Mac OS X 10.6 and earlier and probably soon, with the launch of Yosemite, to be OS X 10.7 and earlier)

Best practice for *any* software (as it always has been) is to keep all receipts/invoices, serial numbers and the installation media plus make a backup, and put it all in a secure place.

A good list of alternatives to Microsoft Office on the Mac can be found listed on my Office 2011 article here.

item.196102

Joe F

Is there a method to deactivate an Office 2011 license, like you can deauthorize your computer from your iTunes account to recover one of your limited authorizations? If so, that would be an important step if your are upgrading your hard drive or buying a new computer.

I have the three-license family pack of 2011 (purchased when Microsoft announced their new subscription scheme). I've upgraded my MacBook Pro with an SSD and had to re-enter the license code. But I have no idea if that used the second of my three licenses, or if it recognized that it was the same computer just with a different drive and I've still only used one license.

I assume there is no way to verify the number of licenses I have remaining, like I can with iTunes, to check how many authorizations I've used.

item.196106

Samuel Herschbein

Re: Tracy Valleau's Office activation woes,

I've had the same issue with pounding out the unreasonably 54-character string only to get hung up on. My anger and frustration as a paying customer can't be expressed with civility.

Back in December 2011 I posted here about Office 2011 activation and how Office would de-activate every time I plugged an ExpressCard/34 into my MacBook Pro. Dear Microsoft: on what planet is that a good idea?

Just imagine if your car came with similar theft protection. After you plug in your iPhone adapter into the cigarette lighter your car won't start. You call the manufacturer, enter a 54-character string and then get told you're a car thief and hung up on. ..

[One word: 'LibreOffice'. -Ric Ford]

item.196107

Samuel Herschbein

MacInTouch Reader said:

BTW, the greatest version of MS Word for the Mac ever was version 4.0e.

IMHO Word 5.1a (circa 1992) was the best version. Here we are in 2014 debating which version of software over two decades old works better than the crap we have now..

item.196110

MacInTouch Reader

Skot Nelson writes,

'The issue is activation tied to specific hardware which I don't particularly enjoy. What if I have a hard drive that I use as a boot drive for two separate desktop machines? You're making me activate it twice? Why? What gives? I already did this.'

It's running on a new machine, so you have to activate it again.

Most people don't use one hard drive to boot multiple machines, so this won't matter to very many people. What you describe is clearly an edge case.

It's annoying, as all copy protection systems are, but if it didn't do that then the copy protection wouldn't be very effective. There's no way to know it's one user with two machines or two (or more likely, millions of) separate users.

item.196023

Daniel Cohen

Further to my other post, I suppose I could try deleting Office completely and reinstalling. But I'm not sure if the original CD will install under Mavericks.

Again, since I have a backup drive, I could try this on the backup rather than my internal drive.

item.196024

Daniel Cohen

Re:

I know there's a big Apple fan base for 1Password and LastPass. Store your credentials there if that's what you use. I just don't want to store the passwords I need to be safe 'from' the Internet on the Internet.

1Password, though, keeps everything local unless you *want* to put it through the Internet so as to be available on more than one machine.

item.196174

Colleen Thompson

Skot said

The issue is activation tied to specific hardware which I don't particularly enjoy. What if I have a hard drive that I use as a boot drive for two separate desktop machines? You're making me activate it twice? Why? What gives? I already did this.

In that vein, I once tried to to share a boot drive with Quickbooks (2012?) on it. What a nightmare.

item.196235

MacInTouch Reader

Re:

'Most people don't use one hard drive to boot multiple machines, so this won't matter to very many people. What you describe is clearly an edge case.'

How about more than one hard drive within a single system?

Is wanting to run software that you paid for from an internal backup on a different hard drive device located within the same machine an 'edge case'? (Not even talking an external USB or FireWire backup here.) BTW, I always thought that it was good to back up your files. Imagine a user's disgust who did everything right and backed up regularly and then lost their primary drive only to find out that they cannot get any work done due to these ridiculous and over the top anti-piracy policies. Why couldn't Microsoft use a policy that instead simply ties the license to the computer's MAC address rather than that of the hard disk? Would that alternative be so bad? I could certainly live with that.

item.196242

Michael Newbery

Why couldn't Microsoft use a policy that instead simply ties the license to the computer's MAC address rather than that of the hard disk?

Which MAC address?
* Ethernet
* Wifi
* Bluetooth
* Firewire

If Ethernet, which one? (Mac Pros may have two built in).

Bearing in mind that the MAC address can be spoofed

sudo ifconfig en0 ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

and that if the motherboard dies and is replaced, all its MAC addresses will change.

It's probably better, but still a pain.

item.200961

Peter Lovell

Re:

Office 2011 14.4.6is an update to patch some bugs in Microsoft Corp.'s flagship office software suite for the Mac..

Does anyone have any info on why Microsoft's installer insists that Safari be terminated before the update can run?

This is supposed to be updating Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Where else is it messing around in the system?

item.200991

David Charlap

Peter Lovell wrote:

'Does anyone have any info on why Microsoft's installer insists that Safari be terminated before the update can run?'

It may be updating a plugin. For example, Office installs a plugin to access Microsoft SharePoint servers (where you can share/edit a document hosted on a web server instead of having to download/edit/upload.)

item.200988

Graham Needham

Peter Lovell asks why Microsoft's installer insists that Safari be terminated before the update can run?

Well, Office 2011 installs the following 'Internet Plug-Ins' in the 'your boot disk' > Library > Internet Plug-Ins folder:

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin
SharePointWebKitPlugin.webplugin

The Office 2011 14.4.6 update includes *all* Office 2011 patches/updates since 14.1.0 (Service Pack 1) from at least three years ago. An Office update between 14.1.0 and 14.4.6 updated at least one of those plug-ins, so as Safari uses the 'Internet Plug-ins' folder (for obvious reasons) the Office update requires that you quit Safari (as it does with any other running web browser).