go ahead, mac my day

Q&A: Why can't I update Office:Mac 2008?

A question has been coming in via email, and I've noticed it in my referrals to my post about Office:Mac 2008 12.2.3:

Why can't I update Office 2008 to 12.2.3?

There are a few reasons why you might not be able to update Office 2008. They include:

• You just installed Office 2008 and are installing updates in sequence. On occasion, a temp file created during the update doesn't get deleted, and so a subsequent update fails. Reboot and try again.
• You have moved the Office 2008 folder out of the Applications folder. If you've done that, move it back, and try the update again.
• You have manually deleted something from the Office 2008 folder. I'm sorry to say, but you'll need to uninstall Office and then reinstall it. When you reinstall it, make sure that you do a custom installation, and only choose the pieces that you want.
• You have run an application like Monolingual or Xslimmer to regain some space back on your hard drive. While I understand the desire to get space back (especially since I just looked at the available space on my work laptop and realised that I only have 20 GB free!), these apps aren't the right way to go about it. You're going to have to uninstall and reinstall Office, and do that custom installation to save the space that you're concerned about.

Try those first. If those don't solve your problem, then I recommend that you call tech support. With your legal purchase of Office 2008, you get two free calls to tech support. To get the right phone number for your region, go to our support page.

Kevin Smith at Macworld

The fangirl in me squeed when I saw the news that Kevin Smith will be joining me at Macworld 2010. Okay, maybe not joining me (although, sir, if you do know anything about administering Macs on Exchange, you can drop me an email and we can work something out ... ), but he's giving his own Q&A session on Thursday. My session better not conflict with that!

days where I love what I do

Some days bring you better news than others. I just got two pieces of really good news. It means I've got a lot of work cut out for me in the upcoming months, but damn if it ain't cool. :D

Before you ask: sorry, can't tell you what it is right now, but I will share the second I can. I think it's fair to say that you'll view the news as very good, too, though.

how to customise contextual menus in Word:Mac

I learned something new this week: you can customise the contextual menus in Word:Mac. Here's how:

1. In Word, go to the View menu, then select Customise Toolbars and Menus.
2. In the Toolbars and Menus tab, scroll down to the bottom of the list and select Shortcut menus. A little toolbar with buttons for Text, table, and draw will appear. Move this toolbar to the side a bit so that you can see the whole dialog.
3. Click on the Commands tab.
4. On the left is a list of all of the Categories of commands that you can choose. If you select a category, the right list will update to show you the commands in that category.
5. In the right list, find the command that you're looking for. Select it, drag it to the Text button in the little toolbar that you dragged off to the side in the second step, and then scroll through the list until you get to the contextual menu that you want to customise. Drop it where you want it to appear in that list.
6. Repeat with the other commands and locations that you want.
7. Click OK.
8. Check out your handiwork in your contextual menu!

Office:Mac 2008 12.2.3, Entourage for Web Services 13.0.3, Office 2004 11.5.6 available today

Update Tuesday is here, and we've got lots of updates!

Office:Mac 2008 12.2.3 brings stability and security improvements across the suite. Excel gets some more improvements to pivot tables. Entourage has an updated junk mail filter. Document Connection has a bunch of updates, including a bunch of UI improvements and updates some keyboard shortcuts. Complete information about the update is available in the Office 2008 12.2.3 knowledge base article.

Entourage for Web Services 13.0.3 has stability and security improvements, as well as that spiffy new junk mail filter. If you're already using Entourage for Web Services, you should apply the Office 2008 12.2.3 update: it will also update EWS. If you're not already using Entourage for Web Services, then you'll just download the whole package of 13.0.3, and you'll be all set.

Office:Mac 2004 11.5.6 has security improvements across the suite. Complete information about the update is available in the Office 2004 11.5.6 knowledge base article.

Along with all of these updates, the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.3 supports the latest changes to the file format. More information about the update is available in its knowledge base article.

You can download the updates by going to the Help menu in any Office application and selecting "Check for Updates" (or by letting it check automatically, which is its default behaviour). If you prefer, you can manually download the updates from Mactopia.

Updated at 12:09pm on 11 November 2009 to correct the instructions for updating Entourage for Web Services.

Q&A: How do I move my Entourage settings to a new computer?

I got a question via email this weekend:

I just got a new computer. How do I move my Entourage data to my new computer?

If you're an Exchange user and you don't have anything stored locally (rules, mailing list manager, mail stored in "On My Computer", etc), then all you need to do is install Office, point it at your Exchange server, and let it sync. But if you aren't an Exchange user, or if you do have stuff saved locally, then you'll need to move it over.

Assuming that you're not using your Mac's migration assistant [1], then the easiest way is as follows:

1. On your new Mac, install Office 2008, and then let it download the service packs. When you're done, you will be (as of this writing) at 12.2.1.
2. (Optional: If you're using Entourage for Web Services, download and install it after you've installed all of the Office 2008 service packs.
3. On your old Mac, go to ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities. There's probably a folder in there called Main Identity. If you have other folders in there, then open up Entourage on your old Mac to see which identity it's using; otherwise, grab this Main Identity folder and copy it to the same ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities folder on your new computer (using a USB key, or MobileMe syncing, or Windows Live Sync, or something else of your own devising).
4. Open Entourage, and bask in the glory of everything being there.

If, when you got your new Mac, you also bought a shiny new copy of Office 2008 and you were using Office 2004 on your old computer, then you've got a couple more things to do:

1. On your new Mac, install Office 2008, and then let it download the service packs. When you're done, you will be (as of this writing) at 12.2.1.
2. (Optional: If you're an Exchange user and you're on Exchange 2007 SP1 RU4 or later, you should use Entourage for Web Services. If you bought the new Office 2008 Business Edition, then it's on the second disc. Install this after you've updated Office 2008 to 12.2.1.)
3. On your old Mac, go to ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2008 Identities. There's probably a file in there called Main Identity. If you have other folders in there, then open up Entourage on your old Mac to see which identity it's using; otherwise, grab this whole Main Identity folder and copy it to your new Mac's desktop somehow (using a USB key, or MobileMe syncing, or Windows Live Sync, or something else of your own devising). When I've done this in the past, I often rename the folder Main Identity from Office 2004 to reduce confusion later.
4. Open Entourage 2008. During the initial set-up process, select the option to import from an old identity, and select the Main Identity from Office 2004 folder that you've saved on your desktop. Depending on how big your database is, importing your data from your old Entourage 2004 to your new Entourage 2008 identity might take a few minutes.
5. After import, bask in the glory of the new version of Entourage, and delete the Main Identity from Office 2004 folder from your desktop.

[1] I have to admit that I never do this. I always reinstall everything. It's just part of the habit of buying a new computer: I partition the hard drive, reinstall the OS, move my user folder to the second partition of the hard drive, and then start installing apps and transferring my data.

my Mac as a media centre

Someone recently asked me how I've got my home media centre set up. I wrote this up in response to them, but then figured that it could be shared more broadly.

I have a Mac Mini (the previous generation) running Snow Leopard (plain Snow Leopard, not Snow Leopard Server). It's hooked up via a DVI-to-HDMI cable to the television (since many TVs won't do 1080p over their VGA ports), and via its audio output to the stereo.

I have a ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer, which is roughly the same as the ReadyNAS Pro (except it shipped without disks and is missing a handful of enterprise features). It's hooked up via gigabit Ethernet to the home network. It runs Firefly, which allows iTunes and SlimServer streaming directly from the NAS. The Mini has the NAS share mounted via NFS, and the iTunes library lives on the NFS share. The ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer can survive a double-disk failure if you set it up that way before you start populating it with data. I've only got it set up to survive a single drive failure. The NAS also acts as a print server.

The Mini shares media to the Xbox 360 using Connect360. Time Machine is enabled on one of the household Macs, which uses the NAS. The NAS and Mini each have their own UPS.

The Mini runs a web server and mail server, and allows external access via SSH and SFTP. I've also got CVS and SVN servers set up, which allows collaboration with remote people on papers, code, and projects.

Most of the iTunes playback is done via the Mini, and all additions to the iTunes library are done on the Mini. I do Hulu playback via the Mini. I used to do Netflix on the Mini, but switched over to doing it on the Xbox. For movies that I have saved on the server, I usually play them back via the Xbox because the Xbox does better with some codecs than the Mini (so it saves fiddling with the Mini to figure out whether to playback via Quicktime, VLC, or something else).

My next steps with the home network are:

• set up the Mini as the household iPhoto library — right now, pictures are scattered across multiple machines, and it's time to consolidate
• get Time Machine running on the other household Macs (two new MacBooks), to back up to the NAS
• update the router to wireless N (the current router bridges gigabit Ethernet to the wireless and the DSL connection)
• consider Slimbox or other streaming audio to the bedroom

Using my Mini as a server has the benefit of being able to run a mirrored boot drive. DHCP configuration means that address assignment can tell me if I've got an unwelcome guest camped on my WPA2-secured wifi. If I were just using the NAS, I wouldn't be able to run these servers and see so much about what's happening on my network. Most NASes are barely capable of supporting file checksum, let alone everything else that I've got going on here.

setting up the new Mac

As I mentioned earlier, I bought a new MacBook. My old MacBook was the first-gen black one, and it was getting quite long in the tooth. Spurred on by a good deal at MicroCenter (thanks again to Peter Cohen for alerting to me it!), I got one of the new unibody MacBooks.

Since it's just an off-the-shelf MacBook, there's a couple of immediate upgrades to be done to it. It comes with 2-GB of RAM, which I'm upgrading to 4-GB. This time around, NewEgg seems to have the best price on RAM. I'm also going for a larger hard drive than the 250-GB one included, moving up to a 500-GB 7200rpm drive. It's not quite as fast as a SSD, but SSDs are still a bit more than I want to pay to go into a MacBook.

After installing the hard drive and RAM (the guide at iFixit is quite useful), then it's time to partition the hard drive and reinstall the OS. I always reinstall the OS on a new Mac so that I only get the stuff I need. Why install gigs of printer drivers when I don't even own a printer?

I usually have one system partition and one data partition. I move my user folder to the data partition, and I keep as much stuff on that partition instead of the system partition as I can. That way, should something go belly-up on my system partition, I can (hopefully) still recover my data partition and not lose as much.

After the OS is reinstalled, then it's time to install the apps that I use the most:

• Office 2008
• iLife '09
• Firefox (I prefer Safari, but there are sites that don't play well with it)
• EverNote
• Tweetie (although I'll give Twitterific a go again, since MacHeist gave me a free license)
• Quicken 2007 (I'm really not a big fan of Quicken, but I'm a very deep user of it (my entire financial life is in that data file), and none of the more Mac-friendly apps meet my needs yet)
• The Sims 3 (I hope it runs well on the MB!)

Now you know what I'm doing with my weekend! I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the apps that I'll install over the weekend, this is just off the top of my head.

walkthrough of Document Companion for Mac

I noticed that WebWorkerDaily has posted a great walkthrough of Document Connection, which is the standalone app that my team created to help Mac users access SharePoint and Office Live Workspace.

I use DC all the time to connect to SharePoint sites. For example, all of our specifications for the features that will be a part of the next version of Office:Mac are stored in a SharePoint site. This app makes my life much easier, since I have lots of specs that I need to review.

one of the things I like about Microsoft

Microsoft can be a funny place to work, especially as a Mac person. But I do love working here, and I certainly love my little corner of Microsoft.

One of the things that I really like about Microsoft is the ready availability of training. Even for me, as someone who isn't in Redmond, there's lots of training available to me. It runs the gamut from deep technical training to soft skills training to career training.

Today, I'm taking one of those career training sessions. I've worked elsewhere, where such training isn't nearly as available, and where it's not encouraged to take training at will.

Windows Live Sync now supports Snow Leopard

My colleagues over on the Windows Live Sync team announced yesterday that Windows Live Sync now supports Snow Leopard. If you're on Snow Leopard, download the new Sync software. Leopard users don't need to do anything.

laptop adventures

It's been an exciting laptop week here, and it's only Wednesday!

First, the bad news. On Monday morning, I dropped my MacBook Pro on my left foot. The laptop has the teensiest of dents on the corner that I dropped it on. My foot, on the other hand, has two broken bones. The staff at the ER thought that it was hysterical that I managed to break my foot with my computer. My co-workers are having the same laugh at my expense. I can't really blame them.

But then, there's good news. It's been time to upgrade my old laptop (a first-gen black MacBook that I named Bernard, which is a joke that no-one but me seems to get) for awhile, and I'd been thinking about an iMac, but the latest hardware update had me wibbling between the iMac and the new unibody MacBook. A tweet from Peter Cohen sent me over the edge: MicroCenter is offering a $200 rebate on the new MacBooks. So I picked one up yesterday morning. I've got a hard drive and an extra 2-GB of RAM on order, and then it shall vroooom. It's a goal of mine to not drop the new MacBook in such a way that breaks anything, let alone any more of my bones.

100 days until Macworld 2010!

This morning, Paul Kent tweeted that there's only 100 days remaining to Macworld 2010.

I suppose that this is a reminder that I need to get working on my presentation. John Welch somehow talked me into giving a presentation about administering Macs in Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007. I somehow talked Bill Smith, one of our Entourage MVPs, into helping me out. I've got a vague outline in my head for what to talk about, but I should start committing that to paper (well, email) and working on it.

Tell me, dear reader: if you saw a session titled "Administering Macs in Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007", what would you expect to hear? This is a great time to ensure that I'm talking about what you need to hear about.

statement of intent

November is National Novel Writing Month for those who are so inclined. I'm not creative enough for that, so I'll instead participate in National Blog Posting Month, which is to say that I'll post something every day here for a month.

Which is to say that I've been really heads-down at work lately, and I haven't been posting to this blog very often, and I've been missing it, so it's time to stop. Even if stopping involves writing a run-on sentence like that on occasion.

Live Mesh now supports Snow Leopard

My friends over on the Live Mesh team have a great announcement today: Snow Leopard support now available. Yay!