Pre-Installation Tips

• Read the directions!
• Quit any applications that are running, including virus-protection applications, all Office applications, Microsoft Messenger for Mac, and Office Notifications, because they might interfere with installation. Easy way to quit all: Log out/in from your User's account.

If you have a previous version of Office installed:

Put your templates in your Microsoft User Data folder, where they won't be touched if you use "Remove Office", and set the Project Gallery to find them there. Otherwise, "Remove Office" will delete those files. Templates contains your Normal file.

Normal file: Note: starting with Office 2004 the Normal template is moved to the MUD folder, but the Templates folder is not moved.

Start with a good base

Office uses certain system files when installing. If your base files have problems, you are going to have problems installing Office. Install the latest Apple Combo updater before installing. Doing so overwrites potentially problem-causing files. Combo updaters will install on the same version as they’re applying—no need to roll back or do a clean install.

• Don't remove the previous version during the install process. You might need it to get your mail out manually from your old version if the import fails.
• Many Office 2004 users are keeping both 2004 and 2008 in order to use VBA. You can use both versions at the same time for all applications including Entourage after you apply the SP1 (12.1.0) update.
• Entourage 2008 rebuilds the database and 2004 can no longer read it. This is typical behavior when upgrading from one version to another. There is also an upgrade to the database with the update SP1.
• Running both versions oddity: When you double click a file the 2008 version of the app will run. To run the 2004 version, simply open it and then use the file menu to open a file. You canot use Get Info to change default back to an Office 2004 application.
• If you are going to use both 2004 and 2008 you will need both AutoUpdaters. Office 2004 MAU uses VISE installers, and Office 2008 MAU uses package installers. more info
• Office for Mac 2008 Installer will install both sets of code (Intel/PPC) regardless of what machine type you are installing onto. This is common behavior for the Apple installer and is important in the cases where you are installing onto a drive that might be shared with Intel/PPC computers (such as an external travel drive, Network Boot servers, and Shared Network Application Folders). If you strip out the additional code this will cause future updates to fail. more info