MacBu released a new installer for the Office 2008 Update 12.0.1 today. This is not new Office bits to be installed, but the installer itself that was changed. This change was a result of problems experienced by some Office 2008 users having a failed update to 12.0.1. If you are one of the unfortunate few that had problems, this patch is for you. If you were able to successfully update to 12.0.1 then you do not need this patch.
Use the Remove Office tool to completely remove Office.
/Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Additional Tools folder
This will not require you to run the Setup Assistant again. If you do want the Setup Assistant to run, you will need to delete your Microsoft preferences OR manually run the Setup Assistant in the /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/ folder.
Remove Office does not remove any documents or personal settings you have saved. However, there are rare cases after running an installer where data goes missing. Making a backup is always advised when updating software. The folder you need to backup is your Microsoft User Data folder located in Documents.
YOUR USER FOLDER/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Tips: Eject your Time Machine drive to speed up the installer looking for volumes with Office installed. During the install process if it appears to stall with a spinning rainbow, give it some time, then some more time and lastly even more time. It will eventually come out of the apparant crash and finish.
Note: "About one minute remaining" is not Earth time. (big grin)
After you run the Remove Office tool, reinstall Office 2008 from your original DVD, and then restart your computer. It's important that you restart your computer before you install the 12.0.1 update, so don't forget to do it.
After your computer restarts, use AutoUpdate to check for updates, and then download and install the 12.0.1 Update. Optional to restart after updating. Why not, just to cover all bases?
Users that have modified, moved or changed Office:
Any change to an Office 2008 application can prevent an upgrade for installing successfully. So anyone who modifies the info.plist or makes other changes to the application is preventing themselves from getting upgraded. If you run into problems during installation of the update, try any of the following:
- Move the Microsoft Office 2008 folder back to the Applications folder on your startup drive
- Change the Microsoft Office 2008 folder back to its original name
- Restore any files or other items that were removed from the Microsoft Office 2008 folder
Do not run scripts or engage in processes that modify the applications in the Microsoft Office 2008 folder.
- There is a script out that someone has put together that modifies the info.plist for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to help with interactions with Safari. Because the info.plist has been modified, the patch installer no longer recognizes the application as the ones that were installed
- There is an application out on sourceforge.net that will modify the resource bundles. Like the above issue, the application bundle has been changed and as such the patch installer no longer recognizes the application as one that has been installed by Microsoft.
If you continue to have problems, you can get support on the Microsoft newsgroups.
microsoft.public.mac.office
microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
microsoft.public.mac.office.word
microsoft.public.mac.office.powerpoint
microsoft.public.mac.office.excel
Comments (6)
Posted on March 26, 2008 15:19
Tim Murray:The standalone download at Mactopia is dated March 14 in the description, and the a Get Info on the dmg file also says March 14. Your blog was created on the 20th ... so, is Microsoft serving the old one on Mactopia? Or is this download really the new one, but with an old date.
[The bits to install are the same so the updater release date was not changed. However, the actual installer was changed. This fixes some problems experienced by some users. An analogy is your car is a 2007 Chevy, you were running on regular gasoline, but now use premium. Same car, same model but a different agent to run your vehicle.] Diane Ross
Posted by Tim Murray | March 26, 2008 3:19 PM
Posted on April 5, 2008 14:39
the tiktokman:many thanks for this. finally got the update installed.
[edited profanity] Diane
Posted by the tiktokman | April 5, 2008 2:39 PM
Posted on April 27, 2008 20:56
Joe:I have tried everything that I can imagine. I am running Leopard with all updates installed on a Macbook Pro I purchased in December.
I installed Office 2008 and removed Office 2004 at the end of the installation process. I tried to install the Mac 12.0.1 update, but fails with the:
"A version of the software required to install this update was not found on this volume"
I have searched the internet. I have removed office 3 times, using Office's "remove office" tool. I have deleted the packages related to Office 2008 in the /Library/Receipts. Is there anyway to just extract the files manually from the installer and dump them into the Office installation? Can I just point directly to the Office installation? This is pretty major problem for me at the moment. I would like the stability enhancements of the update.
Posted by Joe | April 27, 2008 8:56 PM
Posted on April 27, 2008 22:55
Diane RossWar Eagle!
Try applying the Apple combo updater and then see if the Office updater will work.
Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo Update
Pacifist can be used to install packages, but I'm suspecting some underlying problem with your OS files. Hopefully the combo updater will fix them.
As an example, I was having trouble installing Thunderbird. It would not launch. I tried the combo updater and it indicated there was no volume that was available. I ended up having to install Leopard again. I could have saved some time and done an "Archive & Install", but because I beta test I felt it was time to wipe my drive and install fresh.
Let me know if the combo updater helps.
Posted by Diane Ross
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April 27, 2008 10:55 PM
Posted on April 27, 2008 23:31
Joe:Cool, so I guess there is an Auburn connection somewhere.
My Leopard system was already at 10.5.2. I downloaded the Combo Update anyways, but it did not allow a reinstall. I was unsure if it would be wise to roll back and reinstall the combo update.
I am confident that a clean install of Leopard will fix my problems, but that is undesirable (I have many hundreds of hours of work in compiling open source projects, chasing dependencies, etc and would not want to relive that experience).
I downloaded Pacifist and will give it a shot tomorrow. I wish I knew more of what the installer was looking for. It detects the volume, but does not find what it is searching for after that. The "examining volume" process before I get the error sometimes takes a little while to run.
Thanks for the quick response. That was awesome. Lastly, Office 2004 updates never had this problem.
Posted by Joe | April 27, 2008 11:31 PM
Posted on April 28, 2008 00:31
Diane RossYes, I graduated from Auburn back in the dark ages. :-)
Since the combo updater failed, you might try the "Archive & Install". It might require you to re-enter some of your registration info, but overall it is pretty painless. Just be sure to check Preserve Users and Network Settings when you select Archive & Install.
Once the install has finished, your system will be at whatever level the disk you have is. So if your Install DVD/CD disk is 10.5.0, that's what version of OS will be on your Mac. You will need to download the appropriate Combo Updater from Apple's site to restore the system to a higher version. After you run the combo, allow Software Update to download and install any additional updates.
Posted by Diane Ross
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April 28, 2008 12:31 AM