# The MS Office 2008 tips & tricks thread



## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

I have installed about three days ago and am 'medium + impressed' with the software. Although I only upgraded to be able to read the .docx etc. files that my clients send me, zillions of development hours MUST eventually produce something...

So I am going to post both problems and solutions to various Office tasks as I encounter them... Do join me


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No1 "I've lost my templates"

You may remember that Office 2004 put all templates under 'My Templates' which was a sub-folder so it found its way (inconveniently) as part of the 'Applications' folder. MS have fixed this: it is now under (deep breath): [user name]/library/application support/microsoft/office/user templates/my templates

However, shock/horror the 'my templates' folder is empty when you upgrade your installation. Funny that MS has not provided an automated migration no?

Solution:

MS creates a new folder on your desktop during the migration called 'Rescued Items'. About 4 levels down you will find your old templates! Open each one in turn and 'save as' a template in the new format (say from .dot to .dotx). This will automatically put them in the right place. As far as I can tell no problems with formatting or anything else...


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No.2 "I can no longer animate tables in PowerPoint"

The old version allowed you to treat rows, columns or cells as separate objects. Now some bright specs manager has decided that PowerPoint should now allow you to create tables that are 75x75 cells (WHY???!!!) instead of 25x25. As a result tables are treated as a single object for animation.

Solution: Somebody has posted a fix using the Clipboard in Office 2007 for Windows but it doesn't seem to work in '08. My fix = make copies of the table and delete rows or columns until you have as many objects as you need (in my case I need 3 columns to animate separate; so I copied until I had 3 objects, then removed the irrelevant columns. I now have 3 separate single columns objects that I can manipulate. 

Now about by vengeance on this features guy...


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No.3 [unresolved]: "Where did all my clipart go?"

Yes you guessed it, MS reinstalls a fresh version of Clipart and overwrites the old one. I can't believe that 3 years of accumulated clipart has vanished without second thoughts! No, it's not in the rescued items folder...

Ideas?


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## G-Mo (Sep 26, 2007)

Moscool said:


> I only upgraded to be able to read the .docx etc. files that my clients send me


If that's the only reason you upgraded, why didn't you save yourself the time, money and - apparently - hassle by just installing the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac?


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

G-Mo said:


> If that's the only reason you upgraded, why didn't you save yourself the time, money and - apparently - hassle by just installing the Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac?


Because I didn't know about it?  

Anyway, going through RTF is not my idea of seamless conversion, particular if documents have to go back & forth. I was also looking forward to the Ribbon feature for charts etc. especially after seing a demo video in late 2005. Having fought with PP charting most of this morning, I'm not so sure...


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No.4: Managing crashes

Despair not old friend: PowerPoint 08 crashes too! I worked all day on the same presentation and it was rock solid. I then did two things: I saved using the latest format (.pptx) and I went in to 'Notes' mode. Well I then had the mother of all crashes. 

Thank you, Microsoft, for teaching me not to be light-hearted with my work! I since experienced two further crashes, all in Notes mode. Plus changes for the footers won't update properly... 

So here is the tip: if you work in Notes mode, please save every two minutes.


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No.5: Editing Clipart (all Office apps)

Well you can't.

You could in 2004 but you can't in 2008. It is the second time I am bumping into a feature that was removed between the two versions. WTF?

Here is the thread that explains it...


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Moscool said:


> However, shock/horror the 'my templates' folder is empty when you upgrade your installation. Funny that MS has not provided an automated migration no?
> 
> Solution:
> 
> MS creates a new folder on your desktop during the migration called 'Rescued Items'. About 4 levels down you will find your old templates!


This is so Microsoft. 

I've heard a few nice things about the new version, but it's kind of comforting to know that behind it all are the same bozos we've had for the last few versions, busy shooting themselves in the feet ...


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Moscool said:


> Thank you, Microsoft, for teaching me not to be light-hearted with my work!


Thanks for the laugh of the day (actually very very early morning!).


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## Benito (Nov 17, 2007)

OK now I'm scared to open Office 2008  Just kidding of course.


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## krs (Mar 18, 2005)

Moscool said:


> Tip No.5: Editing Clipart (all Office apps)


So I assume Tip No.6 is: Don't use Office 2008


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

krs said:


> So I assume Tip No.6 is: Don't use Office 2008


I'm almost at the point where I'll believe this...


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

Never fear. I am sure Office 2012 will stomp all those little bugs.


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## (( p g )) (Aug 17, 2002)

Four bits of advice I can offer about Word 2008:

1. When starting the app after a cold boot, go find something else to do while waiting for it to load. It gets better on subsequent restarts, but it's shocking nevertheless for an app that's Universal Binary compliant to take this long to load.

2. Save your documents often. This app crashes more often than Lindsay Lohan on the parkway after a night on the town. 

3. When installing '08, don't let Office delete the 2004 suite of apps (if you had them previously). I've had three instances so far where I've had to go back to Word 2004 out of sheer desperation after dealing with Word crashing. 

4. Use Word only when you need to collaborate with other users/clients who are using Word exclusively. Otherwise, look for alternative word processors that are more stable and better suited to the specific task you are looking to complete. My favourites: TextEdit and Bean for documents that don't require much in the way of tables, footnotes, etc. Use Pages for documents that require a lot of formatting or are template based.


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Funny that: MS had 4 years to write the apps and one year to customise it for Mac and they still can't get the bugs out! It's not as if MS is known for a rapid cycle of .1 versions either... Having not bought anything from them for at least 3 years, I had forgotten how bad their QA is.


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## (( p g )) (Aug 17, 2002)

For what it's worth, Word 2004 is quite stable...but that's something that took close to two years and multiple service releases to achieve. By that example, Word 08 ought to be similarly reliable right about when the Winter Olympics roll into Whistler and Vancouver.

:/


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

krs said:


> So I assume Tip No.6 is: Don't use Office 2008


No kidding. After my experience years ago with unpatched Office v. X (quitting constantly), I concluded I would avoid .0 software if at all possible. Definitely waiting for .1 or .2 with this one. 

Office v. X 10.1.9 will do for now (better the devil you know, and all that). If running v. X you need to run the 10.1.9 updater before you can use the .docx/.docm etc. conversion tool, but Microsoft (helpful as always) doesn't link to the 10.1.9 updater on its site, or at least not that I could find. It is, however, available via Versiontracker.com.


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

Tip No.7: Synchronising calendars between iCal and Entourage 2008

It is not perfect, but it works as follows (not my tip, but it comes from inside Micro-Yahoo):

Have you used Sync Services before (in Entourage 2004)? Entourage has a
rather idiosyncratic approach to calendar synching; if Sync Services is
turned on, a new calendar is created in iCal, called "Entourage". Events
created in Entourage show up in that calendar, and if you create events
in iCal, they need to be in that calendar as well or else they won't
show up in Entourage. If you want to get items from iCal into Entourage,
you now know what to do: right-click them and put them into the
"Entourage" calendar. Many users would prefer if they could set up
Entourage to synch categories to iCal calendars; if that sounds like
what you would like to have as well, click on Send Feedback on Entourage
inside Entourage's help menu to let Microsoft know.


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