Office 11.4.0 update on Mac 10.4.11

[Chris Brown]

Hi,


OS 10.4.11
word 11.3.8
PP 11.3.5
excel 11.3.7


running the 11.4.0 update does not update the application version numbers.

The sequence of:

Office2004-1133UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1135UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1136UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1137UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1138UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1139UpdateEN.dmg

had been applied to the install of 2004 from disc, when X.4 was installed.


The same sequence has been applied to a clean install of Leopard on an
external hard drive, preparatory to a system migration, with the same
results; the W/E/PP versions the same as above, before and after the
11.4.0 'update'

The Office installs were custom; sans entourage, proofing tools...


Any suggestions as to what may be the issue?

 

[John McGhie]

I think you're all good to go.

The 11.4.1 update changed only Entourage.

The applications all update independently.

Cheers

Hi,


OS 10.4.11
word 11.3.8
PP 11.3.5
excel 11.3.7


running the 11.4.0 update does not update the application version numbers.

The sequence of:

Office2004-1133UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1135UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1136UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1137UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1138UpdateEN.dmg
Office2004-1139UpdateEN.dmg

had been applied to the install of 2004 from disc, when X.4 was installed.


The same sequence has been applied to a clean install of Leopard on an
external hard drive, preparatory to a system migration, with the same
results; the W/E/PP versions the same as above, before and after the
11.4.0 'update'

The Office installs were custom; sans entourage, proofing tools...


Any suggestions as to what may be the issue?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Chris Brown]

I think you're all good to go.

The 11.4.1 update changed only Entourage.

The applications all update independently.

Cheers

thanks John, but what is 'inconsistent' is that the readme in the 11.4.0
update clearly documents the expected updated files result as shown in
the following list copied from the read me


<<
3 Updated files

This update adds or changes the Office application files shown in the
following list. After you install the update, you can compare the
version numbers of these files to verify that they were installed or
updated. To see the version number of a file, select it in the Finder,
and then on the File menu, click Get Info. Additionally, you can find
the full installation path for each updated file by reviewing the
updater log file in the Microsoft Office 2004/Updater Logs folder on
your hard disk.

File Version
Microsoft Component Plugin 11.4.0
Microsoft Entourage 11.4.0
Microsoft Framework 11.4.0
Microsoft OLE Automation 11.4.0
Visual Basic for Applications 11.4.0

So one could reasonably assume that this implies the versions for each
app, should be as the read me states (were this not MS of course)


regards

Chris

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Chris:

Chances are that if you look at THOSE applications, you will find that they
ARE at 11.4.0

We have discussed this with Microsoft. There is a reason they do it the way
they do -- so that their updater can tell what needs to be updated and what
doesn't.

We have said we would prefer to be able to look at "any" application and get
the update level for the whole suite.

Maybe next time...

Cheers

thanks John, but what is 'inconsistent' is that the readme in the 11.4.0
update clearly documents the expected updated files result as shown in
the following list copied from the read me


<<
3 Updated files

This update adds or changes the Office application files shown in the
following list. After you install the update, you can compare the
version numbers of these files to verify that they were installed or
updated. To see the version number of a file, select it in the Finder,
and then on the File menu, click Get Info. Additionally, you can find
the full installation path for each updated file by reviewing the
updater log file in the Microsoft Office 2004/Updater Logs folder on
your hard disk.

File Version
Microsoft Component Plugin 11.4.0
Microsoft Entourage 11.4.0
Microsoft Framework 11.4.0
Microsoft OLE Automation 11.4.0
Visual Basic for Applications 11.4.0


So one could reasonably assume that this implies the versions for each
app, should be as the read me states (were this not MS of course)


regards

Chris

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Chris Brown]

just to clarify John, I have done get info's on each app to check the
version numbers, and checked the version number in the file list; they
are not 11.4 after applying the 11.4 update, as MS read me clearly
states they should be.

While the feature set may, or may not have actually updated, how would
one really know ? Could I be bothered spending time crosschecking?
Perhaps I'll just trust MS to have got the real code revisions right.
The minor details are just that - minor, right? They don't matter do
they MS?

If they can not get something as simple as a version number consistent
with their own documentation...

Has it been 20 years now I have been using MS; and such simple things
are still handled badly.


thanks for your feedback


regards

Chris

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Chris:

Hi Chris:

Oh, this bug is one of "Too Much" consistency, not "Not enough"

Or rather, the people who designed this are being a bit literal-minded.

Each application reports its version number independently. An updater for
"Office" will apply updates to the whole of Office. Potentially, it might
update every file on the disk. However, most commonly it changes only a
handful.

Microsoft will tell us (has told us, many times...) that this makes it "easy
for support" because Application>About gives the version of the current
application. We have "suggested" (many times...) that it's a PITA in here,
where we need to know the patch level of the entire suite.

For the 11.4 patch, the version number in Entourage will tell you whether
this particular update applied or not. Entourage should show 11.4.0.

If it is not, then you do have a problem. I have a horrible feeling that
this may be because Entourage is not installed. The old-style Vise
Installer patches (required because they can run in Rosetta) are a bit
simplistic. I have this sinking feeling that the patch may look for
Entourage, not find it, and conclude that there is nothing requiring update.

You could try this:

First download the Updater and save it to the desktop,

then use Disk Utility to repair permissions on the boot drive.

Reboot,

then run the updater from the local file.

If that hasn't fixed it, come back and we'll have to kick this one up to the
developers.

Hope this helps

just to clarify John, I have done get info's on each app to check the
version numbers, and checked the version number in the file list; they
are not 11.4 after applying the 11.4 update, as MS read me clearly
states they should be.

While the feature set may, or may not have actually updated, how would
one really know ? Could I be bothered spending time crosschecking?
Perhaps I'll just trust MS to have got the real code revisions right.
The minor details are just that - minor, right? They don't matter do
they MS?

If they can not get something as simple as a version number consistent
with their own documentation...

Has it been 20 years now I have been using MS; and such simple things
are still handled badly.


thanks for your feedback


regards

Chris

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]