Office 2004 UPDATE: nice fixes!!!

P

Pitch

I'm slightly in shock. The 2 major bugs that bugged me about Office
have been fixed with today's 11.2 upgrade:

1. Word's Outline view now scrolls as fast as you can scroll. I'm
talking on a 400-page document. This was a major, major deal breaker
for me. (it was painfully slow before, even on a very fast Mac). I'd
actually been spending a considerable amount of time over the past 6
months looking for an alternative word processor. My search is now
officially over.

2. Entourage would often not Send Mail when I hit its default
Command-Return. I would need to hit that about 5 times, most of the
time, in order to get the mail sent. I replaced the keyboard with a
brand new Apple one, I reinstalled the entire OS from the ground up (no
tranferring over ANYthing), and nothing worked. I also heard from a few
others that they experienced this behavior. Well, this upgrade fixed
this mysterious problem.

I am one happy camper.

Grateful to the folks at the Mac Office Fixit Dept.
 
C

Corentin Cras-Méneur

Pitch said:
1. Word's Outline view now scrolls as fast as you can scroll. I'm
talking on a 400-page document. This was a major, major deal breaker
for me. (it was painfully slow before, even on a very fast Mac). I'd
actually been spending a considerable amount of time over the past 6
months looking for an alternative word processor. My search is now
officially over.
Click to expand...


Yep. I noticed that as well. This is much much better than in the
previous version :)

Corentin
 
P

Pitch

Just a quick update of the update: the Command-Return has gone back to
being broke. Bummer. Back to hitting the button with my mouse.

But the scrolling still rocks.
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

By "broke", do you mean broken in all instances? I can use it on my laptop
all day for Newsgroups, IMAP and Exchange mail; it sends the mail or post
immediately.

What are you trying to do and for what type of account and what do you
expect Command-Return to accomplish?

-nh
 
B

Boettcher, Scott

In my case, it's the dreaded anything combined with the COMMAND KEY that
doesn't work, so when this happens, no Command-Return to send (mail) no
Command-R to reply, etc.

SB
 
P

Paul Williams

Just to clarify...

We're seeing this affect other applications too (Firefox, for example), but
it's inconsistent. Previously, we "fixed" the problem affecting Adobe apps,
by checking "save password" in Entourage 2004: That's not working for this!

Is anyone else seeing this? Regrettably, we can't roll out the much-needed
SR2 until it's resolved.

PFBW
 
P

Pitch

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for asking!

I am trying to use Command-Return to "Send Message Now." This is with
both brand new emails, as well as when replying to an existing email in
my InBox. In both cases, when I am ready to send my email, I hit
Command-Return, but the email does not send. I hit it again, and again,
and again, and generally around the 4th or 5th time, it finally sends.

The main problem with this is that if I go too fast with my
Command-Returns, the mail does get sent and the the next Command-Return
affects whateveer else was under the email.

So far, the only sure way to send emails is to grab the mouse and hit
the Send Now button along the top of each email.

And yes, the Command-Return is broke in all instances of Entourage
2004. Both on my G5 2Ghz and my 1.3Ghz PowerBook 12".

I only use POP accounts, and all 7 of my accounts show the same
behavior.

AGain, I want to point out: I purchased a brand new Apple keyboard from
Apple, thinking the Command-Return problem was something with my
original keyboard. No change even with a new keyboard.
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

Is it your assertion that it is Mac Office which is causing the Command key
problems? It seems unlikely that execution of code in one application would
affect code happening in another application when they have no other
communication (e.g., Office and Firefox).

Does the problem go away when Office is not installed and/or no Office
applications are running (including the Database Daemon, which is a
background application)?

-nh
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

Just to be clear, if you hit Command-Return and wait for the length of time
it would have taken you to hit Command-Return four or five times and then
some, the message does not send?

I am trying to establish whether the message in the process of sending, but
is taking its sweet time and not giving an indication that anything is
happening (and possibly eating some subsequent Command-Return keystrokes),
or whether the initial keystrokes are being eaten, and it's only the later
keystrokes that are being noticed.
 
P

Pitch

Hi Nathan,

First, this Command-Return issue is only with Entourage 2004 (including
the new update).

Here's what I do: I will write an email. I then hold down the command
key, and hit the Return key. I then let up on both. I wait a few
seconds. On a test (after reading your email), I waited 10 seconds. I
then do this process again.

I've tried a variety of tricks, from holding down the Command key, and
then firmly holding down the Return key. I've tried them both at the
same time. I've also tried holding them down for quite a few seconds.
Also tried the staccato rapid fire method, holding down the Command
key, while tap tap tapping the Return key.

Odd, that every now and again, the message does send on the first try.
This is rare,though, maybe twice a day in a hundred emails. Also, it
has never taken more than five attempts. The average is 3 or 4.
 
P

Paul Williams

Is it your assertion that it is Mac Office which is causing the Command key
problems? It seems unlikely that execution of code in one application would
affect code happening in another application when they have no other
communication (e.g., Office and Firefox).
Click to expand...

This occurs where key-commands are used or where modifiers to key-commands
are invoked. It is not consistent. It did not happen pre-SR2.
We ALREADY KNOW that pre-SR2 Entourage caused modifiers to break in Adobe
apps, while Entourage was active (with the "save password" option
unchecked). I'd say that the new occurences are more general, but needs more
exploration.

"It seems unlikely...have no other communication"
I'm not a Mac system software expert, but these applications would use
common libraries or frameworks in the OS, wouldn't they? I'm speculating
here... but it would seem to me that they're both hooking into the same
tools that provide UI functions.
Does the problem go away when Office is not installed and/or no Office
applications are running (including the Database Daemon, which is a
background application)?
Click to expand...

We're checking it out!

Thanks,

P.
 
M

matt neuburg

Boettcher said:
For me, it only happens in Entourage - nothing else.

SB
Click to expand...

I have seen this many times, but it has always been caused by some other
application. For example, running iListen will break all Entourage
command-key shortcuts. Are you using anything that does similar deep
doo-doo (iListen, QuicKeys, etc.)? Any haxies? Any rags? Any bones, any
bottles to-day... m.
 
B

Boettcher, Scott

Nope - no key modifiers and no changes to the system keys.
The only app it ever happens in...

SB
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

And you only use POP accounts, right? Thanks for the information.

We've had some issues where Entourage will get into a mode where keystroke
events aren't getting delivered to the right part of the application for
processing. I wonder if this is related.
 
N

Nathan Herring [MSFT]

This is perfectly true. It is entirely possible that Office, with some
malfunction, is causing the Toolbox operations underneath it (largely
Carbon) to fail in a way that has an impact on Toolbox operations underneath
other applications.

In these cases, it's really two separate problems:
1) The offending application shouldn't be doing the Bad Thing.
2) The OS needs to guard against applications being able to do Bad Things
to other applications.

If either are fixed, then the problem in the other apps should be resolved.

Let us know if you have more information about reproduction environment.

Thanks!

-nh
 
P

Pitch

Yes, guity here of being a long time QuickKeys user. Latest version of
3.1.

If I come up with a workaround for using both these programs and it not
mucking up the Sent Now command, I'll pass it on.
 
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