Word problems after installing the Beta 2 Technical Refresh

[Ananda Roy]

I installed the Office Beta 2 technical Refresh and Compatability Pack this
evening. After this, have had a number of problems with the Office 2007 Beta
I did not have before!!

1. Cannot open any of my Word 2003 files - message says 'file is
unavailable' or 'file cannot be opened' despite having latest virus file
definition for my Norton Antivirus + no corruption on files on various media
2. Message at startup says "Cannot open file pdf.dot and refworks.dot"
despite both macro Add-Ins being disabled
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Message says 'Missing Bibliography Style Template' and when
I click on 'Manage Sources', all my 220 citations have disappeared!!

Plan to un-install this techinical refresh (unless some kind soul can
help!!) which has left a very bad taste in the mouth.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Beta software is not for everyone. Please read the reply to the
same question you posted here only EIGHT MINUTES ago. Yammering
the same question repeatedly, redundantly, and incessantly will
more likely get you ignored rather than answered.

 

[Ananda Roy]

Thank you for your observations, Garfield.

As a potential customer preparing to pony up $499 in 3 months or so for the
license, I feel I have as much of a right to post issues on this feedback
discussion group as anyone else. I have been very happy with the Beta for 4
months and am quite familiar with Beta programs - it is only that the
technical refresh has bugs!

If you actually work at Microsoft, you may now understand why there is so
much dissatisfaction among your consumers about Microsoft's intrinsic
attitude to the customer. Perhaps, like Dell, you need some time in the
penalty box.

This topic is closed.

Ananda.

 

[aalaan]

...and when I say closed, I mean SO THERE (hmmph!)

 

[Tony Jollans]

Ananda,

If you consider the topic closed then you probably won't read this but I
will say it for information to others who may take away a false impression.

Although these newsgroups are facilitated by Microsoft, the people who
answer questions here are independent volunteers who do not represent
Microsoft in any way.

Many many questions are asked and individuals have to be selective in the
questions they choose to answer. If one finds a questioner annoying in any
way it is very easy to ignore that questioner, and it is, thus, generally
counter productive to behave in a way that might not find favour. If you
asked a friend a question and got an answer and then asked the same question
again, your friend would likely be unimpressed. Treat us as friends and you
will be treated as one yourself; treat us otherwise and we will respond in
the same vein.

As a separate note, this is not a beta feedback group but I'm sure that
repetition of questions would not be liked in such a group either; it is
essentially rude in person or on-line and being a potential customer (of
anybody) doesn't change that.

In summary, yes, you have a right but you have nothing to gain, and much to
lose, from exercising it.

Finally, and being familiar with beta programs you will know this, of course
the Technical Refresh has bugs! The idea behind the beta programme is to
flush them out before the product is released for sale.

 

[Ananda Roy]

Dear Tony:

Thank you for your post. I apologise to any of the volunteers here in case I
made a mistake - I am rarely if ever on discussion groups.

I posted a question about (1) a bug, had a response almost immediately,
found the response was not sufficient (and in the meantime, found 2 other
bugs) so my following questions was longer with 3 bugs. I do appreciate this
was in quick succession - all of 8 minutes - but at my end, I was not
yammering away. I had discovered other problems as well.

In any case, I offer an apology. I also ask that volunteers show some
patience to others on the forum who may not be as well-informed or
technically savvy as yourselves. Other than that, just courtesy doesn't hurt.

Thank you Tony.

Ananda

 

[Tony Jollans]

No problems, Ananda. My turn for an apology - I should have read your
original posts more closely as well as the responses.

I haven't yet installed B2TR so can't help personally I'm afraid - I have
the beta on an old laptop which won't run off the mains but I hope to get a
new Vista machine up in the next week or two and will install on there and
then I can look at it properly. I do believe there are some issues around
opening files in B2TR which were created in B2 - maybe someone else can
provide more detail.

I don't use Norton and the number of times I see problems because of it
doesn't make me want to try it. If you are really concerned about switching
it off, disconnect from your network first and then you can't be infected
while you try (you may lose some safety net but its rather theoretical if
your protection has kept you clean in the first place).

 

[TF]

Ananda

The Office Plug-in is notorious for causing conflict with Word and you will
to compromise your system if you disable it.

Another possible cause of your problem is the Building Blocks.dotx. To
delete this template...
--
1. Close Word.
2. Go to your user building blocks directory (\Documents and Settings\<user
name>\Application Data\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks on Windows XP,
\users\<user name>\app data\roaming\\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks).
3. Go into any subdirectories and delete your Building Blocks.dotx file.
4. Reboot Word will regenerate the file for you.