Microsoft Releases Office for Mac 2008 Updates to Address Open XML Bug

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/06/micrsoft-releases-office-for-mac-2008-updates-to-address-open-xml-bug/)

Microsoft today released a pair of updates to address a bug introduced in Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 2 (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/20/microsoft-office-2008-update-brings-speed-increases-and-new-features/) released last month that prevented users from opening some Office documents saved in Microsoft's Open XML format. A description of the issue is included on Microsoft's support document (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974170) regarding the update.
Compatibility is improved. This update fixes an issue that causes Office 2008 for Mac to display an error message that resembles the following:

"Microsoft Excel cannot open the file. You may have to download the latest updates for Office for Mac. Do you want to visit the Microsoft Web site for more information?"- Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 Update (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9730452b-e6ad-4330-93e4-57f66293bf1c&displaylang=en) (23.8 MB)
- Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=dfd93fb0-1cf7-4835-892d-a74fae8d2f30) (45.1 MB)

Article Link: Microsoft Releases Office for Mac 2008 Updates to Address Open XML Bug (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/06/micrsoft-releases-office-for-mac-2008-updates-to-address-open-xml-bug/)

[thegoldenmackid]

Quicker then I thought.

[aardwolf]

I just realized the problem existed yesterday when my boss sent me an xlsx file from Office 2007 and I couldn't open it...

[Doctor Q]

For people too lazy to download the update manually: In one of the Office apps, select Help -> Check for Updates. Quit your Office apps while the download is in progress. A few clicks later you Office apps will be updated.

[SFStateStudent]

Lazy me; everything updated....:p

[Takuta-Nui]

Word is the only program I've bought and intend to use, so I'm glad to get updates whenever they come. I just wish Microsoft would do something about my incapacity to add new words to a Custom Dictionary. >_< It's just not me - at least four other people in the world have this problem. =P

[rtheb]

Nadyne Richmond of Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit discussed the update here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8234302&postcount=338).

[Dokter_Mac]

Seems that the latest 'Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 Update (23.8 MB)' is only for the English version?

'Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.1 (45.1 MB)' is for all languages.

Greets

[skillwill]

Seems that the latest 'Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.1 Update (23.8 MB)' is only for the English version?

'Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.1 (45.1 MB)' is for all languages.

Greets

"The English version of this update is live right now, and we're following with the other languages very soon. "

From Nadyne's blog on the Mactopia website

[John.B]

You cannot install Office 2008 12.2.1 Update on this volume. A version of the software required to install this update was not found on this volume.

To learn how to fix this issue, see "I can't install Office 2008 for Mac updates" at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx.

Edit: Had to install 2008 12.2.0 (from AutoUpdate) first, only then would 2008 12.2.1 "take" (and it showed up immediately in AutoUpdate after the 2008 12.2.0 update completed).

So don't bother to download the 12.2.1 update from microsoft.com/download unless you are already on 12.2.0. Its not a combo update...

[Ericatomars]

Ugh... how i don't miss Microsoft word... Nothing but headaches... i love pages, easy to use and gets the job done!

[lamadude]

Ugh... how i don't miss Microsoft word... Nothing but headaches... i love pages, easy to use and gets the job done!

It gets the job done, if the job is very easy and doesn't require any advanced word processing features, or even an automatic bibliography.

[impierced]

Ok, this is great and all, but where is the announcement for Entourage for Web Services ?!?

We were told at WWDC it would be available when SP2 was released, and when SP2 was released, MS said they'd be making an announcement shortly.

I suppose in MS's world, shortly can mean several weeks.

[Doctor Q]

On one of my Macs the installer simply froze. I had to use Force Quit. Then I started the download all over again and it worked fine. That's just what happened to me the last time I did an Office update.

[celticpride678]

Downloaded and installed fine. All is well for now, Microsoft.

[nadyne]

Ok, this is great and all, but where is the announcement for Entourage for Web Services ?!?

It's coming soon. :)

Regards,
Nadyne.

[nadyne]

Edit: Had to install 2008 12.2.0 (from AutoUpdate) first, only then would 2008 12.2.1 "take" (and it showed up immediately in AutoUpdate after the 2008 12.2.0 update completed).

So don't bother to download the 12.2.1 update from microsoft.com/download unless you are already on 12.2.0. Its not a combo update...

12.2.1 is an incremental update instead of a combo update because a combo updater takes longer to get out. Incremental updates require much less testing, so they're faster to get out. We didn't want to make anyone wait any longer than they had to.

Also, the Japanese updater is live now too, with the other languages following shortly.

Regards,
Nadyne.

[impierced]

It's coming soon. :)

Regards,
Nadyne.

I suppose the longer it takes Microsoft to make an announcement with regard to a release date for EWS, the closer we'll be to the actual release. :eek::eek::eek:

I'm definitely sad that I cannot update to SP2 as I'm locked into using the EWS beta and there's no way I'm going back to the old (though confusingly - now, newer) version of Entourage.

[John.B]

12.2.1 is an incremental update instead of a combo update because a combo updater takes longer to get out. Incremental updates require much less testing, so they're faster to get out. We didn't want to make anyone wait any longer than they had to.
Thank you, Nadyne. Re-reading the doco on this, its clear that 12.2.0 was SP2 and that 12.2.1 was an incremental update. I just jumped the gun on the news and tried to install 12.2.1 (without 12.2.0 installed yet) and the resulting error wasn't clear, so I wanted to post in case anyone besides me didn't follow instructions. :-)

I, for one, am appreciative that I can run Office for Mac at home. It allows me to collaborate with work documents while running my MacBook as a Mac (no Fusion or Parallels). Thanks!!!

John_B

[KingYaba]

Working well on my end.

[toujames]

this update does not allow to use a crack MS 08 anymore:(

[nsbio]

That was a good reaction time from Microsoft. I updated my Excel 08 copy at work to 12.0 the very day the update came out and I could no longer open a few important files. Fortunately, I still had my personal laptop with the "unupdated" Excel.

Yesterday's patch fixed that bug. Thank you Microsoft.

Now, how to fix images in some Word files sent over from PC to not show as black boxes is another story. Funny, but Pages shows these images ok, but it completely screws up overall formatting of the document.

[lamadude]

Thank you Microsoft.


A rare quote on this forum :)

[Richard1028]

Ugh... how i don't miss Microsoft word... Nothing but headaches... i love pages, easy to use and gets the job done!I share your sentiments but in the biz community it's an "Office" world.

Sadly, Office 2008 removed macros and OpenOffice is starting to look pretty good to me. I've been testing OO on some MS correspondence and it's been opening some pretty complex documents without problems so far.

[Richard1028]

On one of my Macs the installer simply froze. I had to use Force Quit. Then I started the download all over again and it worked fine. That's just what happened to me the last time I did an Office update.Ditto here. It told me to quit Word. When I obeyed, the installer froze.

I had similar problems updating version 12.0 to 12.2 with all the service packs.

Microsoft's installers for the mac suck ass.

[murckle]

Does this affect cracked Office?

[Obsidian6]

Does this affect cracked Office?

yep.

[MartiNZ]

It would be nice if at some point they could fix the bugs with display updating in Word –*after setting a new hanging indent, for instance, it almost never updates until one scrolls the area out of sight and scrolls back. In the meantime you might get corruption of the text, if you're lucky, but not the actual results. The corruption tends to affect the hidden character displays as well.

It would also be nice if the office apps would act like every other app in Leopard and support background scrolling –*well actually, Word sometimes does but only due to another bug that means you can't for the life of you get Word into the foreground because it thinks it is there already, even to the point of mismatching the menubar with the current app - which is also a big issue with Entourage.

I think the offer of Snow Leopard with iLife and iWork bundled might change things for a few people. It would be nice to have a fresh install without any sign of office:mac, and soon enough rely on Office 2007 on boot camped Windows 7 :).

[JFreak]

I think the offer of Snow Leopard with iLife and iWork bundled might change things for a few people. It would be nice to have a fresh install without any sign of office:mac

Yup, we're quite close on that. I have already given up most MS products, but I still use and rely on Excel on a regular basis. It is a great program, but I'm thinking of replacing it with Numbers if the next version is close enough. Then my computer would be MS-free for good :)

[mfinocchiaro]

I got the "incompatible" dialog today and tried to upgrade Office 2008 12.2.0 to 12.2.1. But...it failed when checking my hard drive. I noticed that Microsoft mentioned these failures are sometimes related to a language mixup. As I work in France, I have a French version of Office 2008. Could the fact that only English and Japanese versions are out be my issue? Any idea when MS will ship other languages for this patch?

[EmperorDarius]

Never update Microsoft software ever again. Everything past-Vista has gone as bad as their OS .

[BongoBanger]

Never update Microsoft software ever again. Everything past-Vista has gone as bad as their OS .

Yeah. That's why W7 gets such bad reviews.

Oh wait.

[embedded]

Once 7 knocks Vista into extinction, Entourage will stand alone as the worst product made by Microsoft.

[MartiNZ]

Once 7 knocks Vista into extinction, Entourage will stand alone as the worst product made by Microsoft.

I think it can quite comfortably already claim that. There's nothing wrong with Vista, I've always enjoyed using it in boot camp, and I'm not so excited by what little I've seen/heard of 7, especially as the hyped reviews from around January die down to: well, actually, it's not much better.

But anyway, Entourage ... yeah. I just hope that Apple keep working on Exchange support after SL's release - it is heavily buggy as it stands.

[Littlewizkid]

I believe M$ got successfully sued over XML compatibility due to a patent violation. No more XML support for office users.

haha Microsoft

:-b 