InstallingOffice - won't recognise me as admin

[Nsar1]

Hi,

When I get about halfway through installing Office it asks me to sign in as administrator, but won't recognise my name or password. Any clues?

Also when logging in, my space bar won't work unless I press the alt key down at the same time.

I-mac running Leopard

Weird.......

 

[nadyne]

You must have an administrator's account to install Office 2008. Check your username and password, and also check that you've got admin privileges.

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[Nsar1]

Thanks Nadyne,
I log on as administrator at boot up. The issue is that it won't recognise me as admin when I'm trying to install.

I successfully installed office as admin but I'm trying to install it as a different user because when I log on as the user Office is not there.

 

[nadyne]

Thanks Nadyne,
I log on as administrator at boot up. The issue is that it won't recognise me as admin when I'm trying to install.

I successfully installed office as admin but I'm trying to install it as a different user because when I log on as the user Office is not there.

When you say it's not there, do you mean that it's not in the dock? All that you need to do is point your finder at /Applications/Office 2008, and then launch the applications. After you've launched the application, control-click on its icon in the dock, and select "Keep in Dock".

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[macrem]

What, Office 2008 is expensive but it does not even install properly with sudo, like OpenOffice does for free?

 

[Nsar1]

Hi Nadyne,

No it's simply not there, that's why I need to install it.

Maybe this will help. When the Mac asks me to enter name and password as admin, the space bar only works if I hold the alt key at the same time, then it won't recognise the same password that I use at boot up.

If I try to shut down with my son's user account active ( the only other user) it asks me to sign in as admin. When I do this, the space bar works normally and it recognises my password. Does that help to identify the problem?

How can I found out what the machine holds as my admin password?

 

[nadyne]

From the Apple menu, go to the System Preferences, then select Accounts. On the left side of the panel, you'll see a list of accounts. For your account, does it say "admin" under it?

If it does say "admin" under it, then you're going to have to remember your password. If you can't remember it, then try the directions here for what to do if you've forgotten it.

If it doesn't say "admin" under it, then you'll need to use the username and password of one of the admin users on your machine. You have at least one admin on your computer. (And you might want to enable additional accounts as admin so that you'll avoid problems like this in the future!)

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[madog]

You have at least one admin on your computer.

Unless you have recently upgraded to Leopard from a previous system and did not perform a backup and fresh install.

One of the stranger things I have seen -- multiple times -- with Leopard upgrades.

--

One sure sign that you are not logged in as admin is if when the name/pass confirmation comes up and both fields are blank. If you are logged in as admin, your name will appear and all you need to type in is the password. Though, if the admin account is there as it should be (per nadyne's post) you can use that login info all the same to install, or just login to that account and install it as Office is a system wide (not user based) app.

Also, alt-spacebar is not the same as just spacebar, as it is a "special" character. You should, however, be able to use the admin's shortname, which is by default your full username but in all lowercase and without spaces, instead.

 

[Nsar1]

Thanks both.

My user name shows up as admin on the list (of two) to the left, (my name as admin is separated by a thin keyline from the other account) but when I installed Leopard I didn't do a back up - I don't think there was a prompt to suggest this during install, which is annoying.

When it asks for my credentials both user name and pasword fields are indeed blank. When I try to enter my user name which is my first name and last name. I can enter the five characters of my first name, but it won't let me enter any further characters and gives me an error sound. This is why I tried fishing about for a way to use the space bar and came up with the alt+spacebar thing.


Hope this helps

 

[nadyne]

I would do one of two things:
1. Create a new admin account that has no spaces in the account name, and use that account name and password to install the application.

2. Make an appointment with the Genius Bar at your friendly local Apple Store to figure out what's going wrong with the installation. That's an OS X dialog, it's not one of ours -- we just pass it over to the operating system to say "hey, we need authorisation to install this". Since this is an OS dialog, you'll likely have the same experience any other time that you try to install an application that doesn't do a drag'n'drop install.

In other words, (1) is a workaround, whereas (2) is about fixing the underlying problem.

Regards,
Nadyne.