Running Office 2004 & 2008 Simultaneously

[TMK044]

Hello,

I have both Office 2004 & 2008 installed on an OS X 10.5 machine. I prefer using 2004 as I find it easier and faster to work with, but I like to keep 2008 around to be able to open the newer file formats.

Anyway my problem is with Excel. After creating and saving a file in Excel 2004, it always tries to open in 2008 the next time I double-click on it. If I right-click | Open With, only Office 2008 shows up in the choices.

I've tried manually associating the file to open with Excel 2004 several times, but it always eventually reverts to opening with Excel 2008. I'm under the impression that Office 2008 somehow "takes over" the file associations when you install it. I can't remember the order in which I installed them when I set up the machine.

Although I open Excel 2004 and manually open the file, it would be nice if I could get the file association to persist. Any suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks,
--TMK.

 

[spinnerlys]

Maybe this can help:
OS X: How to Change Default Application to Open File Type

 

[TMK044]

Maybe this can help:
OS X: How to Change Default Application to Open File Type

Thanks for the link. I've used both of those methods successfully in the past for other applications (Acrobat/Preview and Photoshop/Preview). Unfortunately, in this case it doesn't seem to work very long with Office files. Usually the settings change works for a while, but the .xls files eventually revert back to opening in Excel 2008 (I think it reverts back to 2008 after a reboot.)

I wish I remember which one I installed first. My guess is that I installed 2004 and then 2008 which took control over the file associations. I guess I'll have to just live with it. My hope is that Apple continues to develop iWork so that it becomes powerful enough replace all MS Office functions.