Thanks, I found a work around that allowed me to open Open Office. So I am all set. Thanks all.
kind of long, but i hope this helps:
Reinstalling MicroSoft Office for Mac: 2011 after clean MacOS install on new SSD in old system
Background:
Mac Mini 4,1 ~ mid 2010, 4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 320M
shipped w MacOS 10.6.xx Snow Leopard. I have very little MacOS experience, I only obtained this system to tinker about and to help understand/problem-shoot my two kids' 2009 Mac Mini's as well as having the belief, in 2013 when I got it second-hand, that somehow it would integrate/synch with my first iPhone better than any Windows system.
I cannot remember the details, but i believe I updated in-place to Lion and then Mtn Lion via discs, then to Mavericks via USB and then to El Capitan again via USB. Those were my first experiencse with Terminal commands ( the "... sudo ..." ), so that tells you what i know. All went well installing onto the OEM 320GB HDD.
With some recent downtime, I made a stab at upgrading the system again. I swapped out the HDD for an OWC Mercury 3G SSD after much investigation re: which SSD should be expected to work with the fewest hiccups. I still have no clear consensus on TRIM enable/not enabled. Formatting/Installation of the SSD using Disc Utility went well. Internet Recovery could not install High Sierra, I guess bc it's no longer supported, so once again installation was via USB etc.
I now have a clean-install of High Sierra 10.13.6, which is the maximum MacOS that will run on this unit.
The Problem:
I have a Retail Stand-Alone box of M$ Office: Mac 2011 Home and Student, 3 Licenses. It would not "Activate" with my Product Key that has worked before. There are a copies installed on my kids two ancient Macs and this installation, as before on the HDD, would be the 3rd. There is much conflicting opinion on whether Office 2011 (which is 32bit) will run on High Sierra. Apple's initial guidance at the introduction of High Sierra was "Nope". Many people on forums state that it will / it won't. Micro$oft would be happy to subscribe you to M$ 365 and get the steady gravy train started. High Sierra seems to be much-maligned for it being the first all-64bit MacOS and thus is the unrefined guinea pig for the switch to 64 and APFS file system.
So: Installation via Office 2011 original disc went without any hitch until an attempt to activate. Original authentic Product Key entered: > "Online activation did not complete successfully because the activation server is temporarily unavailable". ('retry, try later, or phone it in'). I doubt the server is just "temporarily" unavailable as EOL support was 10/10/2017. I tried it several times over 2 days. Internet connectivity via ethernet was confirmed and streamed HBOmax no problem.
So, having plenty of time, my cell phone charged, my W10 PC computer open, and the Mini running, I started the MicroSoft phone activation process:
- call MicroSoft 866 825-4797
- verbally enter 6 digits in 9 blocks with AI verbal feedback confirmation after each block. That number pops up on the Activation dialogue when "phone" option is chosen.
- wait for Human operator with Microsoft Support
- Human operator: usual ID stuff, including sending case Verification PIN to text/email to continue.
- "can't activate from here > transferring you to (?) "the Office unit". A Case Number was created
- wait/hold time ....
- new Human operator, I suppose with the "Office" unit but accent was a bit off so I'm not completely clear on that. Created a new Case Number. She was GOOD! Seemed to know exactly what the problem was (old machine, old Office after EOL, new SSD, etc) and seemed to be able to rapidly pull up a specific script to walk me through it. She specifically verbalized that a Retail License is a Perpetual License and the Holder has the right to use it as long as they want.
- another Verification PIN sent
- she then sent an email ( I used my "
xxx@live.com" address just to keep as much as possible in the MicroSoft system) which I then opened in Firefox on the Mac (Safari seems to suck at it's version limit in Hi Si). That email included a download link to open. I DO NOT KNOW if it is some generic link or specific for my case but I suspect specific so I am not going to include the last 7 characters, which are numbers:
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=xxxxxxx. you tell me if it might be a security risk or whatever for me to post the specific numeral end-characters - I'm just not savvy enough to know/judge.
- she efficiently walked me through activation using the small download file link (~4 KB): "com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist"
open Downloads > drag file onto Desktop > in Finder open Go > Computer > Macintosh HD ("SSD" in my case) > Library > Preferences > drag the file from Desktop into Preferences > open the file (using Admin password). close everything else. Open any one of Word/Excel/PwrPt/Outlook (I opened Word). Start a new Document: If no "Activation" prompt pop-up dialogue occurs, then supposedly all is good. Test by opening Excel / PP/ and Outlook individually with all other programs closed. It seems to have worked.
Outlook threw errors initially: "needs to be updated by software developer" but on repeat opening it seems ok. I really only want to use Word and Excel occasionally so PP/Outlook I don't care. Outlook has grown so vast in its scope and entanglements that it's just not reasonable anyway to expect a 12 yr old version to still work.
Summation:
- 32bit Office for Mac: 2011 H&S appears to function on High Sierra
- over-the-phone activation can work, in this case I think I just lucked out on getting a very good Support Tech. Try asking for "Jophel" just for fun.
- the "...licensing.plist" file dropped into Preferences was obviously the needed component. Again - I do not know if this was a one-time activation/authorization/authentication file for my specific product-key installation or not. And again, I'm so illiterate in MacOS that I really have no Idea what I did, I just followed her instructions that she dictated over the phone.
- the Question remains: is there a similar file somewhere on my OEM unmodified HDD which still contains a completely functioning 10.11.x El Capitan MacOS and activated/authorized Office 2011 installation? Could I have found it somewhere and copied it or dragged it into the new SSD? IDK
I hope this helps any other tech-hoarders out there trying to eke out some more life from "perfectly good" hardware/software. Cheers!