Re: Sodding Word
- From: J.J. O'Shea <try.not.to@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2007 11:54:31 -0400
On Sun, 5 Aug 2007 09:46:18 -0400, Tim Streater wrote
(in article <timstreater-DF9C7B.14461805082007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>):
In article <0001HW.C2D951870098E106F060B648@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
J.J. O'Shea <try.not.to@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 07:21:26 -0400, Steve Firth wrote
(in article <1i29qjl.zgchiw13zbchxN%%steve%@xxxxxxxxxxxx>):
From time to time Word has shown signs of working, although never as a
whole. For a brief period, Word for Windows 2 I think, it was almost
usable with the ability to flow text correctly around images and to
include documents at print time. It broke because including an external
document then screwed up page numbering and at that time Word did not
support custom counters.
The best version of Word was v 5 for Mac.
The current implementation is, on balance, about the worst ever.
Not even close. Word 97 holds the all-time title, just for its (in)security
features.
For example... let's say you're like a certain company I recently did some
work for. You have literally hundreds, no, _thousands_ of machines all
running WinNT 4. (I kid you not. NT 4. Jesus wept.) Most of them have
Office
97 installed. Someone mentions to higher-higher that Microsoft has this
wonderful new OS available; higher-higher figures that now would be a good
time to move to WinXP. (I'm not joking...)
The IT department assembles a few test images, runs through all the apps in
use in the company, and pronounces everything ready for end-user testing.
The
images are installed on end-user machines. The end-users love XP (in
comparison to NT 4, who wouldn't?) but report major problems with Office 97
in general and Word 97 in particular. They can't save files. They can't
files. They can't run spellcheck. They can't create or modify styles.
Those of you who know Word might notice a common thread with those
problems:
the Normal template. In Word 97, that file is in a subfolder inside the
WinNT
(or Windows) folder. Under WinNT, normal users can access that folder.
Under
Win 2000 and XP, accessing that folder requires admin privs. IT never
noticed
because they'd done their testing using their accounts, which, of course,
had
admin privs. (You may judge the quality of the IT dept, MCSEs all, by that
little item...)
Fortunately I know little about Office97 or Windows in general - but is
it not possible to define the location of the Normal template?
not in Office 97, there isn't. The same applied to Office 98 on Macs. With
Office X on Macs, the Normal template moved to the Microsoft User Data
folder... but you could, if you wanted to, move all kinds of things
elsewhere. Just don't delete the prefs file, 'cause if you do then Word will
forget where you moved things and will look for 'em in the default place.
Presumably not or you would have mentioned it, but I would find it
surprising. Otherwise, how do they change the paper size, default
language, font, etc etc ??
That was the problem. In NT 4, they could change all of that, 'cause NT 4's
security was, well, lacking. (Better than Win 98 security, which says all you
need to know about Win 98...) In W2K or WinXP, they _couldn't_ change _any_
of that 'cause the Normal template was in a secure area where mere peons had
no access. This made using Word 97... interesting. The purpose of the
registry hack was to subvert WinXP security! Which is why that same hack
won't work with Vista, as Microsoft has closed that particular security hole!
You wanna run Office on Vista, either you have a version newer than Office 97
or you run as admin. I'm given to understand by some who've tried it that
Office 97 on Vista is 'painful'. I'm willing to believe it.
--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.
.
- References:
- Re: Sodding Word
- From: Steve Firth
- Re: Sodding Word
- From: J . J . O'Shea
- Re: Sodding Word
- From: Tim Streater
- Re: Sodding Word
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