office 2011

Microsoft changes Office licensing, allows transfer to new systems

Microsoft has changed its license agreement for its Office 2013 productivity suite, which now allows you to transfer serial numbers to new systems and activate it to allow the software to work.

Office is one of the more popular (if not required) programs for many activities, so having it on a system is often quite convenient to have; however, Microsoft has had an ongoing licensing restriction with its latest Office versions that prevents you from activating a previously used serial number on newer systems, even if you have uninstalled the software from prior systems. This setup obviously frustrates those who … Read more

iPad Mini won't be the only Apple news

Monday's CNET Update dusts off the crystal ball:

Everyone is eager to learn about the rumored iPad Mini, but today's tech news roundup looks at what else Apple will be announcing. We're expecting to see at least one new computer, such as an iMac or Mac Mini. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the Mac Pro will get an update in 2013, so it may be too soon to announce that. As for laptops, there have been reports that Apple will give the 13-inch MacBook Pro a retina display.

When Apple does unveil the iPad Mini, … Read more

Get Office 2011 working in Retina Display mode

Yesterday Microsoft released an update for Office 2011 for Mac which added high-resolution support for Apple's Retina Display; however, after applying the update a number of people are finding the Office programs still open in low-resolution mode. In some cases one or two of the Office programs appear to run in Retina mode, while the others do not.

It appears the system simply is not recognizing the new high-resolution capabilities of Office. If you get information on the program in the Finder (select it and press Command-I), you will see the Open in Low Resolution setting is grayed out … Read more

Office 2011 gains Retina Display support

Microsoft today released an update for Office 2011 for Mac that provides support for the Retina Display in Apple's latest MacBook Pro systems.

As explained in its Office for Mac blog, the update (version 14.2.4) gives the enhanced resolution support to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, and should give text and interface elements throughout the Office suite a sharper feel and look when used on Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

While this update may be beneficial for those who have Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro systems, Microsoft makes no note of the update offering any … Read more

Microsoft squashes bugs with Office for Mac update

Microsoft has released an update for Office 2011 for Mac, which fixes a number of bugs with various Office application functions, but in addition closes a vulnerability in the program where a malicious program downloaded by one user could be run with that user's privileges by another local user on the system. While not a serious security vulnerability for most users, it has potential to be a problem for multiple-user setups such as computer labs.

Microsoft has made this update available via its Autoupdate program that will either run automatically or which can be launched from the Help menu … Read more

Microsoft releases fixed Office 2011 SP2 update

Microsoft has released a fixed version of its Service Pack 2 update for Office 2011. The update was originally on April 12 and offered a number of improvements for Microsoft's Outlook e-mail client; however, soon after its release a number of people found that the update had caused corruption in their identity databases. This resulted in the suite's programs not opening correctly.

Microsoft initially addressed this problem by issuing instructions that users could follow to prepare their identities for the upgrade, or restore their identities if they had been corrupted after the upgrade; however, these did not help … Read more

Database corruption causing woes for some Office 2011 SP2 users

Recently Microsoft released the Service Pack 2 upgrade for its Office 2011 for Mac productivity suite, which primarily addresses issues and functions with Outlook for Mac, but also addresses problems with other aspects of the Office suite. After applying this update, a few people have had problems in which the Office identity database has become corrupted and when launching Office programs have received messages stating "Please upgrade the Office database."

Yesterday Microsoft acknowledged in a blog posting that some users have been experiencing this error, and has provided a couple of options for getting around it.

If you … Read more

Chrome and Office updates address vulnerabilities

Yesterday Microsoft released updates for Office 2008 and Office 2011 for OS X, which include patches for a couple of vulnerabilities in PowerPoint and Word.

In the security bulletin accompanying the Office 2011 update, Microsoft warned that the vulnerabilities include exploits in which an attacker can use specially crafted Word files to gain access to the system. In addition, the updates address the reliability and stability of Excel and Outlook, fixing problems in which the programs could exit unexpectedly or give improper password expiration notifications.

For the Office 2008 update, the vulnerability is similar in that opening a specially crafted … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers. This week readers had questions on security software recommendations for Macs, systems pausing while showing green pixels, garbled boot images when booting from the OS X DVD, and Office 2011's Solver utility crashing when launched. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Security software for a new Mac MacFixIt reader "scfox" asks:

After using a G4 933MHz … Read more

Microsoft releases updates for Office 2011 and 2008 for OS X

Microsoft has released updates for Office 2011 and Office 2008, both of which are the only Office suites that will run in OS X Lion since they contain code for Intel chips. The update addresses critical security flaws in the program that could allow an attacker to execute malicious code on a system, and also provides a number of fixes and improvements to the programs, including the following:

Office 2011:

Office documents not opening in some Web browsers PowerPoint crashing unexpectedly when using Command-Tab Excel crashing when switching workbooks or when saving files Dutch citations not appearing properly in Word … Read more