Office 2004 11.3.5 Special Report: Undoing the update

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 1:30 a.m. PT

2 min read

If you are experiencing dire issues after applying the Office 2004 11.3.5 update, you may want to consider reverting to an earlier version of the suite.

Unfortunately, the only method for getting the Office 2004 11.3.5 update off your Mac is as follows:
Delete the entire Microsoft Office 2004 folder from the /Applications folder. [Note: If you have any custom templates in the /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Templates/My Templates folder, you should move them to a safe location before deleting the Office 2004 folder].
Re-install Office 2004 from the original installation disc.
Download the Microsoft Office 11.3.4 updater and apply it.

Due to the obtusely non-standard architecture of its installation, Microsoft Office keeps some user customization files, not in the user's home folder (along with the rest of the material in Documents / Microsoft User Data), but in the Office application folder itself.

(Please, don't get us started on how terrible this is. For one thing, it means that all users are affected by customizations that might be intended for just one user. For another, it means that users are required to place customizations in a location for which they may not have write access.)

The Templates folder is one possible location for such customization files; you might have your own templates in the My Templates subfolder.
The Office / Startup folder, as mentioned above, can hold global templates, third-party plug-ins, and so forth.

Thus, before deleting the Microsoft Office 2004 folder, be sure to retrieve any such customization files and move them aside for possible future reinstallation.

Also note that any security refinements brought about by Office 11.3.5 will obviously be undone if you choose to revert.

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