X

Office 2004 (#4): Entourage: crashes on some e-mail; Word: formatting issues; PowerPoint: QuickTime performance; more

Office 2004 (#4): Entourage: crashes on some e-mail; Word: formatting issues; PowerPoint: QuickTime performance; more

CNET staff
4 min read

Entourage

Certain e-mail messages can crash program As noted in the MacFixIt forums and by several readers, email messages formatted in specific manners (sometimes including those that contain no recipients ('undisclosed recipients'), no subject and no message body are causing Entourage to crash.

Two forum threads about this problem:

MacFixIt reader Jonathan Greenberg, who is experiencing this issue, writes "There seems to be some indication that filters may be what is causing the crash (I do use filters), but I can't tell you which ones...

As noted for a similar problem with Mail.app, where a single problematic message disallows other, non-offending messages to download from the server, you might want to try a Webmail interface if your ISP offers one, or temporarily check your e-mail with an alternative client. After deleting the problematic message, the rest of your inbox should flow as usual.

Greenberg adds "Using a webmail interface to my email, I found the offending email and deleted it. Upon trying to check my email again with Entourage, my other email successfully downloaded."

Rebuilds, restarts for Entourage launch problems Several readers have reported problems launching Entourage 2004.

For most readers, this issue can be resolved by rebuilding the Entourage database - a task accomplished by quitting all running Office applications, then holding down the "option" key while starting Entourage.

If a typical rebuild is not successful, the advanced option should be used.

Rebuilding the Entourage database will also optimize its data usage, using up to 25% less disk space depending on its original size.

Enomia.com Vance Martin reports a problem using Exchange capabilities in Entourage 2004 with some providers:

"Everything installed OK, my problem is an incompatibility with my Exchange host - Enomia.com. The old Entourage can still connect - but the new one can't - I switched back to X until things are straightened out. The thing is that after calls to both MS and Enomia, they were both blaming each other. I'll let you know how it shakes out, but my bet is that Enomia is going to have to make some changes with their configuration before things will work again."

Word

Document formatting MacFixIt reader Bruce  Klutchko is one of the few readers who has had problems opening some Word v.X-created files in Word 2004.

"I have a problem with a file that does not open properly in Word 2004 but opened properly in Word X. It is a two-page document; the first page has ordinary text and the second page has a picture that was inserted from a file (.jpg). The displayed picture has a strange checkerboard appearance reminiscent of a cheap plastic tablecloth.  If I open the file in Word X (where it still appears fine) and copy and paste the picture into Word 2004, the problem recurs. If I remove the inserted picture, and reinsert the same picture from the original .jpg file, it does not show this problem.

"My concern is that there may be other files with inserted pictures that will fail to open in Word 2004 for which I do not have the original .jpg pictures.  At present, I am maintaining both versions on my hard drive to avoid data loss."

If you are having a similar formatting problem, please let us know.

MathType conflict Brian Soderstorm reports that Word 2004 is not recognized by MathType 5.0, likely necessitating a minor update from the tool's developer, Design Science:

"During installation of MathType 5.0, it seems that it will not recognize Word 2004. As a result, there is no way to add an equation via MathType into Word. I uninstalled and reinstalled MathType and still no dice. This is the full version, not the Lite version."

PowerPoint

QuickTime performance David Benesch reports that in-presentation QuickTime performance has degraded significantly since his installation of PowerPoint 2004.

"I just wanted to let you know about a problem I'm experiencing with Powerpoint 2004 on my 1 GHz Titanium Powerbook running 10.3.3 and Quicktime 6.5.1. When running a Powerpoint presentation (i.e. full screen), Quicktime performance is terrible. It stutters at around 3 frames per second, where as Powerpoint v.X has no problems. I've tried several different movies of different sizes/codecs/etc. at various resolutions, with no success. It essentially makes movies unusable with the new Powerpoint. I wonder if other people are having similar issues."

Password-protected slide shows on Windows machines Mike Robertson notes that he is still unable to open password-protected PowerPoint files in Windows XP that were created on his Mac

"I had hoped that Office 2004 for Mac would fix the problem with being unable to open password protected PowerPoint slide shows from the XP versions of PowerPoint. That is apparently not the case. I still can't open them from PowerPoint in Office 2004."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Resources

  • Thread 1
  • Thread 2
  • let us know
  • MathType 5.0
  • Late-breakers@macfixit.co...
  • More from Late-Breakers