Author Topic: Transferring Office between Macs (Read 4537 times)

SteveC · « **on:** 10 November, 2016, 06:33:29 pm »

I have a nice new shiny iMac. On my old somewhat sluggish iMac I have Office. I still have the installation disk. This version of Office (Home & Student 2008) has three licences. One is used on said old iMac, one on MrsC's laptop and one on MrsC's old laptop, long since recycled. I did do an 'uninstall' when I scrapped the machine.
I've just tried to install on the new machine and the installer said there was no software to install.
Is there a way of moving the installation from the old machine to the new.

I have got Libre Office on here but it is having serious issues with pictures inside table cells which is the way we prepare the pub quiz handouts.

Any suggestions?

zendog · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 November, 2016, 07:26:08 pm »

Why not give their helpline a ring?

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msuk/en_GB/DisplayHelpContactUsPage/

Always found them helpful in the past.

Jaded · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 November, 2016, 11:23:33 pm »

Yes, speak to them and explain that the old laptop did a Big Bad Thing and broke, so you were unable to unregister the software.

ian · « **Reply #3 on:** 14 November, 2016, 04:37:48 pm »

If it's anything like 2011, they neglected (amongst so many things) to add an unregister feature.

I didn't find calling them helpful, mostly because it was robots. This was the process that involved trying to input 40 (or something like that) character codes into the phone. I was never successful, but mostly because the level of effort rapidly started the overshadow the dubious benefits of an Office 2011 installation. Though my wife reminded me that I still need to brave the process. I'm hoping whatever process obstructs installation has reset itself.

ian · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 November, 2016, 10:09:22 am »

And it did. Left it a month or two and it forgot about the number of machines and just accepted the product key.

caerau · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 November, 2016, 12:05:01 pm »

A bit late now (and maybe things have changed) but find the trick in setting up a new Mac when you have an old one is to firewire across all the old stuff when you first set up the new.

Maybe you could firewire across from the working laptop...?

SteveC · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 November, 2016, 06:51:53 pm »

I deliberately didn't do that as I wanted the chance to clear out all the cruft which has developed over the years.
May have been a mistake I suppose...

caerau · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 November, 2016, 10:00:33 pm »

Well it's a trade off between cruft and being hamstrung by this sort of guff isn't it. My sympathies.

I must admit to finding the modern trend of monthly subscription rather convenient. Overall cost is of course larger over time but it does have massive conveniences like being able to sign out from other devices and just sign in to the new one and actually being able to use rather pricey software that I would simply never have used before due to prohibitive upfront costs. I can pay 14.99 a month for adobe creative cloud- 800 quid up front? no thanks. But that's me and I don't do that with MS Office either.

ian · « **Reply #8 on:** 17 November, 2016, 09:50:02 am »

I'm not clear what the software issue is - you should just be able to use the initial installation disks. That said it's old deprecated software so it may be hit and miss with Sierra (2011 works fine, or some measure of fine). The latest version of office is available, but it's either the dreaded subscription or a very limited single computer licence.

Office is always quirky, unfortunately, as Microsoft insist on doing things in a non-Mac way. And it's always 1995 in the MS world.

I like the App Store, it basically updates everything on any machine tied to your account, so no hassles.

Jaded · « **Reply #9 on:** 17 November, 2016, 09:56:36 am »

£14.99 for creative cloud must be for one app? For the apps I'd want it is c £50 per month.

I've gone all 2016 with office, and 365, because I then get the apps unlocked on the iPad, plus I can have a copy of Orifice in my Windows virtual machine.

2016 is odd. And has the exceptionally frustrating changes that clicking on cells after typing '=' in another cell adds those cells up. =D45+E32+G67

Really really annoying. This has been a Mac Excel thing since the beginning*.

*The beginning was some time before the application was taken over by Windows Creationists.

caerau · « **Reply #10 on:** 17 November, 2016, 10:47:49 am »

No it's for the full* suite, sorry :-P

*I am a university lecturer so it's the teacher/student version. I recently noticed that I'd lost the teacher students discount as I must have gone over the 1st year without reaffirming my tutor status and it went up to 21.49 a month. So maybe it's not the FULL suite but it's certainly many many applications (too many actually, it's quite annoying for the space it takes up and its constant nagging about upgrades).

[Edit] comes back from checking - no it apparently *is* the full suite - Student and Teacher edition - 1 year.
I only use Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop

Jaded · « **Reply #11 on:** 17 November, 2016, 10:51:01 am »

Ah, that makes sense!

I'm still labouring on with CS6, waiting the time when it no longer works on an updated OS. I wish they's do a pick and choose model, where you can pick the apps you need, rather than a one or all. I might consider it then. As it is I am looking at Affinity and other options for when CS dies on me.

caerau · « **Reply #12 on:** 17 November, 2016, 10:55:24 am »

Well much as I like to gloat above, it was rather nicer when the University simply provided it (CS5 or 6 was where it ended) for free via a site license.

ian · « **Reply #13 on:** 17 November, 2016, 11:04:00 am »

I mostly default to Affinity over Illustrator and Photoshop these days unless I need something special. But I can't do without InDesign for more fiddlesome layouts.

caerau · « **Reply #14 on:** 17 November, 2016, 11:51:38 am »

I don't even know what InDesign is - I should maybe actually look at these other applications sometime - perhaps they are useful - though I think some are obviously no use to me. Flasbuilder - hmm - number of times I've ever designed anything for the web --> 0

Jaded · « **Reply #15 on:** 17 November, 2016, 12:43:57 pm »

My view is pretty much the same as ian's. Although I've been using Aperture for most photo editing. Dearest go to photoshop now.

ian · « **Reply #16 on:** 17 November, 2016, 01:00:30 pm »

Quote from: caerau on 17 November, 2016, 11:51:38 am

I don't even know what InDesign is - I should maybe actually look at these other applications sometime - perhaps they are useful - though I think some are obviously no use to me. Flasbuilder - hmm - number of times I've ever designed anything for the web --> 0

InDesign is a desktop publishing application. I use it for documentation, infographics, that kind of thing. It's a very professional tool used by many glossy magazines and news publications, but is also used for creating digital media. Sometimes (often!) it's a bit (lot!) overpowered for what I do, but I grew up through PageMaker, FrameMaker, QuarkXPress, 3B2, so it's pretty intuitive to me. When I see people trying to layout documents in Word I actually cry.

The full Adobe creative suite (Design Standard or whatever I ordered) is about £630/year if I recall, I get mine from the mothership. Affinity offer very good alternatives for <£50 each, which considering the features is superbargainacious and a clue that Adobe must be minting cash.

caerau · « **Reply #17 on:** 17 November, 2016, 01:08:05 pm »

Quote from: ian on 17 November, 2016, 01:00:30 pm

When I see people trying to layout documents in Word I actually cry.

Doing it can make one cry - what outputs can it provide? Can it generate documents in .doc or .docx format?

Dibdib · « **Reply #18 on:** 17 November, 2016, 01:17:13 pm »

Quote from: ian on 17 November, 2016, 01:00:30 pm

Affinity offer very good alternatives for <£50 each, which considering the features is superbargainacious and a clue that Adobe must be minting cash.

Cheers, I hadn't heard of these - and it's definitely preferable to paying a subscription for CC. Thanks for the heads up.

ian · « **Reply #19 on:** 17 November, 2016, 04:43:35 pm »

Quote from: caerau on 17 November, 2016, 01:08:05 pm

Quote from: ian on 17 November, 2016, 01:00:30 pm

When I see people trying to layout documents in Word I actually cry.

Doing it can make one cry - what outputs can it provide? Can it generate documents in .doc or .docx format?

There's certainly some entertainment watching Word users chase graphics around their page. They get madder and madder, especially when their cherished picture disappears into that unfathomable and inaccessible dimension beyond the page boundaries.

Exporting to Word would merely add to the world's insanity burden. You'd export your InDesign document as PDF, EPUB, graphical format, etc. You can export and import the text itself. But effectively you're publishing your document in the desired format.

Quote from: Dibdib on 17 November, 2016, 01:17:13 pm

Quote from: ian on 17 November, 2016, 01:00:30 pm
Affinity offer very good alternatives for <£50 each, which considering the features is superbargainacious and a clue that Adobe must be minting cash.

Cheers, I hadn't heard of these - and it's definitely preferable to paying a subscription for CC. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm a big fan of Affinity Designer and Photo - they're very capable and well designed. They don't have all the features of Adobe's offerings (but to cut them some slack, they're on version 1.5, whereas Adobe have lost count of their versions). I think they have trial versions. I'm not on commission, I'm just a happy user.

caerau · « **Reply #20 on:** 17 November, 2016, 04:53:59 pm »

Quote from: ian on 17 November, 2016, 04:43:35 pm

Exporting to Word would merely add to the world's insanity burden. You'd export your InDesign document as PDF, EPUB, graphical format, etc. You can export and import the text itself. But effectively you're publishing your document in the desired format.

Ah but no, depends upon where the document is going. Imagine a world where publishers (and more importantly for me) bosses will only accept documents in .doc or .docx formats. The journals I write for will accept LaTEX documents as an alternative but nothing else. So software that does standalone stuff is useless for my purposes unfortunately.

ian · « **Reply #21 on:** 17 November, 2016, 05:05:45 pm »

Yes, that's a somewhat different use case. I wouldn't write a proposal in InDesign, I'd use Word because I have to collaborate with colleagues etc, but for the artwork etc. I'd use something appropriate. OK, fat lie, sometimes if I'm feeling snazzy, I'll dump the lot into InDesign and make it look uber-cool. Then, I'll go grow my beard and hang out in Dalston for a bit. Maybe eat some street food and drink a nitro cold brew coffee.

caerau · « **Reply #22 on:** 17 November, 2016, 05:18:10 pm »

I might take a look for making publicity documents and the like I have to say - uber-cool sounds good.

Although making things look uber-cool is a dangerous game - one becomes muggins for making everyone else's documents look uber cool if one is not careful.

ian · « **Reply #23 on:** 17 November, 2016, 05:20:35 pm »

Welcome to the world of Tidy Haired Thought Leadership™. Now supplemented by my recently acquired Beard of Authority.

caerau · « **Reply #24 on:** 17 November, 2016, 05:20:37 pm »

It's artwork that I use photoshop for mind you - I wonder if InDesign might be easier to use. I must admit to being lazy and just sticking with what I know - which is photoshop. Many an hour have I spent on googled tutorials and I am a bit of a don amongst my colleagues at using it these days. But it's certainly way overpowered for what I do with it.