Perhaps you could have a script sequester the existing database, then
install 2008, then have an Applescript or Automator action walk the client
through importing their old database?
In the organizations I've worked with lately, user data is the user's
responsibility. By providing such a tool, you could assist the user without
actually taking responsibility for the data.

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

I have to admit that we need to plan for our Office 2008 migration
On 12/11/08 4:14 PM, "Miles Leacy" <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> wrote:
ourselves. We still have a dependency on VBA but I'm pretty sure that could
be redone with AppleScript.

What's the 'do fonts' issue you're referring to? I prefer to install a full
application package and then use post-install scripts to customize for each
of our group's needs. Microsoft did a great thing by putting all their fonts
into /Library/Fonts/Microsoft for Office 2008. That makes manipulating their
font install very painless.

I'll be visiting with the MacBU folks at Macworld in January and hope to get
some insight from their Entourage developers for automating the upgrade
process. They should know the right hooks. If I learn anything then I'll be
sure to spread the wealth.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

Office 2008 doesn't come with Do Fonts; but it's still very slow upon
startup without a lot of RAM.

Hillary

Hillary Postman
Technology Support Specialist III
Capistrano Unified School District
33122 Valle Rd.
San Juan Capistrano, CA
(949) 234-5530

"Do Fonts" was software that would scan your fonts when launching an Office
2004 application. If any of the Microsoft-installed fonts were missing, Do
Fonts would replace them. It's akin to an Acrobat-self repair, and just as
much of a problem if you're trying to manage fonts.
There were several ways to disable it, all of which (at least the ones I
knew about) were inelegant, dirty hacks.

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

We just removed the Do Fonts folder on our images, or manually tossed it if
need be. We never had any blowback from just simply removing it on a few
thousand computers.

Here's what we're do:

Do rebuild of Entourage Db.

Run this script:

(Please keep comments intact if you use)

#!/bin/bash

#HOPKINS ISD 270 MS Office 2008 Migration Script
#Andy Hakala created and last revised 11/12/2008
#John Wetter revised 11/21/2008
#
# *READ THIS FIRST*
#Here are a few quick notes about using this script. First, the JAMF agent (casper) must be installed for any of this to work because that agent is called
#several times in this script. Also, it is important that the following steps are followed...1.Cache the Office 2008 package. 2.Contact the end user and let
#them know that this will be happening. (The script will kill all office processes without allowing for a "Save" of current work) 3. Run the script
#(sudo ./Office2008_upgrage.sh) 5. Launch Entourage 2008 and upgragde the Identity. If there are errors the db will have to be repaired and reimported.

#Kill all running microsoft processes

kill -9 `ps -ax | grep "Microsoft Word" | cut -d' ' -f1`
kill -9 `ps -ax | grep "Microsoft Excel" | cut -d' ' -f1`
kill -9 `ps -ax | grep "Microsoft PowerPoint" | cut -d' ' -f1`
kill -9 `ps -ax | grep "Microsoft Entourage" | cut -d' ' -f1`

sleep 2

#remove all MSO 2004 Dock Icons
jamf modifyDock -id 5 -remove -leaverunning
jamf modifyDock -id 3 -remove -leaverunning
jamf modifyDock -id 2 -remove -leaverunning
jamf modifyDock -id 4 -remove

#remove all MSO 2004 apps
rm -r /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/
rm -r /Applications/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app
rm -r /Applications/Open XML Converter.app
rm -r /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/

sleep 2

#install MS Office 2008
#jamf installAllCached
jamf install -package MS_OfficeV12.1.4_NOUD.dmg -path /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Waiting Room -fut -feu -showProgress

#add MSO 2008 Dock items
jamf modifyDock -id 35 -beginning
jamf modifyDock -id 36 -beginning
jamf modifyDock -id 37 -beginning
jamf modifyDock -id 38 -beginning

---------------------------

After the install, import the Db, then run the script to change the save format. We did this in the original packages, but Office seems to change this on it's firstrun again which is quite annoying.

-John

Well, I guess that'll do it. :)
I recall using a hack to the office apps that would keep them from calling
do fonts. But MS got smart in 2008 apparently.

Another issue I recall for 2004 was for the PDF component that Acrobat
insisted on inserting into Office apps and which resulted in an annoying
1-button toolbar appearing and throwing off the Office app's UI. Is this
still happening for the current Acrobat & Office versions? If you removed
that item, Acrobat would self-repair it. My solution was to leave it in
place and change its permissions to 000 so that it couldn't be launched.

----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

Strange. I've never heard of a self-repair option in Office 2004 but then
On 12/12/08 10:15 AM, "Miles Leacy" <miles.leacy at themacadmin.com> wrote:
again we just removed the fonts from their drag-n-drop folder prior to
pushing it to machines. Never had a problem other than PowerPoint wanting
some of its fonts; it would crash otherwise.

I'm unaware of any self-repair in Office 2008 and I doubt it exists. MacBU's
thinking about fonts was changed when they rethought their install strategy.
They finally agreed that not just anyone should be able to install Office on
a machine and now require an admin to do so. A Standard user couldn't repair
fonts now.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

This is in re: to my script that sets the default save formats in MS Office
2008 apps to .doc, .xls, and .ppt in order to avoid any file compatibility
issues with systems that are not up to date on their Office versions. I
will paste in the original script at the end of this message.

I'm taking this on-list in case anyone else needs this info. The issue
turns out to be that I didn't test this fully, and I was, in fact, managing
these preferences via Open Directory and MCX.
The commands are sound, but as John Wetter found in testing, they're being
run by root, so they are not setting the preferences for the user in
question. The script functions properly if you run it as the user in
question.

I see a couple of options to fix this...

1. Use the script with the full paths to the user's plists, then add a chown command to the end of the script to return ownership to the user. To do this:

- Insert "/Users/$3/Library/Preferences/" in front of each of the
"com.microsoft" preference domains in the script.
- add the following line to the end of the script:
chown $3 /Users/$3/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft*

1. Write the plist to /Library/Preferences instead of ~/Library/Preferences and grant read permissions to everyone. I like this best since you'll only have to do it once per computer, rather than once per user. To do this:

- Insert "/Library/Preferences/" in front of each of the "com.microsoft"
preference domains in the script.
- Add the following line to the end of the script:
chmod a+r /Users/$3/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft*

1. If you have Open Directory in place, open the Preferences Details pane in
   Workgroup Manager, add the Office apps to the list and set the preference
   values within Workgroup manager.

2. Use dscl to manage MCX settings in the local directory service.

3. I haven't tried this, and it may not work because I think it generates a
   new shell which could cause problems, but you might try adding `su $3` to
   the beginning of the script to have the commands executed as the correct
   user.

Here's the original script:

#!/bin/bash

# scr_app_office2008FileFormats.bash
#
# Set Office 2008 apps to save in .doc, .xls. .ppt rather than docx, etc.
#
# Written by Miles A. Leacy IV
# Last modified 20080612

# Word
defaults write com.microsoft.Word 2008Default SaveDefault Format
-string Doc97

# Excel
defaults write com.microsoft.Excel 2008Default SaveDefault Format -int
57

# Powerpoint
defaults write com.microsoft.Powerpoint 2008Default SaveDefault
SaveDefault Format -string Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Presentation

exit 0

### end script
----------
Miles A. Leacy IV

? Certified System Administrator 10.4
? Certified Technical Coordinator 10.5
? Certified Trainer
Certified Casper Administrator
----------
voice: 1-347-277-7321
miles.leacy at themacadmin.com
www.themacadmin.com

Since I have network home directories on multiple servers, I added
"$HOME/Library/Preferences/" in front of each com.microsoft. That took care
of the fact that home folder paths were different depending on the user.
Eric Anderson
Director of Information Technology
Archbishop Mitty High School
408-342-4240 (Direct)