fixed : MS Auto Updater warning saying I need to upgrade eventhough I am already on the latest version

Question :
every time I restart my Mac, I get an error message from Microsoft saying that I can’t update, but I can’t find what’s wrong. When I click the link provided for more information, I get a page on the Microsoft website telling that support for MS Office 2019 for macOS has ended and that I should either updagrade to MS Office 365 or MS office 2021 for macOS… but as far as I know I am already running MS Office 2021 for macOS…

What is wrong ?

Answer :
Eventhough there is a very small chance that something completely different is going on, in the majority of cases, your problem will be that you are running the MS Office apps that you primarily use (e.g. Word, PowerPoint and Excel) in the 2021 version and some of the MS Office apps that you never use (e.g. Outlook, OneNote or OneDrive) are still on the 2019 version.

To solve this problem, do this :
– open the Finder
– go to [your Mac] > Library > Application Support > MAU2.0 > Microsoft Autoupdate
– doubleclick on Microsoft Autoupdate to run the MS Autoupdate.app
– click on the pulldown-button (top-right ; the downward-pointing triangular arrowhead)
– now the pulldown list of recent updates will fold out
– in the list, spot the apps that aregiving an error
– then click on the ‘Check for Updates’-button and wait for other updating errors to appear
– if the MS Office apps that you regularly use (e.g. Word, PowerPoint and/or Excel) are giving an update error saying you need to upgrade, your version of MS Office for macOS is outdated and you should buy the newest version or switch to an Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365) subscription
– if you only get updating errors for apps that you never use (e.g. Outlook), open a new Finder window
– then, goto [your Mac] > Applications
– then, type the name of the app you are looking for (e.g. Outlook) in the search field top right
– in the list of applications that appears, select the app you are looking for
– right-click on it’s name and choose Delete from the pulldown menu
– in the warning window that appears, typ your computer password (the password you use to startup & unlock your Mac) and click OK to allow the app to be deleted from you Mac

That’s it !

Enjoy 😉

fixed : can’t find Word-document I recently saved

Question :

I have some Word-documents that I am working on and now I can’t find one of them any longer… I’ve searched on my Mac, but I can’t find the file I’m looking for… I was almost certain I had saved it, but I must have overwritten it or saved it under a different name or something since I can’t find it any longer… I’ve been on this for about an hour and I’m completely stressed out since I’m afraid the file is gone forever and I need to completely redo it…

Do you have any suggestion that might help ?


Answer :
This is not a definite solution for anyone who has as lost Word-document, but it’s an ultimate ‘stress saver’ (a.k.a. ‘life saver’) for anyone who is used to saving Word-documents on his/her Mac :

If you do a quick save of a document in MS Office nowadays — be it a Word .docx, a PowerPoint .pptx or an Excel .xlsx — Office defaults you to saving it on your OneDrive, even if you never use your OneDrive…

So, here’s how to check if your ‘lost’ Word-document was ‘accidentally’ saved to your OneDrive ( note : this solution is nearly identical for PowerPoint & Excel ) :

  • do not close MS Word if you have lost a Word-document ; the chances of still being able to recover the Word-document are extremely decreased if you close of re-open MS Word since that partially wipes the temporal memory…
  • with MS Word still open, go to “File” in the top menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Open Recent”
  • in the nested pulldown menu that appears, click on “More”
  • in the “Microsoft Word” titled window that appears, scroll down the list of recently opened and/or edited documents to find your ‘lost’ file
  • if you have any idea of the last date you have worked on the ‘lost’ file, quickly scroll down to that date
  • when you find the ‘lost’ file in this list, see that ‘OneDrive’ is listed as the saved location, then click on the file name and the document will open
    (if you can’t find it in this list, not all is lost, but you will have to search the ‘recovered files’ first ; this post will hopefully help you on that)
  • when the document is open on your screen, scroll through it to check if actually is the ‘lost’ file and the correct/recent version of it
  • if so, go to “File” in the top menu bar
  • in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “Save as” or “Save a Copy”
  • in the window that opens, make sure you select a location on your Mac to save the document to, then click “Save”
  • that’s it… you now have your ‘lost’ document back and saved to your Mac

enjoy 😉

tip : get the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel for FREE, legally

If you are looking for a FREE (and legal) version of the latest version of MS Office, you just might be in luck :

Microsoft is offering the newest version of MS Office for FREE to students and staff of schools and universities that have licensed MS Office.

This program has run in the US since 2013 under the moniker “Student Advantage”, and is now available in the Netherlands also.

What you get is a FREE one year license to Microsoft’s online cloud service “Office 365”, in the “Pro Plus”-version, including FREE downloads of the latest versions of Office to be installed on maximum 5 Macs or PCs and on maximum 5 Android or iOS devices (like iPhones and iPads).

These latest versions are Office 2011 for Mac and Office 2013 for Windows, both including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype and OneDrive (Microsoft’s cloud-drive formerly known as SkyDrive).

In the Netherlands, these FREE versions are available for two specific groups :

1- (parents of) students of the primary schools [“basisschoolleerlingen” in Dutch] https://www.surfspot.nl/officeleerling

2- students of (some) higher education [“Hogescholen en Universiteiten” in Dutch] https://www.surfspot.nl/officestudent

The procedure to get this (nearly) FREE software, is quite complex, but it’s well worth the hassle :

– first you need an account at Surfspot.nl (the website for educational discounts)

– then, you need to ‘buy’ the FREE version of Office 365 Pro Plus

– with that, you’ll get a voucher (which might take several days due to popular demand)

– using that voucher, you can activate Office 365 at Microsoft, and you will get FREE download-links to the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype, OneDrive, etc.

–  those apps you can install on maximum 5 Macs or PCs and 5 iOS or Android devices

 

…as mentioned : it’s a hassle, but it’s well worth it !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : need to reinstall an app from the Mac AppStore

Question :

I used to use Microsoft’s SkyDrive without any problems in recent months. Recently Microsoft has changed the name of the app and the service to OneDrive, so I have ‘upgraded’ the app from the Mac AppStore, and it has run okay, but with various connection problems (maybe because I renamed the SkyDrive folder to the new OneDrive folder, so I didn’t have to move or duplicate files and pictures).

But that’s least of my worries. When I try to startup the OneDrive app now, I get an error message, indicating that I need to reinstall the OneDrive app. As this app is downloaded from the Mac AppStore, I looked up OneDrive in there, and it indicated “INSTALLED”, but there’s no option to reinstall…

How do I reinstall this app ?

Answer :

The solution is rather simple, but you might not consider it ‘obvious’ or ‘well documented’ in OSX :

– open the “Applications Folder”

– find the corrupted app you need to reinstall and drag it to the Trash

– open the “(Mac) App Store”-app, and find the app you need to reinstall

– when you’ve found it, you will see that it now indicates “INSTALL”, so just (re)install as usual

…that’s it

Enjoy !

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