Office 2004: Service Pack released (now available); Incompatibility with font management utilities

Service Pack released Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit announced the release of Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Office 2004, which the company says can be obtained through the built-in "AutoUpdate" function.

In a statement, Microsoft said "Customers are encouraged to download SP1; it addresses potential security issues and bugs that their feedback played an important role in identifying."

UPDATE: This morning and throughout the day, the new release was available through neither the AutoUpdate function nor the "Mactopia" Web site. However, the update is now available through the AutoUpdate function, and Microsoft has posted some details on bugs that were fixed in the new release.

Among the highlights (many of these issues are covered in the MacFixIt Office 2004 special report):

Word 2004: AutoRecover functions correctly when FileVault is enabled: Previously, setting the AutoRecover folder location (Word menu, Preferences command, File Locations) to a location inside a FileVault-protected home folder did not work. This has been fixed. FileVault is an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 128-bit keys that secures your home folder by automatically encrypting the contents. For more information about FileVault, see Apple Help.

PowerPoint 2004: Performance is improved when you play movies in a slide show. When you play a movie in a slide show, performance is improved, resulting in movies playing more smoothly in most cases.

Entourage 2004: Pictures from iPhoto can be attached to an e-mail message. Attaching pictures from iPhoto to e-mail messages sometimes caused problems. In some cases, a file with the file name Attachment (PlayerPro document).669 was attached instead. This problem has been fixed.

Incompatibility with font management utilities MacFixIt reader Hugh describes a problem with Office 2004 suite applications -- particularly PowerPoint 2004 -- where use of font management utilities can cause crashes on startup. Also, disabling certain Microsoft fonts seems to trigger the a similar problem:

"When one of the Office programs is opened for the first time, it loads 80 MS fonts into the User/Library/Fonts folder, whether you want them or not... and, whether or not it makes a font conflict with similar named fonts already installed in that folder or the Library/Fonts folder. These fonts are loaded from copies in the Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts folder.

"If you remove anyone of these MS fonts, it will play havoc with PowerPoint. When you open PowerPoint and try to select any Presentation Style, other than 'Blends,' 'Bold Stripes' or 'Dad's Ties,' PowerPoint will crash.

"Also, if this is not bad enough, you cannot use a font handling program, like Font Reserve or Suitcase (I have tried both!) without having problems with Office 2004. And, a MS Senior Tech Support Rep says NOT to use any font handling program with Office 2004. Period."

A Microsoft Knowledge Base document says "When an (Office 2004) program starts, it reads and optimizes all the fonts that are available in the operating system. If the program finds a damaged font, the program may quit unexpectedly."

It further states "If you have font management software running on your computer, you may disable it to see if it is causing the error.

The support document only recommends disabling font management utilities as a solution.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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