Problems with multiple users in Office 98 under Mac OS X 10.2.x
Problems with multiple users in Office 98 under Mac OS X 10.2.x
Office 98 apparently has some problems with multiple users when running under Classic mode in Mac OS X 10.2.x. Application crashes and other problems can result when a non-admin user is using Office 98, as the PPC Registration Database and other preference files are writable by only one user. The immediate solution is to make preference files group-writable.
After adding a second user to your Mac OS X 10.2.x machine, and logging in as that user, you may have problems with applications crashing or being unable to launch. MacFixIt reader Sally Shears offers a Terminal-based workaround:
"Boot into Mac OS 9 (if your system allows it), delete all of your Office 98 files as well as anything 'Microsoft' from your extensions folder (everything Microsoft, VBA, Excel, or PPC Registration Database from Preferences), and launch any of the applications to invoke the 'first run' installation process. Then reboot into Mac OS X, and in Terminal perform these magic incantations:- sudo -s
- cd /Applications (Mac OS 9)/Microsoft Office 98
- chgrp admin .
- chgrp -R admin *
- cd /System Folder/Extensions
- chgrp -R admin *
- cd /System Foler/Preferences
- chgrp -R admin *
- chmod -R g w *
- exit
"This makes lots of stuff group-admin so all admin users have similar access, and makes preferences for all Classic applications group-writable.
"The 'cd' commands above are hard to do. You have to 'escape' the spaces and parentheses with backslashes. Here's the easy way: type cd and a space. Then open a finder window, navigate to the folder. Drag the folder onto the open terminal window. OS X will type for you, inserting all the backslashes."
Note that changing these permissions may have detrimental effects on security and other functions. Proceed with caution.
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