Month: December 2006

Upgrading from Office 2007 BETA 2 to Trial

I recently downloaded the Office 2007 Trial to replace the buggy BETA 2 Technical Refresh that I had. I’ve encountered some issues that others probably will, and a few workarounds.

  • Cannot open files saved in BETA 2 with the Office Compatibility Pack
    This is not strictly an issue with using the trial software, but it is relevant if upgrading from BETA 2. The issue is that you cannot use the final conversion pack to open Office 2007 BETA 2 documents. The only way around this is to open and save any Office documents that you have created with BETA 2.
  • Cannot download the Save As PDF or XPS plugin
    The plugin can only be downloaded if you have a fully licenced version of Office installed on your computer to authenticate with the Office Genuine Advantage requirement. This was a nuisance to me as I’d quite happily been exporting PDFs in Office for some time.
    Anyway, the trick is that you can download the Save As PDF or XPS tool with any version of Office installed as long is it passes validation. I used a computer with Office 2003 installed to download the plugin. Just copy the installer to the Office 2007 Trial that you wish you install it on and install.
  • You get an error telling you that you need to uninstall Office 2007 prerelease versions and cannot upgrade.
    In fact, the error is

    The 2007 Microsoft Office system does not support upgrading from a prerelease version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You must first uninstall any prerelease versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system products and associated technologies.
    Correct the issue(s) listed above and re-run setup.

    If you’re like me, you probably became quickly frustrated with the fact that you HAD uninstalled every component of Office 2007 BETA 2 already. There is a knowledgebase article which goes through the registry and other long-winded methods, but it’s much simpler to download MyUninstaller from NirSoft.
    Run MyUninstaller, and you will probably see some leftover Office 2007 MUL Packs. Uninstall everything related to Office 2007, and restart the Office 2007 Final installation. It should run through without a hitch.