Maria’s Guides

Information from the Microsoft Web Site.

This update fixes a vulnerability that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. For more information about this update, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (KB940763).

System requirements

Before you install this update, make sure that the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.6 Update is installed on your computer. To verify that you have installed this update, select the Microsoft Component Plugin file in the Microsoft Office 2004/Office folder on your hard disk, and then on the File menu, click Get Info.

Additionally, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Operating system: Mac OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or a later version of Mac OS

Note:To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac.

More information

If you have technical questions or problems downloading or using this update, visit the Microsoft Support page at www.microsoft.com/mac/support to learn about the support options that are available to you.

Another quick spreadsheet to show off the capabilities of Excel.

Site visitor Jamie left the following comment on my recent post, “Random Number Generator for Excel“:

maria dont spose u know how to split a four digit number like 2365 into 4 different numbers 2 3 6 5 in all different cells in excel without having to do it manually just wandering please tell me if you know a way thanks

I had an idea of how to do this with the MID function, which is a text function. I just didn’t know if I had to convert the starting number to text before extracting the digits.

So I whipped up the attached worksheet and popped in the formulas. The answer: no, you don’t need to convert the number to text first.

The MID function has 3 arguments:

• text is the text you want to extract characters from. For this example, it’s the four-digit number.
• start_num is the number of the first character in the string you want to extract. For this example, it’s the digit number (1 though 4).
• num_chars is the number of characters you want to extract. For this example, it’s 1.

You can examine the formulas in the spreadsheet for yourself to learn more. Download it here.

Hope this helps, Jamie!

Information from Microsoft’s Web site.

This update fixes a vulnerability that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. This update also addresses an issue with using public folders in Entourage, and it contains the latest postal code information for Japanese addresses.

System requirements

Before you install this update, make sure that the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.5 Update is installed on your computer. To verify that you have installed this update, select the Microsoft Component Plugin file in the Microsoft Office 2004/Office folder on your hard disk, and then on the File menu, click Get Info.

Additionally, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

Operating system: Mac OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or a later version of Mac OS

Note: To verify that your computer meets these minimum requirements, on the Apple menu, click About This Mac.

Improvements for Excel 2004

• Security is improved. This update fixes vulnerabilities in Excel 2004 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.

Improvements for Entourage 2004

• Microsoft Exchange public folder data loss issue is fixed. This update fixes an issue that causes data loss when public folder users who have a permission level of “Editor” or greater use Entourage to empty the cache for all public folders on the server running Exchange Server.
• Japanese postal code dictionary is updated. The Japanese postal code dictionary is updated with the latest information as of May 2007.

More information

If you have technical questions or problems downloading or using this update, visit the Microsoft Support page at www.microsoft.com/mac/support to learn about the support options that are available to you.

A quick little project.

I just happened to visit a Web site that used another Web site to generate random numbers for contest giveaways. To me, an Excel user, that seemed like a silly place to go to get a random number when you could easily generate one on the fly within Excel.

So I whipped up a tiny Excel spreadsheet to do the job. You just put the minimum value in one box and the maximum value in the other and Excel generates a random number between the two for you. To generate additional random numbers in the range, just press Command-= (on a Mac) or Control-= in Windows. The worksheet is protected so you can’t accidentally delete the formula that does the magic.

Although I created the worksheet in Excel 2004 for Mac OS, it can be opened in Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 for Windows, too.

Want a copy? Download it here.

“Working with Excel Files” goes online.

Just a quick note to let Excel 2007 users out there know that Informit has published an excerpt from my Excel 2007 Visual QuickStart Guide on its Web site. The piece is titled “Working with Excel Files.” Access to the site is free.

I’m pretty sure the book is out, but I haven’t had an author copy in my hot little hands yet.

I think my recent article about using WordPress with Google sitemaps will be online there next week. Stay tuned for more info.

Information from the Microsoft Web site.

This update contains several improvements to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code. In addition, this update includes all the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates.

System requirements

To install this update, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

Operating system: Mac OS X 10.2.8 (Jaguar) or a later version of Mac OS

Improvements for all Office 2004 applications

• Security is improved
  This update fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2004 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.
• Performance is improved when dragging objects to application windows
  This update fixes an issue that causes an increase in utilization of system resources when you drag a file or object to an Office application window.

Improvements for Word 2004

• Version numbers display correctly
  This update fixes an issue that prevents Word from displaying its complete version number in the About Word dialog (for example, 11.3.5).

Improvements for Excel 2004

• Reliability is improved
  This update fixes one issue that, when you open Excel, causes the application to unexpectedly open workbooks or other files.

Improvements for PowerPoint 2004

• Stability is improved
  This update fixes an issue that causes PowerPoint to quit unexpectedly when opening presentations.

Improvements for Entourage 2004

• Performance is improved
  This update fixes an issue that caused Entourage to stop responding for several minutes during ordinary use.

More information

If you have technical questions or problems downloading or using this update, visit the Microsoft Support page at www.microsoft.com/mac/support to learn about the support options that are available to you.