Maria’s Guides

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.

System requirements

Before you install this update, make sure that the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 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 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.

Improvements for Entourage 2004

• Junk e-mail filter list is updated
  This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac with a more current definition of which e-mail messages are considered junk e-mail.

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.

Sample Files from the Book.

The following files either appeared in the book as illustrations or as sample exercises, or were created to provide additional examples of how Excel works. Be sure to check the comments for each file, if appropriate.

• Excel Basics (xlsx, 33k)
• Mixed References (xlsx, 14k)
• Functions (xlsx, 32k)
• Loan Amortization (xlsx, 72k)
• Database (xlsx, 122k)
• Text File (txt, 15k)
• Consolidation (xlsx, 25k)

Getting back some screen real estate.

One of the things that you might find bothersome about Excel 2007’s Ribbon is the amount of space it takes up at the top of the workbook window. Fortunately, you can get it out of the way and recover that space. Here’s how.

1. Right click on any button on the Ribbon. A contextual menu appears:
   
2. Choose Minimize the Ribbon. The Ribbon shrinks so it looks a lot like a good, old fashioned menu bar.
   

From that point on, to access the Ribbon, click the tab you want to expand and display it. It will overlap the top of the document window, as shown here:

When you continue working in the worksheet window, the Ribbon collapses again.

To get the Ribbon back to normal, right-click on any Ribbon tab and choose Minimize the Ribbon from the contextual menu that appears. That will toggle the feature to “off.”

Information from the Microsoft Office 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 of 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; if you want to use Spotlight, Sync Services, or smart cards, you must be running Mac OS X 10.4.3 (Tiger) or a later version.

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

Important note about Exchange mailbox synchronization

This update fixes a synchronization issue in versions of Entourage that were updated with Office 2004 SP2 (11.2.0). The issue might cause data loss when Entourage attempts to synchronize with an Exchange mailbox that was moved to a different Exchange server (by your system administrator, for example). Without this update, folders might appear to be duplicated, and messages, events, and contacts might be deleted the first time Entourage attempts to synchronize with the moved mailbox.

If you notice that your mailbox contains duplicate folders or is missing messages, events, or contacts, your mailbox might be affected by a synchronization issue. Quit Entourage immediately and do not install this update or open Entourage again until after you read Knowledge Base (KB) article KB 909574 on the Microsoft Web site at support.microsoft.com, which contains specific instructions for this situation. In addition, contact your system administrator for assistance. If you do not have these issues in your Exchange mailbox, you can install the update now.

Improvements

The following improvements fix numerous security and stability issues in Office 2004.

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.

Improvements for Word 2004

• Compatibility with RTF documents is improved.
  This update improves compatibility with recent changes to the way Rich Text Format (RTF) documents are created by Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Windows.

Improvements for Excel 2004

• Standard deviation is calculated correctly in PivotTable reports.
  This update fixes an issue that causes standard deviation calculations to produce inaccurate results when the calculations are used in PivotTable reports.

Improvements for Entourage 2004

• Calendar events scheduled on or after March 11, 2007 display correctly in all calendar views.
  This update fixes an issue for users of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later that causes any calendar event scheduled on or after March 11, 2007 to display on a time slot that is one hour ahead of its original start time. This issue affects all meetings that occur on or after March 11, 2007, including recurring meetings.
• Japanese postal code dictionary is updated.
  The Japanese postal code dictionary is updated with the latest information as of June 2006.

For more information, visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/autoupdate/description/AUOffice20041133EN.htm

Another very minor correction to my Excel 2003 VQS for Windows book.

As I continue to revise the book for Excel 2007 on Windows Vista, I continue to find tiny errors in the existing book.

Today’s error is on page 118, in the caption for Figure 38. The caption states that gridlines have been turned off for the illustration. In reality, they have not. But I do explain how to turn gridlines off in Chapter 15.

Well, it only took me 3 years to notice this.

Sheesh. It always happens. I find errors in books I’m revising, after thousands of people have bought the book and consulted it, sometimes for years.

Well, that’s part of what my Book Support sites are about: to provide corrections and clarifications to the books. So here’s a correction on my Excel 2003 Visual QuickStart Guide.

Due to a cropping error in the layout (my fault), Figure 6 on Page 107 is incorrect. It should look like this:

If you find an error in any of my books, please don’t keep it to yourself. Use the appropriate Q & A post to comment on it. If it’s wrong, I’ll fix it and note it on the Book Support pages. If it’s not wrong, we’ll try to figure out why you think it is.