OFF97: How to Force Installation of All Office Assistants

ID: Q162048

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

This article explains how to configure the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program so that the character (.act) files for all of the Office Assistants are copied to your hard disk when you install Microsoft Office 97 from an administrative installation (Setup /a) on a network server.

NOTE: These instructions are recommended only for administrators who are familiar with administrative installations and can edit the setup table file (.stf). For more information, see Chapter 6, "Customizing Client Installations," in the Microsoft Office 97 Resource Kit.


MORE INFORMATION

When you install Microsoft Office 97 from an administrative installation point on a network server, the following files are copied to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Actors folder on your hard disk. 


   File           Description
   -------------------------------------------------

   Clippit.act    Office Assistant character file
   Dot.acp        Office Assistant character preview
   Genius.acp     Office Assistant character preview
   Hoverbot.acp   Office Assistant character preview
   Logo.acp       Office Assistant character preview
   Mnature.acp    Office Assistant character preview
   Powerpup.acp   Office Assistant character preview
   Scribble.acp   Office Assistant character preview
   Will.acp       Office Assistant character preview

Note that only the character file for Clippit is installed on your hard disk. When you switch to a different character (for example Power Pup), the character (.act) file is copied from the original installation source, and the preview file (.acp file) for that character is removed.

If, for some reason, the original installation source is not available, you may not be able to switch to a different character.

To avoid this problem, configure your Microsoft Office 97 Setup program so that it copies all of the character files, instead of the preview files, to your hard disk.

WARNING: This modification may not be supported by Microsoft. Microsoft support professionals will support some modifications to a BACKUP copy of the Setup.stf file. Note also that while support professionals may help customers modify specific lines of an STF, we will not rewrite the entire file in order to achieve a desired configuration. As a general rule, support is limited to options that can normally be changed by a user during a standard installation of the application.

NOTE: Before you perform the following steps, make a backup copy of the Off97pro.stf or Off97std.stf file that is stored on the server. Change the name of the backup copy to Backup.stf and do not open or edit it for any reason. If you encounter any problems with the procedure, you will need this file to restore your previous installation.

To configure the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, follow these steps:

WARNING: You must be careful about the process you use to import the setup table file or it will become corrupted. The steps used to open an .STF in an earlier version of Microsoft Office must be altered slightly to work correctly with the setup table files for Microsoft Office 97. Using the incorrect steps to open, edit, and save the setup table file results in a corrupted setup table file.

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q162796 OFF97: Setup Error 932 After Modifying STF File
  1. Start Microsoft Excel version 5.0, 7.0, or Microsoft Excel 97.


  2. On the File menu, click Open. In the File Name box, type the path to the server and share, followed by the name of the setup table file that you want to edit. For example, type one of the following:


    3. \\myserver\myshare\off97pro.stf
    -or-
    \\myserver\myshare\off97std.stf
    and then click Open.

    The Text Import Wizard of Microsoft Excel appears. Follow these steps in the wizard:

    1. Click Next twice to proceed to the Step 3 of 3 dialog box.


    2. In the Text Import Wizard - Step 3 Of 3 dialog box, under Data Preview, drag the vertical scrollbar indicator down until the "Object ID" item appears in the Data Preview window. Click the first column to select it. Hold the SHIFT key down, and drag the horizontal scrollbar indicator to the right until the last column is displayed in the Data Preview window. Click the last column. All of the columns (at least 15 columns) should be selected.


    3. Under Column Data Format, click the Text option, and click Finish.

      IMPORTANT: If you do not click the Text option at this step, Microsoft Excel will read some of the entries in your edited .STF file incorrectly. When this occurs, you will receive "setup parse errors" during setup.


  3. When the .STF file is open, click Find on the Edit menu. Type Office Assistant Install Modes in the Find What box, and then click Find Next. Click Close.


  4. Of the five rows that follow the cell, determine which row contains "%d\Actors,%d" in column K. The row should appear similar to the following: 
    
      Column A      Column B      Column E      Column F      Column K
      -----------------------------------------------------------------
         11805      Yes           Group            11808      %d\Actors,%d

    Make a note of the ObjectID value in column A (or note the row number), because you will use the ObjID for this row in a later step.


  5. On the Edit menu, click Find. Type Logo.act in the Find What box, and then click Find Next. Click Close.


  6. Make a note of the ObjID value in column A of the row.

    You will use the ObjID for this row in a later step.


  7. In the row that you noted in step 4, select the cell in column F.


  8. Append a space, followed by the ObjID value that you noted in step 6, to the contents of the cell. For example, the table in step 4 would now look like the following: 
    
      Column A      Column B      Column E      Column F      Column K
      -----------------------------------------------------------------
         11805      Yes           Group         11808 11809   %d\Actors,%d

    IMPORTANT: Do NOT change anything else in the line.


  9. On the Edit menu, click Find. Type Scribble.act in the Find what box, and then click Find Next. Click Close.


  10. Make a note of the ObjID value in column A of the row. Note the ObjID value of this row and the ObjID values for the next six rows, because you will use them in a later step.

    For example, if the ObjID value happens to be 12913, the following seven ObjID values will be used in a later step: 
    
        12913 12914 12915 12916 12917 12918 12919


  11. Note the row below the row that contains the ObjID that you noted in step 6.

    This row contains a series of eight numbers in column F. These numbers reference the ObjID for the corresponding .acp files for the actor files. These will be replaced by the ObjIDs that you noted in step 10 to install the remaining .act files on the local machine.

    WARNING: Make sure that you select the row BELOW the row you noted in step 6.


  12. Select the cell in column F of the row you selected in step 11.


  13. Press the DELETE key to clear the contents of the cells, and then type the ObjID values you noted in step 10 into the current cell.

    NOTE: Separate the ObjID values by one space. Do NOT change anything else in the line.


  14. On the File menu, click Save. After you save the file, click Exit on the File menu. If you are prompted save changes again, click No.

    This dialog box appears because the setup table file is not in the native Microsoft Excel file format. Do NOT save the file in the Microsoft Excel format.


When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, it copies all of the character (.act) files to your hard disk. You can verify that this is working correctly by installing Microsoft Office 97 and then checking the contents of the folder that contains the files. In most cases, the files are in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Actors folder. There should be a total of nine .act files.

Additional query words: 97 8.00 OFF97 


Keywords          : kbsetup offwinsetup offadmin offrfs 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0a,5.0c,7.0,7.0a,97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999