Office Assistant Setup Error with Workstation Office Install

• Microsoft Office Assistant for Windows, version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

If you have previously completed a workstation installation of the Microsoft Office applications, you receive an error message either when you run the Microsoft Office Assistant Setup program, or when you edit one of the Microsoft Office Assistant files. The error message you receive varies depending on the network software that you are using. The following is a list of possible error messages:

   Directory is read-only
   Cannot create directory
   Cannot save or create file
   Cannot save or write to file
   Could not open the file named...

CAUSE

When you run the Microsoft Office Assistant Setup program, the Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Access components may be installed to the network server program directories. You may receive copy errors when the files are copied to the network server, or you may receive errors when you attempt to save changes to Microsoft Office Assistant files on the network server.

WORKAROUND

To avoid receiving these error messages, do the following to change the directory to which the component files are installed when you run the Microsoft Office Assistant Setup program:

1. Disconnect from the network server that contains the installations of the Microsoft Office applications that you are running.

2. Run the Microsoft Office Assistant Setup program. The majority of the Microsoft Office Assistant files are copied to the OFFASST directory on the hard drive of your computer without the subdirectory structure.

   Setup tells you that all Office applicationss were not installed, or not installed correctly. Choose Continue.

   If you chose Express, you will receive the error "Microsoft Office Assistant Setup was not completed sucessfully."

3. Connect again to the network drive that contains the Microsoft Office applications that you are running.

4. Copy the *.BMP files that are located in the MSBTTNS directory on your hard drive, such as C:\MSBTTNS, to the \MSOFFICE\MSBTTNS subdirectory on the network.

5. Use the Microsoft Office button on the Microsoft Office Manager (MOM) toolbar to customize the Microsoft Office Assistant Button Image to the OABTN.BMP. You only need to complete this step for the first workstation.

NOTE: Because a number of the document files are copied directly into the OFFASST directory when you use this workaround, the files on the hard drive are not in the same location as listed in Microsoft Office Assistant.

Microsoft does not guarantee that this workaround will function correctly in all situations, but it should allow you basic functionality of the Office Assistant components.

MORE INFORMATION

Note that this behavior will not affect the Microsoft Word components or the compound documents installed with the Microsoft Office Assistant, because these files are installed to your user directory when you are running a workstation installation of the Microsoft Office applications.

The Microsoft Office Assistant attempts to install the components in the following directories (where C: designates your user directory or local hard disk drive and S: designates the server drive):

   Component                             Directory
   ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Microsoft Word Templates             C:\WINWORD\TEMPLATES

    Microsoft Excel Templates            S:\MSOFFICE

    Microsoft PowerPoint Templates       S:\MSOFFICE\*
                                         * Appropriate PowerPoint
                                         template directory

    Microsoft Access Databases           S:\MSOFFICE\SAMPAPPS

    Compound Documents                   C:\OFFASST

    Microsoft Font Assistant and Fonts   Windows directory

REFERENCES

For more information about Adding And Removing Office Assistant Components, choose the Search button in the Microsoft Office Assistant and type:

   installing components