Alea jacta Ouest

Virtually every time I use Excel, I use it to play around with data and plot the results. Excel 2008 had a nasty issue: you could not add custom error bars to a chart. The application would display it if it had been created in a previous version of Excel, but the user interface to create a new one was simply not there.

Well it’s fixed in the Service release 1 I can finally trash Excel 2004 and use 2008 instead (I don’t really need VBA in Excel).

À peu près à chaque fois que j’utilise Excel, c’est pour manipuler des données et créer des graphes pour représenter les résultats. Excel 2008 avait un très sérieux problème : iIl était impossible d’ajouter des barre d’erreurs personnalisées. On pouvait afficher des barres d’erreur crées dans des versions précédentes, mais pas en ajouter de nouvelles. Inutilisable pour moi… C’est enfin une chose corrigée avec la Service Release 1 puisque l’interface permettant d’ajouter des barres d’erreur est de retour Je peux enfin poubelliser Excel 2004 (je n’utilise quasi jamais le VBA dans Excel).

Thanks to Steve Maser, I’ve been able to correct additional issues.

I now have two scripts.
The first one works through Drag & Drop. You can drag files or folders on the script and it will scan for the old file types and replace them with the new ones (recursively in the entire folder if you dropped a folder).
At the end of the process, it tells you that the files have been converted. It doesn’t necessarily mean that files were outdated and were converted, just that all files were scanned and the ones with outdated codes – if you had any – were updated. It’s just an indication that the script is done.

After that, you should be able to double-click the files to open them in Office 2008 SR1.

The second script is a Folder Action Script. I created it because I thought it would be useful to people using either FireFox 2 or Eudora for instance. You can activate the script for your attachment download folder for instance. Every time a new file is downloaded in the folder, the script will run in the background and update the file type for you.

To quote John McGhie:

Users may also experience some character transposition. The WDBN format was an eight-bit format, the W8BN format is expected to contain Unicode.

So files that legitimately had these outdated file types (very very old files) might be affected in a negative way.

1) Place the script in ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts

2) Make sure Folder Actions are enabled

3) attach the script to the folder

Both scripts are here : http://www.cortig.net/files/FileTypeScripts.zip. Use at your own risks!!! No warranty whatsoever (as always).

You do whatever you want with them (under a Creative Commons licence).

Well Steve Maser asked me to come up with a version that would work recursively on all files inside a folder you would drag to the script.
He also suggested that I added the W6BN type (for Word 6/95 files).
So I based the script on one of the examples provided by Apple, and here is the result:

-- This droplet processes files dropped onto the applet
on open these_items
   repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
      set this_item to item i of these_items
      set the item_info to info for this_item
      if folder of the item_info is true then
         process_folder(this_item)
      else
         tell application "Finder"
            
            -- get the file type
            set TheFileType to file type of this_item
            set UpdatedFileType to TheFileType
            
            -- detect old file types for Office files chose the correct one instead
            if TheFileType = "WDBN" then set UpdatedFileType to "W8BN"
            if TheFileType = "W6BN" then set UpdatedFileType to "W8BN"
            if TheFileType = "XLS4" then set UpdatedFileType to "XLS8"
            --   if TheFileType = "SLD8" then set UpdatedFileType to "SLD8"
            
            -- set the new file type
            set file type of this_item to UpdatedFileType
         end tell
      end if
   end repeat
end open
-- Just in case people try to open the script through a double-click in the Finder.
on run
   display dialog "Drop your files or folders to be converted on this icon"
end run

The compiled script is here and again, please make tests only on a copy of your files.
Feedbacks are much welcome.

In the Service release 1 for Office 2008, Microsoft decided to prevent files with old file types to open through a double-click or a drag and drop (and don’t know why and that’s not the point here).
There is a workaround to open these files. MS recommends that you use the Open dialog from within Office applications.
If you have hundreds of old files affected with this problem, that’s hardly a decent solution.

You can batch-wipe out the creator code of your files as well. If you do so, the Finder will then exclusively rely on the extension of the file (eg: .doc, .xls…). That works well… unless you are missing extensions on some of your files.

I’ve been considering a much better approach: correct the file types according to what they are now actually supposed to be.
I wrote a simple AppleScript for that, but I need feeback:

• I know what outdated file types are now blocked by Office for Word and Excel, but not for PowerPoint.
• I need people to test the script and report back in case there is a problem (test on a copy of your files of course!).

Here is the script:

on open TheFiles
     repeat with OneFile in TheFiles
          tell application "Finder"
               
               -- get the file type
               set TheFileType to file type of OneFile
               
               -- detect old file types for Office files chose the correct one instead
               if TheFileType = "WDBN" then set UpdatedFileType to "W8BN"
               if TheFileType = "XLS4" then set UpdatedFileType to "XLS8"
               --     if TheFileType = "SLD8" then set UpdatedFileType to "SLD8"
               
               -- set the new file type
               set file type of OneFile to UpdatedFileType
          end tell
     end repeat
end open
-- warning in case the application is not use as drag and drop
on run
     display dialog "Drop your files to be converted on this icon"
end run


You need to compile it as an application and drag your files on its icon.
You can download the compiled (yet editable) version here.

Grâce à l’aide de Steve Maser, nous sommes parvenus à trouver une solution plus automatisable pour réparer les fichiers qui refusent de s’ouvrir dans Office 2008 SR1 d’un simple double-clic dans le Finder.

Le problème semble être lié aux codes Type et Créateur de ces fichiers.
Leur suppression permet de pouvoir à nouveau ouvrir ces ficheirs d’un double-clic.

Il existe de nombreux utilitaires pouvant vous assister dans cette tâche. Celui qui me vient en premier à l’esprit est bien sûr File Buddy. Il est un peu honéreux pour n’effectuer que cette simple tâche malheureusement ($39.95).
FileXaminer peut faire la même chose pour beaucoup moins cher ($6). L’application peut également fonctionner en mode démo pendant 14 jours.

Thanks to the help of with Steve Maser, we found a solution that should allow to batch process files that refuse to open through a Double-click with the Service Pack 1 for Office 2008.

The problem appears to be related to the file Type and Creator.
Wiping out the file and creator for these files fixes the issue and allows you to open them through a regular double-click again,

There are several utilities that allow you to batch process files to wipe out the file Type and Creator. The first one that immediately comes to my mind is File Buddy. It’s a little bit on the pricey side for performing just this task unfortunately ($39.95).
FileXaminer can do the same thing and is a lot cheaper ($6). It can also run in demo mode for 14 days.

Office 2004 11.4.2 is now available on the Mactopia website

This one is a simple security update, but as always, still well worth installing.

Office 2004 11.4.2 est désormais disponible sur site Web de Mactopia

Juste une mise à jour de sécurité, mais ça vaut toujours le coup de l’installer.

A second major announcement bout Office from Macworld. It looks like the Service Release 1 for Office 2008 is just around the corner. It is to be released today and bring a ton of improvements in all Office applciations.
It will be avilable on MacTopia and probably shortly after through auto-update.

EDIT: It is now available. Roughly 180MB…

Une seconde nouvelle pour Office de conséquence annoncée par Macworld. Il semblerait que le Service Release 1 pour Office 2008 est ur le point d’être mis à disposition. Il devrait être disponible aujourd’hui et apporter nombre de corrections dans chacune des application d’Office.
Il sera en ligne sur MacTopia et probablement rapidement après par les mises à jour automatiques.

ÉDITION : La mise à jour est maintenant disponible. Pratiquement 180 Mo…

Macworld just announced tht Microsoft is to bring back Visual Basic in Office for Mac.
Huge news indeed. It looks like the myriad of users who said that they had to rely on it for their day to day work made a difference. It should come for the next major version, in 2010, or 2011…

Macworld vient juste d’annoncer que Microsoft va ramener le Visual Basic dans Office pour Mac.
C’est une énorme nouvelle. On dirait que la myriade d’utilisateurs qui ont fait savoir qu’ils avaient besoin du VBA dans leur travail quotidien a penché dans l balance. Le VBA devrait revenir dans la prochaine version majeure d’Office 2010 ou 2011…