dan j bruce

Q: I saved office 2011 to an external HD, now it won't open

I saved Office 2011 to an external hard drive whilst i restarted my iMac to factory settings. I thought i could just save it back in to Application and be able to open it as normal. However now i can't open any Office Applications, it just quotes unexpectedly. I feel i am missing something important here and have limited knowledge of the this, can anyone help?

VIN, iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Sep 19, 2016 12:43 PM

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Q: I saved office 2011 to an external HD, now it won't open

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Sep 19, 2016 12:45 PM in response to dan j bruce
    Level 10 (271,198 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 19, 2016 12:45 PM in response to dan j bruce

    Most likely you failed to save all of the files needed to use Office 2011 including the license file. You will need to delete everything on your computer belonging to Office 2011, then reinstall it from the original distribution media.

  • by rkaufmann87,

    rkaufmann87 rkaufmann87 Sep 19, 2016 12:45 PM in response to dan j bruce
    Level 9 (58,598 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 19, 2016 12:45 PM in response to dan j bruce

    You will need to re-install it to the startup drive. In OS X apps run best if they are kept in the applications folder found on the startup drive.

  • by dan j bruce,

    dan j bruce dan j bruce Sep 19, 2016 12:58 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 19, 2016 12:58 PM in response to Kappy

    Thanks Kappy,

    I think your probably right, however i did save a folder called 'Microsoft User Data' any chance this contains what i need?

    Otherwise I'm delete and re install.

  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Sep 19, 2016 1:13 PM in response to dan j bruce
    Level 10 (271,198 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 19, 2016 1:13 PM in response to dan j bruce

    It contains some of what you need. It belongs in your /Home/Documents/ folder. But the preference files and the license file must also be present for it to work. If you did not save those, then you will need to reinstall Office 2011. When you reinstall Office from scratch you will need your original serial number.