How do I install MS Office Professional 07?

I'm a brand new MAC user and a casual/elementary computer user. Recently purchased a 24" IMAC OS X 10.5.6. I have 3 GB and I have successfully installed Parallels 4.0 and Windows Vista Home Premium with no problems. However, can't figure out how to install Office Professional which I need for work. Any assist is appreciated.

Installation is no different than native Windows Vista. Only, you'll be installing it to a virtual machine which is running Vista.

Start the Parallels Vista VM and insert the Office 7 disk. The autorun feature of the CD should automatically start the MS installer. From there, just follow the prompts. Hopefully, you have made your VM large enough as Office Professional will easily take up around 2 GB or more if you decide to install all features.

Regards.

I did try that and even got as far as putting in the product key. As it started to set up I keep getting a msg to put the disk in Drive D. It seems to not be able to read it.

Make sure you have the Parallels guest tools installed and working. Those tools provide the VM with the ability to utilize the Superdrive and other hardware of your iMac.

Office 7 Pro is a two disk set - correct? Are you sure it's not asking for the second disk? Once the Office installer starts, you should be presented with a dialog asking if you wish to do a custom install, complete install, etc.

A complete install may require inserting disk two. I have Office 7 Standard which is a one disk install so am not sure of how the installer works for the Pro version.

Regards.

stick in the CD and click install

Trouble intalling MS Office 2007 Professional

Thanks for your assist. This has been frustrating. I have a two disk set. Parrallels tools are installed. When I finally get the VM to recognize the disk (sometime it takes a couple of trys) and I have been able to enter the product key, two things have happened. One, the Installation Progress window pops up and it says installing but no progress shows on the progress bar or 2) progress begins but then I get a msg saying "Setup cannot find Excel.en-us\EcelLR.cab. Browse to a valid installation source and then click OK." Not sure what to do then.
Thanks

I feel I have to ask 2 questions here:

1) Has this copy of office been installed/used before without issue?

2) Is this a legal valid copy of Office that YOU purchased or otherwise legally own?

No intent to offend and I'm not trying to accuse. This just seems like the kind of thing that would happen if everything was not on the "up and up" as it were.

baggss said:

This just seems like the kind of thing that would happen if everything was not on the "up and up" as it were.

Click to expand...

I've seen errors similar to "Setup cannot find Excel.en-us\EcelLR.cab. Browse to a valid installation source and then click OK." before when working with VLA copies of Office. It could very well be a legit copy. On the other hand, you could very well be right. Is this a legit copy?

No offense. Yes. It is a legit copy. Never used. What is a VLA copy?

clawdeb said:

No offense. Yes. It is a legit copy. Never used. What is a VLA copy?

Click to expand...

Volume License Agreement. If you don't know what it is, you probably don't have it.

Have you tried finding an answer on a Windows/Office forum. To be honest, this sounds like a Windows/Office problem and not a problem with Parallels.

After your post, I called MS for assist. They confirmed it was VLA. They attempted to help me remotely but was unable due to the fact I was trying to run it through a VM. They advised me to contact Parallels. I haven't had the time yet to try and run that down but I have a feeling I'm SOL.

clawdeb said:

After your post, I called MS for assist. They confirmed it was VLA. They attempted to help me remotely but was unable due to the fact I was trying to run it through a VM. They advised me to contact Parallels. I haven't had the time yet to try and run that down but I have a feeling I'm SOL.

Click to expand...

I have a feeling that a VLA copy (even though it's legally licensed) will not install to a VM. That would mean Parallels or Fusion. MS has restricted installing certain operating systems (Vista Basic, Vista Home) to a VM so it would not surprise me that they might have the same restriction for certain licensed copies of Office.

You may be better off creating a Boot Camp partition and installing a copy of Windows and then Office that way.

Just a suggestion....

Regards.

I'll give it that a try. Do I need to uninstall Parallels?
Thanks

clawdeb said:

I'll give it that a try. Do I need to uninstall Parallels? Thanks

Click to expand...

You don't have to uninstall Parallels, but as a recommendation - after installing Windows to the BC partition, do not use the BC installation from Parallels. In other words, keep the BC partition with Windows separate from any VM use with Parallels. Reason being is to avoid possible corruption of the Windows installation.

Your VLA copy of Office 2007 Pro should install without difficulty. It is after all, the same as installing it to a native Windows machine. Let us know how it goes.

Regards.

Thanks for all your help, but no joy using BC. Guess there are too many variables.

When you are running Windows in either Parallels or booting your Mac into Windows using Boot Camp, there should be no functional difference from running Windows on generic PC hardware.

Your Mac *is* a PC. There are no major differences at a hardware level. So, the differentiating factor is the operating system. When you run Windows, it's not in emulation.

With that said, if you can't just pop in the disc, open it from "My Computer" and start the installation, then the disc is faulty.

Most companies that do volume licensing with Microsoft are also eligible for Microsoft's "Home Use Program". With the HUP, you can purchase a copy of Windows for your own use for $20 (both Mac and Windows versions are available). For that $20, you get a properly licensed and commercial disc that is supported by MS. I would recommend you check with your company's IT department to see if they have the needed contact information to order such a copy.