Have you ever wanted to report a bug or request a feature for an application made by Apple, Adobe or Microsoft? Each company offers you the opportunity to do just that. Use the following web page addresses to submit your bug reports or feature request.

Apple Product Feedback and Feature Request

Microsoft Product Feedback and Feature Request

Adobe Product Feedback and Feature Request

I should mention that you shouldn’t expect to receive any feedback when you fill-out one of these forms. I had a conversation with an Apple Store manager who mentioned that when he had visited Apple’s headquarters, he’d seen a room full of people who were reading and processing all of the feedback which they received.

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Are you unable to install Office 2008 Update 12.2.9 because you’re told you have to quit Sync Services, but you can’t find SyncServices? Use this work around.

In order to get the 12.2.9 update install, I had to stop using Microsoft’s built-in auto-update feature and install do this installation by hand using these steps.

• Download the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 update from Microsoft’s web site by clicking the Download button. The update should be placed in your Downloads folder if your Mac uses Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. It’ll be named Office2008-1229UpdateEN.dmg
• Close and save all open documents and quit all applications.
• Safe Boot.  We’re using Safe Boot to ensure that Sync Services is not running. A Safe Boot takes longer then a normal startup so please be patient.
• When your Mac has finished starting up double-click the Office2008-1229UpdateEN.dmg file located in your Downloads folder. (Or wherever it is located.)
• Double-click the Office 2008 12.2.9 Update.mpkg to start the installer.
• Follow the on-screen instructions which are displayed. Mostly you just need to click on the Continue and Agree buttons a few times. Eventually you’ll be asked to enter your Mac account’s username and password.
• The 12.2.9 update will be installed. Quit the installer after it has finished.
• Restart your Mac normally. In other words do not do another Safe Boot.

Congratulations. You’re done. The update is installed. You can confirm this by opening Word and then selecting “About Word” from the Word menu. You’ll see version 12.2.9 listed.

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When you open Entourage 2004 does it immediately display the spinning multi-color ball icon? This icon simply indicates that Entourage is thinking, but if this icon never goes away then Entourage is getting stuck while trying to complete a task. There are a number of possible causes but over the past two months I’ve had 5 different clients all report this same problem and in every case the problem was caused by a message being stuck in Entourage’s “Outbox”. The Outbox is where Entourage temporarily stores an email message between when you click the “Send Now” button and when Entourage finishes sending the message. For reasons I haven’t been able to figure out, sometimes Entourage is not able to send the message and it gets stuck trying to send it.

There are two ways to fix this problem. Option 1 – I realized that if I disconnected the Mac from the Internet by either unplugging its ethernet cable or turning off Airport then I could open Entourage and it would not try to send the message. Then, I could simply delete the message in the Outbox. Then, reconnect the ethernet cable or turn Airport back on.

Option 2 – I did some online research and learned that people have been having this problem for years and there is an even easier fix. Simple hold down the shift key while clicking on Entourage’s icon to open it. Holding down the shift key disables the built-in schedule to automatically get for new email messages and to send email messages in the Outbox. This solution came from the Entourage Help Page which has been invaluable over the years when I’ve needed to troubleshoot Entourage issues.

Additional Note: A further curiosity in this situation is that Entourage seems to be frequently getting hung up while specifically trying to send a forwarded copy of an Alaskan Airlines itinerary. I don’t know what is unique or problematic about these emails from Alaska Airlines but I can only guess that Alaska Air has recently changed the contents of their itinerary emails and that one of these changes somehow causes Entourage to get stuck when it is asked to forward these emails.

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