Missing Office 2000 icons (Office 2000 SR1)

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I just installed Office 2000 on a new laptop running with Windows2000. I already had Office 2000 but had to install Office 97 (Word 97 only) first for it to see that I was legit. The install seemed to go great, but when I go to Start and do a right click and open where I can move programs around, create folders etc, the Folder for Office 2000 is there, but it is empty.

When I just go to Start > Programs, all of the Office programs are listed there. Is this a Windows 2000 glitch? I can create shortcuts and place them in the Office 2000 Folder, but I worry that there might be something wrong.

Anyone had this problem before?

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When you click on one of the icons in the program menu, does it launch the application? Have you checked your Win2K settings to see if you’re set up to display those files?

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Hi Charlotte, and thanks for the response.

Yes, the icons do bring up the program. And since the Office 2000 folder is present in the programs window, then I can’t imagine why Win2K would not want to show what is in the folder. I worked around the problem, and I made shortcuts to put on the task bar,and as I did that, the files disappeared from the Programs window that you normally view those apps in. I made more shortcuts and then moved them to the Office 2000 folder.

I have only installed the Office 2000 suite so far, but it seems to do the same thing with every application. Tomorrow I will install different programs and see what happens then.

I am curious though, where would I look to see if there is a setting that is set incorrectly that might be causing this? I am new to Win2K.

Thanks,

Marilyn

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Sorry, but I’m biased. I’ve only worked with Win2K on client machines and so far, I hate it. It’s hard to manage and seems to have a mind of its own.

Try opening the MyComputer icon and then select Folder Options from the View menu (I’m working from memory here, so if you don’t find it there, look around). I think it’s the Advanced tab that shows you all the myriad settings allowed in Win2K, and there may be one there that’s hiding stuff you don’t need hidden.

If that doesn’t work for you, I’d suggest posting a question in the Windows 2000 forum with a link back to this thread.

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Hi Charlotte,

Well, this is my first experience with Win2K and I am pretty open minded. But I am beginning to remember my computer tech saying something about this problem that I am having. I am very organized and I like to organize my folders under Programs so that I only have ten or so folders. (Example: I create a folder called Desktop Publications and then put all my desktop type apps in that folder in Programs). I’ve installed quite a few programs now, and nothing is appearing in the Programs folder where you can organize them. Thus, when you open Programs from Start, the normal way, eventually you have a kazillion apps to look through to find what you want.

I do use the task bar to store my favorite apps which helps, but I am still irked that they seem to have removed my option to be more organized.

So far, other than that, the new Windows hasn’t caused me any other problems. And I have to say that it does seem to be more stable. I’ve been putting it to the test with my new laptop. But then the laptop is a very high quality machine, so maybe I’m giving too much credit to Windows2K.

Thanks for the suggestions. Every bit helps

Marilyn

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I haven’t found it to be any more stable than NT, which is what I currently run, and it’s much harder to find some utilities and tools in. Have you discovered yet how to turn off the blasted adaptive menus in the Windows interface yet? They’re easy to turn off in Office, but to turn them off in Windows so that you see all the listings under Start–>Programs, you have to go to the Start–>Taskbar etc. (I can never remember what the exact selection is in Win2K) and then turn off the Personalize checkbox. I have no idea why they thought that would be a good idea, but it looks like we’re stuck with adaptive menus whether we like them or not. I know they got carried through into XP, both Office and Windows.

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Marilyn,
I have to ask if you installed office as Administrator and why did you have to install office97? If the latter was because you were upgrading, you could have put in your old office disc when the upgrade searches for a previous install then put the upgrade disc back in to continue with the install. This way there are not any legacy issues.

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Hi there.

Yes, I guess I did install as Administrator. I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t set anything up for working with a network, or so I thought. I had a lot of other things going on at the time and didn’t see the very scanty booklet that came with the Windows CD. It came already installed. So wasn’t expecting to have to set up anything. Just turn on the computer. I may want to network my laptop and desktop computer at some point, but it is not a necessity for the time being.

I have had this problem before when trying to install the Office Suite when getting a new computer. It will never allow me to just slip in the old Office Suite Disk to allow the new version to find proof that I already have Office. It always says it cannot find the files it needs to see when I try that. So I just installed Word from the old Office Suite and then it gave me no grief in installing the new version. I’ve never had any problems with Office installing it this way, but it is a pain and it irks me that I have to do this every time.

Marilyn

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Hi Charlotte,

I guess you are one step ahead of me on the adaptive menus. I’m not sure what you are talking about. Maybe it is a good thing don’t. But now you have my curiousity up and I will look it up. Maybe I know what you are talking about and just don’t know it by name.

Actually I am used to using Win98, so Windows 2000 is a bit new to me. I will study up on all of this though. I think we might be talking about something about “Programs” though. It used to be that when I installed a new application that you could go to Start, do a right click, and then a window would come up with “Programs” as a selection. You could double click on that and then see all your installed programs. I liked to organize that so when you opened Programs from the Start menu you didn’t have everything out there that you had installed in a long list. I created my own directories and classified each application in a folder. For example, I made a “Graphics” folder and then I put all my graphics programs in that folder. So when I pulled up Programs from the Start menu I only had about 10 or 12 folders to look at and it was easier to find things that way for me. Is that not possible any more?

Marilyn

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If you’re talking about Win2K behavior, that *is* adaptive menus at work. Adaptive menus “learn” the items you use most frequently, so those are the ones it displays when you drop down a menu. In Office, if you wait long enough, the rest of the menu will drop down as well. In Windows itself, I haven’t seen the additional items become available, and Windows 2000 seems to think of them as “personalized” menus.

Since I don’t like getting that personal with Windows, I figured out how to turn off personalized menus so that everything comes up. Try what I suggested, turn off personalized menus, and see if your programs come back again. Windows 2000 seems to organize the start menus differently that previous versions of Windows, so don’t be surprised if you see far fewer categories and don’t really need to reorganize them to shorten the list.

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Ah, this is all starting to make more sense. I am used to the adaptive menus, now that I know what they are called. Actually I like them in Office and other MS programs. There seem to be so many options that it is nice to have the ones most often used easier to get to.

And if WK2 wants to lessen the load on me in organization, I have no problem with that either. I just don’t want 200 items to paw through when looking for an application. In actuality, I rarely go to Programs anyway since I have my most often used apps listed in the task bar menu area. So I guess I’m all set and just looking for trouble that wasn’t there. At least so far. Thanks again for the help.

I am completely self taught on a computer living in an area where there is little help. I’ve been using a computer for eight years and have a king’s ransome invested in manuals. I really didn’t want to invest in a Windows 2000 manual since it seems pretty easy to figure out. But I may bite the bullet and get one. I have to say that these forums are the most useful, and just pouring over the archives of past posts is very educational.

Thanks again for the help

Marilyn

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Each to his own taste. I hate the things and don’t like Windows or Office second guessing me. They’re probably OK for most users but are horribly inconvenient for developers since we tend to *want* exactly the items that aren’t frequently used.

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Hi Charlotte,

Well, I solved the mystery, at least for me If you perform a right click on “Start”, there is a new option there called “Open all users”. When you click on that, it takes you to the window I am used to where you can see “all” of the programs you have installed and re-arrange them the way you want. I guess from what I read, if you don’t use a program for awhile it hides it, and that is fine with me. If I decide to start using it again, then I know where to find it.

On the active menus, I guess I like the way it keeps track of what I personally use the most on a menu and then raises that function to the top of the list. Since you can still click on the arrows at the bottom of the list to open it fully, it works great for me. You are right though on “to each his own”. I guess what is nice is that we can all customize these programs to suit us individually. I guess that’s all any of us can hope and ask for.

Thanks again for the input. It is much appreciated.

Marilyn

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