Best way to resolve Bugs on Migration to NEW COMPU (Office Prof 2003)

[jrklein]

My current machine with office professional 2003 has some "quirks" in it that like always being asked if I want to update remote links even though this is set to be automically done, outlook express not showing contacts on main screen but can search on them. I HAVE JUST BOUGHT A NEW MACHINE and WOULD LIKE TO PRESERVE the macros and dot files and toolbars. So Do I use the office migration of settings function or do I just copy all my files over and then do a clean install on the new computer and it should find the normal.dot and all the extra custom buttons on the toolbars.
Any help appreciated best way to get a clean migration holding all the good settings and yet getting rid of office's bad habits
Jerome

[HansV]

If your current installation is quirky, I would be reluctant to use copies of the old Normal.dot, Personal.xls, Excel.xlb etc. on the new computer directly - you might inherit some of the quirks. I would still copy them to the new computer, but in a separate folder, not in the default location. You can then transfer individual modules manually.

I don't know how the Save my settings wizard operates internally, i.e. whether it is likely to transfer corrupted settings. Perhaps others will have suggestions.

[jrklein]

Hans:
Noted, i will do a clean install and overwrite each file separately, ie the normal.dot, Personal.xls, Excel.xlb. If I have added toobars and buttons to toolbars both in word and in excel, which files will I have to overwrite beside the ones just mentioned And are normal, personal and xlb the only crucial ones as far as my personal happieness goes???
Jerome

[HansV]

Normal.dot contains the following customizations for Word:
- Toolbar customizations
- Macros
- Styles
- AutoText entries
- Formatted AutoCorrect entries.

Note: unformatted AutoCorrect entries are stored in .acl files. See How can I import and export all my AutoCorrect entries, so they can be transferred to another machine?

Personal.xls contains the following customizations for Excel:
- Macros

Excel.xlb contains the following customizations:
- Toolbar customizations.
- Custom lists.

Most settings specified in Tools | Options (for all Office apps) are stored in the Windows registry. If you have problems with your current installation, I strongly recommend against exporting your Office registry settings from the old PC, and importing them on the new PC.

Outlook Express is not part of the Office suite, it comes with Internet Explorer. Since I don't use OE myself, I don't know which files you can/should copy.

[jrklein]

Hans:
Terriffic I have a better handle on this now, bottom line forget the registry.
Also OUTLOOK where does it store the toolbars and macros???
Thanks
Jerome

[HansV]

See <post#=389934>post 389934</post#> for Outlook.