Posts Tagged Microsoft Office
The connected state of Office Add-Ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed
Posted by Mark Raborn in Office on 2009/01/22
Proactively enabling and disabling Addins in Microsoft Office can often help solve a buggy experience with Word, Excel, Outlook and other Microsoft applications that allow Addins.
Sometimes however, an application can be disabled by the Operating System itself. When this occurs, it occurs within “the context of a User account” . This means that it is possible to disable (or have the system automatically disable) an Addin for only one User. This experience can be very frustrating when the User did not want that Addin to be disabled. Also, any account that is operating under least priviledge (meaing a limited privilege account within the system), may not be allowed to re-enable the Addin.
To Enable Addins for Microsoft Office Programs (when disabled by the system) you must use the RunAs command. The RunAs service is then used to Run the Office program in the “context” of a user account with a higher privilege.
A couple of things are happening here:
1. Even Microsoft Office can limit the ability of a user to control parameters. This is not so much that a User does not have control over their own Word, Excel, or Outlook programs as an example but because “when an Addin becomes disabled, an entry is made in the Registry for that Local Machine”. Registry entries require “privilege” to alter (even from within the menus of Microsoft Office).
2. In earlier versions of Windows (Windows XP, Windows 2000) the RunAs command allowed a program to be launched from the Start menu or from the Programs menu using Run as administrator. Windows Vista will require a little more work by either opening Windows Explorer and navigating to the executable (i.e. WINWORD.exe) and then using RunAs from the (right-click) context menu OR by actually creating a shortcut to that executable in the Quick Launch toolbar (where you can again right-click and select RunAs from there).
RunAs can be a little confusing for people who are new to it. This article at the Microsoft Office Web Site explains more about using RunAs together with Microsoft Office
What do I do if I get a message that the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed?
In my particular case today, I have an installation of Microsoft Word 2007 in which the “system” has automatically disabled an Addin for Business Contact Manager “BCM” for Microsoft Outlook. This occured because of a fatal failure between Word and the BCM Addin. When trying to re-enable the Addin, the following ERROR pop-up appears:
The connected state of Office Add-Ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed
So to ”enable” the BCM Addin in Microsoft Office Word 2007 (example on Windows Vista) do the following :
- GO TO Start | Computer
- open the hard drive on which the Office Programs were installed
- GO TO Program Files | Microsoft Office | Office12 | right-click on WINWORD.exe |from the context menu select Run as administrator | if User Account Control is active select continue
- Word will launch in the context of the Administrator account
- click on the Office button and from the bottom right corner of the dialog select Word Options
- select Add-Ins
- at the bottom of the Word Options dialog box is the Manage: drop down | select Disabled Items and press the Go button
- select your Addin from the Disabled Items list (i.e highlight it) and click Enable
- click OK until you are out of the Word Options dialog
- close Word and then re-open Word to confirm the Addin has been enabled
Thanks to My Digital Life and the Microsoft Office web site for the help.
thanks for reading
Mark Raborn
WIGITAL
Demos and Vidoes – Using Business Contact Manager Microsoft Office Accounting and Point Of Sale “Together” (ARTICLE 1)
Posted by Mark Raborn in Accounting on 2008/07/24
Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Accounting and Dynamics Point of Sale all have the ability to integrate with one another. These software products are full of features on an individual basis. When you combine them together and integrate their features, they offer impressive tools and great price/performance value.
So what do they provide ??? – Customer Relationship Management, Accounting, Marketing, Project Management, Job Costing, Estimating, Point of Sale, Online Sales, eBay Sales, PayPal integration, Credit Card transaction processing, and more…
Today (well tonight actually), I’m including some links to videos, demos, integration examples and other “neat stuff” relating to Microsoft Office Accounting. Viewing this material is a quick way to understand the benefits gained when integrating Office Accounting with the CRM piece “Business Contact Manager for Outlook”. These particular videos and webcasts were chosen for the busy Entrepreneur or Small Business owner. They do not require a lot of reading or digging through web articles. Just click the links, watch them and learn.
ALSO: in addition to checking out the Demo and Video links, you will be happy to learn you can put more than one user on this platform. You can read about How To Integrate the software packages for multiple users system by checking out the Article series on “BCM, MOS and POS”. WIGITAL has written an entire series on this subject for the community (with technical walkthroughs). Office Accounting, Business Contact Manager and Dynamics Point of Sale can be integrated on the network where you can reach a whole new level of value for multiple users. Integration runs on Microsoft SQL Server. The enduring benefit (aside from all the great stuff the software does in the first place) is that your company can “scale the deployment and grow” while staying on the one software platform. Ask us about it.
Links to the series:
- Article 1 – Demos and Videos – using Business Contact Manager (BCM), Microsoft Office Accounting (MOA), and Dynamics Point Of Sale (POS) “TOGETHER”
- Article 2 – SQL Database Install – deployment of “Remote Database” for BCM, MOA and POS
- Article 3 – SQL Database Configuration – Security Settings and Service Accounts for BCM, MOS and POS
- Article 4 – BCM Client Installation – Connect Business Contact Manager to Remote SQL Database
- Article 5 – Overview of Database and File Locations – “under the hood” in BCM, MOS and POS
- Article 6 – Moving the BCM Database – SQL detach .mdf .ldf copy and re-attach the company
- Article 7 – MOA Client Installation – Integrating Office Accounting on a network with Business Contact Manager for Outlook
now… on to the Demos
Demos and Videos on using Microsoft Office Accounting, Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007 and Dynamics Point of Sale
“Quick” Video Demos
- Access Customers Financial History – from Outlook
- open a Customer Record in Outlook, click the Financial Summary button OR Financial Transactions button to see details about financials
- Bill for Time – directly from Outlook
- take Calendar appointments in Outlook, create Time Entries, then convert to Invoices
- Create Quotes and convert them to Invoices – all within Outlook
- the list of Items and Services that you sell is imported from Office Accounting. When you are ready to make a quote, do so directly from Outlook. Convert to Invoice to send to Office Accounting.
Microsoft has negotiated low rates on Credit Card Processing transactions completed directly within Office Accounting. These transactions are processed online through the Office Accounting interface without the need for a traditional terminal or credit card machine.
- open a “new” Cash Sale form, enter the item and the customer information
- enter the customers payment details for the credit card
- If you’ve purchased a USB Mag stripe reader, you can enter the data automatcially
- swiping the card gets you a lower rate on the transaction
- Print the customer’s receipt for signature
NOTE: Discount rates are as low as 1.75%
To learn more, open Office Accounting and from the Customers menu select Credit Card Processing
Accounting Software and Financial Management (free Office Accounting Express version) – 7:23 length
If you can get past the offensive intro “hype Guy” (drag time marker to the .55 second mark to get past intro), Sr. Product Manager John Thuneby shares some interesting facts about financials within small businesses. This is a demonstration of the “free” Office Accounting Express product.
FACTS
- there are 25 million Small Business in the United States
- less than 5 million use accounting or financial management software (yes, it’s true)
- 675,000 Small Businesses start every year
- 80% of those business fail… the reasons include:
- ownership has no business plan?
- the business cannot OR does not organize their finances?
- the business runs out of cash?
Financial Accounting Help – Microsoft Small Business (Office Accounting Pro) – 8:29 length
Larry Garcia – Partner Technology Specialist in Office Accounting – reviews Office Accounting Professional (this version of Office Accounting fully integrates with Business Contact Manager and Point of Sale).
Overview: Office Accounting is a full featured business management package, designed from the ground up, specifically for Small Business. Invoice your customers, track your expenses, bank online, sell online with integration to eBay and PayPal.
BUSINESS CONTACT MANAGER
Get Connected – Tech Talk – Office 2007 Business Contact Mgr
Office 2007 Business Contact Manager & Publisher
POINT OF SALE
Retail Management System – Point of Sale Demo – review features at your own pace
This is a great DEMO to learn about Dynamics Point of Sale at your pace. The DEMO tool is easily navigated. Review the key features of Point of Sale and see an example of a “real world” business owner who chose Dynamics Point of Sale as his retail sales software solution.
EDUCATIONAL WEBCASTS
New Integrated Services in Microsoft Office Accounting – 42:00 length
Darin Browning, business development manager with Microsoft Corporation, shows you how you can spend less time managing finances and more time growing your business.
DATA IN MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007
For “very techy people”: a technical webcast on how data works across Microsoft Office Applications (about all of Office)
Enjoy the demos. Check out our articles series as well. Contact us if you need to. 
Thanks for reading.
Mark Raborn – WIGITAL