OFFXP: Office Shortcut Tab Is Unavailable (290379)

WORKAROUND

If you want to customize the Office shortcuts on the Programs menu, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Create Your Own Shortcuts

You can create your own shortcuts to the Office programs and replace the ones installed by Office with the ones that you create.

NOTE: Any shortcuts that you create by using this method are not Windows Installer shortcuts and do not take advantage of the features offered by the Windows Installer. See the "More Information" section of this article.

For example, to replace the shortcut for Microsoft Word, follow these steps.

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Click Start, point to Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.
2. In Windows Explorer, open the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder, and then delete the shortcut for Word.
3. In Windows Explorer, open the \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10 folder, and then right-click Winword.exe.
4. Click Create Shortcut on the shortcut menu.
5. Right-click the shortcut that you just created, and then click Properties. Modify the necessary fields on the Shortcut tab, and then click OK.
6. Move this shortcut to the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs folder.

NOTE: Your custom shortcut may be replaced by a Windows Installer shortcut if you name the shortcut Microsoft Word, and if either of the following is true:

• You use the Detect and Repair feature in Office, and the Restore my shortcuts while repairing check box is selected. -or-
  
  
• You select the Repair Office option in Maintenance Mode Setup, click Next, click the Detect and Repair errors in my Office installation option, and then select the Restore My Start Menu Shortcuts check box.

In this situation, you must recreate your custom, non-Windows Installer shortcuts.

Method 2: Customize Shortcuts with the Custom Installation Wizard

The Custom Installation Wizard (CIW) is a tool available in the Microsoft Office Resource Kit (ORK). (To obtain, see the "More Information" section of this article.) The advantage of using the CIW is that the custom shortcuts you create this way are Windows Installer shortcuts that take advantage of the features offered by the Windows Installer.

To create custom shortcuts by using the CIW, follow these steps:

1. Start the Custom Installation Wizard.
2. In page 2 of the CIW, locate and select the .msi file from your installation source. For example, select Proplus.msi if you are using Microsoft Office Professional with FrontPage.
   
   NOTE: You can only use the CIW with Enterprise editions of Office XP. If the .msi file that you are using contains "ret" (for example, Proret.msi) in the file name, you are using a non-Enterprise edition of Office.
3. Provide a path and name for the transform file (.mst) in page 4 of the CIW.
4. In the Add, Modify, or Remove Shortcuts dialog box of the CIW, select the shortcut that you want to customize, and then click Modify.
5. In the Add/Modify Shortcut Entry dialog box, specify any or all of the following items:
   • Target
   • Location
   • Name
   • Start in (location)
   • Shortcut key
   • Run (window state)
   • Icon
6. Make the changes to the shortcut properties, and then click OK.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for each of the shortcuts that you want to customize.
8. Click Finish. The last page in the CIW provides the command-line switches for running Office Setup by using the transform file created by the CIW.
   
   NOTE: The /qb+ switch on the end of the example command line is optional.
   
   
9. Run Office Setup using the command line provided by the CIW. For example, your command line may be similar to the following
   
   

   path\Setup.exe Transforms=drive:\MyShortcuts.mst

   where path is the path to Setup.exe, and drive:\MyShortcuts is the path and name of the transform file (.mst).