New Office name

Reader Matt Ernst has made one of those mistakes that we all make from time from time. He writes:

I have a problem with the “splash” screen of Office for Mac, which I purchased recently. In setting it up, I typed not only my full name, but also my nickname, thinking I was to do both. Now, every time I run an Office application, I see both names. How can I get back to that splash screen, short of reinstalling Office, and make the necessary correction?

You can force Office’s Setup Assistant to rerun (thus allowing you to reconfigure your user information) by following these steps:

Download a copy of Marecel Bresink’s free TinkerTool. Launch TinkerTool and, in the Finder tab, enable the Show Hidden and System Files option and click Relaunch Finder.

Follow this path: /Applications/Microsoft Office/Office and locate the OfficePID file. Drag this file to the Trash.

Zip on over to your user’s folder and follow this path: /Library/Preferences/Microsoft and move these files to the Trash:

Carbon Registration Database

Office Registration Cache

Microsoft Office Settings

The latter two files may have a number in parentheses after their name. A (10) indicates that these files belong to Office v.X whereas an (11) tells you that the files are linked to Office 2004.

Don’t empty the Trash until you’re sure you’ve completed this process properly! If something goes wrong, copy these files back into their original location. That way you’ll still have a working copy of Office.

Launch an Office application and the Setup Assistant appears. Enter the correct information here. Note that you’ll also be prompted for your Office product key so be sure that you have it on hand.

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