Sage Act! 2011 Premium (SP1 HF2), MS Office / Outlook 2010 SP1 Addin / Integration issues [ Edited ]

[rick_pri]

Hi there,

We're currently having issues with the Addin integration functionality since the installation of SP1 for MS Office.  Unfortunately, once you have installed SP1 for MS Office 2010, uninstalling it doesn't resolve the issues, and neither does removing and reinstalling the two programs involved here.

All computers run pretty much the same software, and the issue seems somewhat sporadic; but it may be isolated to Win7 64 SP1, as Vista 64 SP2 seems to be fine.

Here's what it should look like when integration is working correctly:

And here's what I'm seeing generally:

This doesn't just affect MS Outlook, and it affects pretty much all the integration between MS Office and Act!, I think.

An example is, printing an attachment, doesn't attach the printed document to the history of the record, or some such (it's not something that I do in Act! so I'm a little fuzzy on the details).

[GLComputing]

First try updating to HF4 as per this ACT! Knowledge Base article -

http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27342

Needs to be done on ALL systems sharing the database

If still fails, see this ACT! Knowledge Base article -

http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23022

[rick_pri]

Okay, I ruled out pretty much everything sent over.

Anyone should be able to replicate this bug if they have the following software:

Windows 7 x64

Office 2010

Act 2011 Premium

I just checked this on a bare box build with no patches.  Installed Windows 7, installed Office 2010, installed Act 2011 + SP1 +HF4.  Same result as my previous post.

[rick_pri]

The only machines that have got the full compliment of icons were those that were recently upgrade from Office 2003 to 2010.

[GLComputing]

One question is Office 2010 install as 32bit?
You can check with File | Help in Outlook

[rick_pri]

Yep that's right. I fell foul of that when I was first testing deployment of Office 2010.

Sage seem to be very [Edit: Inappropriate content removed per Community guidelines] when it comes to supporting 64bit technologies.

[GLComputing]

Not just Sage ... many Microsoft products still won't connect with Office 2010 x64. In fact, Microsoft recommends only using it in x32 unless you have a need for Excel spreadsheets >2GB

Microsoft knows all about the 64-bit problems, although the 'Softies hardly trumpet the shortcomings in their marketing material. If you know where to look, you can find the whole story. For example, the official Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering blog puts it this way:

Few people remember, but Office 2003 had a 64-bit version. It failed so badly Microsoft passed on a 64-bit Office 2007.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/office2010/archive/2010/02/23/understanding-64-bit-office.aspx

[rick_pri]

x64 is the future, until we get to 128 bit processors. This long drawn out move is just ridiculous.  I'll also add, that the two versions are incompatible, so the sooner we can all get onto x64 Office the sooner we have compatibility with future Office releases should the x86 option be dropped; a la Server 2008 R2.

Are you able to test what I said regarding replicating the issue?

[GLComputing]

Well, it's still not something you can lay at Sage's feet ... when the MS engineering dept are still advising against Office x64

I use Windows 7 x64 and Office 2010 ... all the icons show for me

[rick_pri]

Well, until people can move, they won't. Sage only have to provide the option, and let us deal with making the choice; at the moment they are refusing us the option of making the choice which is what I object to.

Part of the issue with x64 is file incompatibility, but that will always be there. Does that mean that we never move away from x86 versions of office? No, it just means that the change over should be made as quickly as possible.

Anyway, back to the point. Did you upgrade from a previously working version of Office to Office 2010? Say, Office 2007 for example?