Greetings,
Perhaps "regular" rick_e may know this one - I hope.
I have Office 2002 installed on this computer based on Windoze XP Home.
I have besides the Word and Excel pkgs, Publisher and FP2002.
I decided to upgrade FP to 2003. Good choice, but now I have problems!
My office apps keep shouting that I have no office characters installed. Bunk - I like the cat, so besides the default, installed that little fellow. Now he doesn't exist.
Also, now when I plug in my PDA and MS Activesync runs, I get a FP install dialog and it attempts to start installing more stuff! The other day, I launched Publisher, and was told I had no help characters, and it went into some sort of install mode and asked for my FP 2003 CD!
I have had nothing but trouble in the past with office upgrades, especially if you upgrade a single package and not office in its entirety, but hey, FP doesn't COME in office, so what choice? I wanted FP2003, now MS is making me regret it with all this other goings-on.
What gives? Why did the FP2003 install trash my installed help characters?
Why when I plug in my PDA does FP go into install mode?
What does activesync have to do with FP2003?
Microsoft support? Don't even send me there. Why should I have to pay again to get a package which I've already bought and paid for to work? Their install broke it, they should fix it. When I buy a car, do I have to pay if the engine won't run as soon as I try to drive off the lot? If I buy a TV and plug it in and turn it on and it won't power on at all, should I have to pay again to get it fixed?

Thanks for any tips or leads!

Bill

Is that a full version of FP2003 or an upgrade?

Is your 2002 a full version also, or an upgrade, and did FP2002 come with it or was an add on, sorry missed this point in your posting, just saw you had the usual 4 plus Publisher.

If FP2002 was a full version add on, and you go to install 2003, that might be where the problem lies.  You might have to uninstall FP2002, and install 2003, or install FP2003 in a different directory and name.

Hope that helps.

cheers
tom