Customize and deploy Office for Mac Standard 2011

Office for Mac 2011 will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see these resources.

 

Applies to: Office for Mac 2011

Topic Last Modified: 2016-12-16

The following example uses PackageMaker (an Apple tool that helps create installer packages) to create the new Office for Mac 2011 package.

Note

PackageMaker is included in the Apple Developer Tools and is located in /Developer/Applications/Utilities. Depending on the version that you are using, the PackageMaker user interface will differ.

The following example uses PackageMaker 3.0.4 to create a customized version of the Office for Mac 2011 installer package. The custom package file, in this example, excludes the following applications: Messenger, Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac, and Document Connection for Mac.

1. Open PackageMaker, and then in the Install Properties dialog box, specify the Organization and Minimum Target.

   • Organization (Provider identifier)  Identifies the entity responsible for the package’s contents. PackageMaker uses the provider identifier to generate default package identifiers for the component packages.

   • Target (Target OS)  The earliest Mac OS X release on which you intend the package to be installed. For Office for Mac 2011, select Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard.

2. To define your Office package’s payload (product files), locate the Office for Mac 2011 components to be included in the package, and then add them to the Contents pane in the project window of PackageMaker. If you are using PackageMaker 3.0.4, we recommend that you include the Office folder, Additional Tools folder, Microsoft Fonts folder, Automator, and the different applications as individual components before you create the metapackage. Including the whole Office for Mac 2011 folder as one component could cause PackageMaker to stop responding.

   Drag the following files and folders into PackageMaker:

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Additional Tools

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Outlook.app

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Excel.app

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft PowerPoint.app

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app

   • /Applications/Microsoft Communicator.app

   • /Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Read Me.html

   • /Library/Automator

   • /Library/Application Support/Microsoft

   • /Library/Fonts/Microsoft

   • /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist

   • /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

   • /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

   • /Volumes/Microsoft Office 2011/Office Installer/Contents/Packages/Office2011_en_dock.pkg

3. To include the dock icons package to PackageMaker, do the following:

   1. Press Control and click the Office Installer package, and then in the shortcut menu, click Show Package Contents.

   2. Under the Contents folder, double-click to open the Packages folder.

      Copy the Office 2011_en_dock_pkg to another folder location on your computer.

   3. Press Control and click the Office 2011_en_dock.pkg you copied, and then in the shortcut menu, click Show Package Contents.

      Under the Contents folder, double-click the Resources folder and delete the Office2011_en_dock.bom and Office2011_en_dock.pax.gz files.

   4. Edit the dock package postflight script to include the dock icons only for the applications in your customized package. Press Control and click postflight, and then in the shortcut menu, click Open With.

      Open the script file with any text editor and edit the app_list section to include only the applications in your customized package and save the file.

   5. Drag the copy of Office2011_en_dock.pkg into the PackageMaker window so it is the last component.

4. On the Configuration tab, specify the following Install and Destination paths.

   Additional Tools	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Additional Tools	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Office folder	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Outlook	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Outlook.app	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Excel	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Excel.app	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   PowerPoint	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft PowerPoint.app	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Word	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Word.app	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Communicator	/Applications/Microsoft Communicator.app	/Applications/
   Read Me.html	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Read Me.html	/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/
   Automator	/Library/Automator	/Library/
   Application Support	/Library/Application Support/Microsoft	/Library/Application Support/
   Fonts	/Library/Fonts/Microsoft	/Library/Fonts/
   Licensing Helper Property List File	/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist	/Library/LaunchDaemons/
   Licensing Helper Daemon	/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper	/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/
   Licensing Property List File	/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.licensing.plist	/Library/Preferences/
   Dock icons	/Volumes/Microsoft Office 2011/Office Installer/Contents/Packages/Office2011_en_dock.pkg	/tmp

5. On the Components tab for each folder, clear the Allow Relocation check box for any components listed.

   Note

   If the user has installed any previous version of Office, then it can cause install issues. That is why it is recommended you clear the Allow Relocation check box when customizing the package for deployment.

6. On the Contents tab for each folder, click the Include root in package check box.

7. Select the product package in the package list, and then on the Configuration tab, do the following:

   • Define the product’s packaging details, such as Title and Description.

   • Add other installation information, such as which type of install the user can perform on the product package: easy, custom, or both.

   • Specify the locations where the user can install the product: any volume, the system volume, or the user’s home directory.

      

     

8. To build the package for distribution, click Build.

9. In the Save As field, assign a name to the package file, and then click Save.

10. After you create the .pkg with all the updates for Office for Mac 2011, copy it to a shared location on the network.

    For detailed information about how to create installer packages by using the PackageMaker, see the PackageMaker User Guide.

    Note

    If you try to install the customized package by using Apple Remote Desktop, the dock icons do not install in the client computers. If you want to distribute the package by using Apple Remote Desktop and want to make sure that the dock icons install, then copy the package to client computers.

When you configure Office as part of the NetBoot image, Office is made available to users automatically when they start or restart their computers.

Note

We recommend that you use a NetBoot image with Apple Remote Desktop installed and configured. Otherwise, it is not possible to administer the client computers by using Apple Remote Desktop after they start up from NetBoot.