is an excellent place to have in your bookmarks. There are also newsgroups, the vendor (if you think it's a particular package) and all the usual places, including Apple's own Knowledge Base. (A search at www.google.com might also yield some answers.)

I guess I've been lucky. The few problems I've had have been fairly easily resolved. Conflict Catcher is a good tool but TechTool Pro has a database of software conflicts and can check your drive for potential issues.

I use:

\t- DiskWarrior
\t- TechTool Pro ( soon Drive 10 for OS X)
\t- Conflict Catcher (not so much anymore since going to X full time)
\t- MacFixit (for both OS X and OS 9 related issues)

I've also had excellent luck with Apple tech support and have always gotten satisfaction from them.

Of course, I also got rid of Office and all other MS software some time ago. I realize that not everyone has that luxury but it has made my OS 9 stuff more stable.

Your PowerMac situation sounds a bit mysterious. I'm inclined to say MS Office due to all of the extensions that it spews over the System Folder. The 'lock up' sounds like a Finder crash. Since the Finder runs all of your other apps, if it crashes it takes everything down with it. MS apps and browsers are typically the big culprits here most times. Has she tried IE in place of NS or Mozilla/NS 6? (It's poss. Office might play better with a MS browser but you never know.)

Check in at MacFixit and search the archives to see if there are any clues. If it's crashing quite a bit, you may have to do a little PM, such as:

- a tool like TechTool or DiskWarrior to check/rebuild the directory structure
- rebuild the desktop (Conflict Catcher can help you do this.)

Anyway, this is just off the top of my head.

As for vendors like Adobe seeming slow off the mark, I'm not too worried. Macromedia seems to be coming along and there are tons of apps already available to substitute as long as you don't necessarily insist on a 'name'. Choice is good.