Oh, sorry - I thought I'd covered that in my original post describing the pull down in the Account window of the Office backstage selections. Yes, you have a number of selections available in that pulldown, including Enable, Disable, View History, and About. When Enable is selected, it will scan for available updates, and notify when they are ready to be downloaded and applied.
My wife is cooking breakfast....the aroma of fresh bacon inhibits any possibility of logical thought.....
Hi.
See if I have this right. Say I open Word, am I able to check for and download updates for all of Office (including Excel, Powerpoint and whatever else is in Office) through Word? Thanks.
By the way, please go have your breakfast first and then come back and answer my question. No need to rush. 
Breakfast consumed and enjoyed....now I can think.
Yes - from *any* Office application, the check for updates is for Office as a whole, not just the application from which the check is done.
So, if you did a check from Outlook, as I did, and then opened Excel, Word, or any of the others, the check will yield the same results, and any updates applied will be applied (as mandated by the update itself), to any or all of the Office applications.
Got it! Thanks, BobV55.
Glad to make a helpful contribution!
Hi, BobV55.
I checked for Office updates according to your instructions. It tells me that it's up-to-date and that the current version is 15.0.4569.1508. Is this the version that you have or is what you have an earlier one (since you did a system restore)?
Screenshot 1
By the way, next time when you wish to post a screenshot, instead of doing it as an attachment, you can embed it right into your post, like I did here. Simply click on the "tree" button (see Screenshot 2), then click Browse (to select image from your computer or wherever), and, finally, click Insert Image.
Screenshot 2
Hi Inquirer,
Nope - looks like the System Restore did it's thing:
As you can see, this is a prior version, so I would have to run the update again in order to bring it fully up to date, which I'm not planning to do, at least in the immediate future.
Thanks for the embedding images tip, by the way....it is a lot handier than attaching them!
Good morning, BobV55.
Now, we can be certain that it was a genuine Microsoft update that caused the problem. That's the good news. The bad news is we still don't know why. 
It's ironic. You came here for help, but in the end it was I who benefited from your help. Thanks.
Just to help clarify, there are two ways to install Office 2013, and the method of updating the suite is dependent on the installation method. "Click to Run" installations update through the suite itself (as is being discussed in this thread) and updates will not appear when you check Microsoft Update. MSI installations will update through Microsoft Update. See the following for more information:
http://www.outlook-apps.com/update-outlook-2013/
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/office-2013-click-to-run
Incidentally, the next "Click to Run" update following 15.0.4551.1512 was Office 2013 Service Pack 1, 15.0.4569.1507, so it is more than just your normal everyday update.
Interesting....so it was actually the Office SP-1 that set this laptop on its ear. As much as I'm tempted to try it again, the memory of having to go through seemingly endless rounds of removal/reboot/reinstall to restabilize this laptop is still too fresh, as the train wreck only occurred last Tuesday. Now that all is running normally again, I think I'll hold off on this one a while longer.
Hi F4E,
Got a reply from the Sony board moderator, who sent a link to a kb article on how to correct the camera not being recognized, and as I reviewed the link, I'd already taken all the steps mentioned, except for resetting the camera to factory defaults.
Before doing that, I figured I'd try just once more removing and reinstalling the driver, so I plugged in the camera with its USB cable in order to load the bad driver into Device Manager
...and the camera driver installed properly, correctly identifying the make and model.
I'm wondering if that Office update was a short cut to the Twilight Zone.......
Hi, Bob. I'm thinking the same. That the Office Update borked other things for you. At least reinstalling the camera driver worked for you. As it should, if everything else is working ! At least we got a solution for that problem !
Agreed...everything seems to be back on track now, which is why I really don't want to try that Office update again. Sure it will probably work this time, but....
I can live without SP1 for awhile!
