"you do not have write access to the outlook folder" office for mac/cannot access auto-update

I have two problems and have already uninstalled and reinstalled Office with no success.

Problem 1: cannot access auto-update server. I have applied a successful workaround, which is to create a new user and run auto-update from there. I assume this will continue to work, but suggests something is still corrupted in my main user id.

Problem 2: I cannot use Outlook. Immediately on starting Outlook I get the message "You do not have write access to the Outlook application folder". The message goes on to suggest removing the identities folder from the application folder, and refers to a read me file. This advice is not sufficient for me, and I can find no readme file, other than one that has some general blurb about support and activation.

Thanks for any help,

Roger