Installing MS Office on Ubuntu 11.10

To exist in a world dominated by Microsoft products, you have to be able to coexist with others using those products.  That includes connecting to shares via Samba, using remote desktop, and opening Office documents.  When it comes to office documents, Libre Office does the job for the most part.  I have had pretty good success using Libre Office even with Microsoft Office files.  The problem comes when you bounce a document back and forth between Libre Office and Microsoft Office.

If you are working in a team with other Microsoft Office users, you are going to have to break down and install Microsoft Office.  Below you will see the screenshots of how I installed Office.  At the end, you can find other methods.

Using software center, I installed the wine meta package and the winetricks tool.

Then, launch the winetricks application:

Select “Install an App”

Then, select Microsoft Office from the list:

You will probably get this message:

Enter the product key:

You have to accept the license:

Now, you are ready to click the Install button:

Now, it should be installing…

Give it some time, and you should see this complete screen:

Now, notice that you have a new wineprefix: office2007pro.  You can just cancel out of this screen though.

And now, you should see the Office applications in your menu:

Microsoft Word is the program out of the bunch that I use the most.  The install technically isn’t done until you start one of the applications for the first time.  It will prompt you for your name and initials:

Next, you have to register the product.  If you have already installed this copy before don’t worry.  I have installed mine a number of times (on the same computer) with the different versions of Linux over the years.  I think once or twice I had to use the phone to register it, but it hasn’t been a problem.

Assuming that everything works, you should get a “complete” window.

Next, I just accepted the defaults on this screen:

Finally, I told it not to install updates because I have had issues with the Internet access from Office for some reason.

So, you should have a good Office installation on top of Linux at this point.  Please comment any tips, tricks, or problems you experience.

 

 

Other ways to do it:

• Ubuntu Buzz: INSTALL MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 IN UBUNTU 11.10
• newbie off blogger: How to Install Office 2007 in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot