Vista Virtual Machine

digitaleagle Uncategorized Leave a comment

I finally had enough of trying to run Word 2007 on Wine.  It worked several times, but every time I really needed to use it, it would fail to start.  It would just hang on the splash screen.  Even more annoying was that the splash screen stayed on top obstructing my view of other windows.

So, I installed Vista as a virtual machine.  It works relatively well.  Here are a few links I found helpful in the process.

Ri-Li

digitaleagle Games, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Kent and I found this neat little game.  At two years old, he is not quite able to play himself, but he seems to enjoy watching it in short bursts.  I guess I am a kid at heart because I don’t mind satisfying him.

Here is a quick screenshot of the game menu:

game-start by you.

Here is a quick screenshot of the game during play:

game-play by you.

So, thanks Dominique for writing this game.  We enjoy it!

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Linux Alternatives for OneNote

digitaleagle Software to Watch, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I found a couple of forums discussing options for alternatives for Microsoft’s OneNote.  I don’t really have time to research all of these, but I wanted to note them in case I had a chance to come back later and spend some time researching them more.

Here are the forums:

Tomboy

This option seemed to be the most popular.  I have used this a little, but I haven’t got into it that much.

BasKet

This is a KDE application.

Wyneken

This one looks interesting, but it doesn’t look like it is WYSIWYG.  You might have to learn some formatting features.

WordPress

Now, this one I have obviously used.  But, I would consider this more if you want to share your notes.

hnb

Stands for hierarchical notebook.

Knowit

Gournal

NoteMeister

Gnome Vazaar

Newton Desktop Wiki

NoteCase

TuxCards

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Office 2007 on Wine

digitaleagle Microsoft Office, Uncategorized, Wine 2 Comments

I just had a situation at work where I am forced to use Microsoft Office.  Normally, Open Office does everything that I need it to do, but this was different.  First, the documents were large and had many graphics (textbooks).  Open Office seemed to hang just scrolling through them.  Second, others in the office would be using Microsoft Word to edit the documents, and if I used Open Office, the document would have to go back and forth between the two.

In order to stay on Linux, I used a tool called Play On Linux to get Word to run inside Wine.  Wine is a Windows Emulator that allows Windows programs to run on top of Linux.  Play On Linux is a tool to make installation and configuration of Wine much easier.

A script did not exist for Office 2007, but one did for Office 2003.  So, I took that script and modified it to work.  I did submit it to the Play On Linux website so that others could use it, but it is in the process of being validated.  Watch for it here.  This is my first script, and so don’t expect too much!  Here it is while they validate it:

#!/bin/bash

if [ "$PLAYONLINUX" = "" ]
then
echo "Ce script doit être executé dans PlayOnLinux."
exit 0
fi
source "$PLAYONLINUX/lib/sources"

#Verifier les dépendences
cfg_check

#Presentation
POL_SetupWindow_Init
POL_SetupWindow_presentation "Office 2007" "Microsoft" "http://www.microsoft.com" "Tinou modified by Stephen Phillips" "Office2007" 1 5
POL_SetupWindow_cdrom
if [ "$POL_LANG" == "en" ];  then
POL_SetupWindow_textbox "What is the name of the setup program?" "Office 2007" "setup.exe"
else
POL_SetupWindow_textbox "Quel est le nom du fichier d'installation ?" "Office 2007" "setup.exe"
fi
SETUP="$APP_ANSWER"
POL_SetupWindow_check_cdrom $SETUP

mkdir -p $REPERTOIRE/wineprefix/Office2007
select_prefixe "$REPERTOIRE/wineprefix/Office2007"
POL_SetupWindow_prefixcreate

cd $WINEPREFIX/dosdevices
rm ./*
ln -s ../drive_c c:
ln -s / z:
ln -s $CDROM ./d:

#Set_WinVersion_Session 0.9.46

cd $CDROM
if [ "$POL_LANG" == "en" ];  then
POL_SetupWindow_wait_next_signal "Installation of Office 2007 in progess..." "Office 2007"
else
POL_SetupWindow_wait_next_signal "Installation de Office 2007 en cours..." "Office 2007"
fi
wine $SETUP
POL_SetupWindow_detect_exit
POL_SetupWindow_reboot

#Fin du code du jeu
#Création du lanceur

POL_SetupWindow_make_shortcut "Office2007" "Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12" "EXCEL.EXE" "excel.xpm" "Excel 2007"
POL_SetupWindow_make_shortcut "Office2007" "Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12" "WINWORD.EXE" "word.xpm" "Word 2007"
POL_SetupWindow_make_shortcut "Office2007" "Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12" "POWERPNT.EXE" "powerpoint.xpm" "Powerpoint 2007"
POL_SetupWindow_make_shortcut "Office2007" "Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12" "MSPUB.EXE" "publisher.xpm" "Publisher 2007"
POL_SetupWindow_make_shortcut "Office2007" "Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office12" "ONENOTE.EXE" "onenote.xpm" "OneNote 2007"

if [ "$POL_LANG" == "en" ];  then
POL_SetupWindow_message "Installation finished" "Office 2007"
else
POL_SetupWindow_message "Installation terminée" "Office 2007"
fi
POL_SetupWindow_Close
exit

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