How To Install Offices 2007 in Ubuntu

Each Ubuntu set up comes with a set of applications installed so that you don’t need to look for applications. For browsing purpose, you have Firefox installed. For word processing and spreadsheet purpose, you have OpenOffice.org installed.  Using OpenOffice on Ubuntu is a pretty good experience, but most people still prefer Microsoft Office.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Microsoft Office 2007 on your Ubuntu 10.04 (the tutorial will work on later versions as well).

Install Wine

The first thing you need to install is called WINE. Wine is a Windows-compatibility layer that supports running all sorts of Windows applications on Ubuntu and Linux distros. Installing wine is easy. Go to Applications > Ubuntu Software Center and type in Wine. Click the Install button on the first result. You will be prompted to enter your password, then Ubuntu Software Center will download Wine.

When Wine is properly installed, you can check out the Wine configuration from Applications > Wine > Configure Wine.

For now, you can leave the configuration at its default, because you don’t really need to change anything in order to run Microsoft Office 2007.

Installing Microsoft Office

Now that you have the Windows compatibility layer Wine installed, you can go to install MS Office. First, locate the Setup.exe from your local hard drive (or simply enter the CD and browse through file explorer). You will notice that the .exe file has an icon of a glass of wine. If it isn’t, right click on it and choose open with > Wine Program Loader.

Once it’s loaded with Wine, you will see a window asking for serial key. Enter your serial key to continue installation.

When you enter the serial key correctly, you will see the installation screen. Here, you will have two options to choose from. The install button will install the total suite while the customize button will let you handpick which programs to install.

I suggest to go for customize, because MS Office comes with a lot of programs, most of which you probably don’t need (InfoPath, for example). In the customize screen, pull down the menu before programs name and choose Not Available to avoid installing that particular software on your Ubuntu.

In the customize option, you will find three separate tabs. The first one was covered above.  The other tabs are for installation location and the other is for user information. You should leave the installation location where it is (make no change). You can of course change your name from the user information tab.

Now, you can click the install now button to start installing Microsoft Office 2007 on your Ubuntu. Once the installation is done, you will be prompted to close the installer.

Enjoy running Microsoft Office seamlessly on your free and open-source operating system, Ubuntu