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How to install microsoft office on linux

By Robert King

Unavailability of Microsoft’s Office on Linux has almost always been one reason why most people don’t migrate to Linux from Windows. While Linux has many cool office suites like LibreOffice, people stick to Microsoft Office because they’re habituated to using the same and probably don’t have enough time to learn using LibreOffice.

What if we told you that you can now run Microsoft Office apps as if they were a part of the native OS? Developed by a Twitter user that goes by the name Fmstrat, who also developed Windows Subsystem for Linux, WinApps lets you do the same with the help of a kernel virtual machine. Think of this as Windows Subsystem on Linux.

Here’s a guide on how you can install and configure WinApps and run Windows apps on Linux. Mind you, WinApps is available only for Ubuntu/Fedora Linux and GNOME/KDE desktop environments.

Which Windows Apps Work?

Here’s a list of all the apps that work as of writing this article:

  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Access (2016)
  • Microsoft Access (2019)
  • Microsoft Access (Office 365)
  • Microsoft Excel (2016)
  • Microsoft Excel (2019)
  • Microsoft Excel (Office 365)
  • Microsoft Word (2016)
  • Microsoft Word (2019)
  • Microsoft Word (Office 365)
  • Microsoft OneNote (2016)
  • Microsoft OneNote (2019)
  • Microsoft OneNote (Office 365)
  • Microsoft Outlook (2016)
  • Microsoft Outlook (2019)
  • Microsoft Outlook (Office 365)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (2016)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (2019)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (Office 365)
  • Microsoft Publisher (2016)
  • Microsoft Publisher (2019)
  • Microsoft Publisher (Office 365)

End Result

How To Install WinApps On Linux

1. First, we need to create a WinApps configuration file.

2. Enter the following information into the newly created config file.

3. Clone the WinApps git repo and install KVM and FreeRDP.

4. For Ubuntu 20.04 and above you’ll need to run KVM as a user instead of root. This can be done using AppArmor.

5. Reboot your PC. Next, we need to define a VM caled RDPWindows and we do that using the following commands.

6. Install Windows on the Virtual machine. Grab the official ISO from the official Windows website.

How to install microsoft office on linux

7. After the installation’s done, you’ll need to go to the Start menu in Windows and change the PC name to “RDPWindows” for WinApps to detect the local IP address.

8. Then go to the settings and allow remote connections for RDP.

9. Copy the RDPApps.reg file from the kvm Directory and merge it into the registry on Windows to enable RDP Applications.

10. And the moment we’ve all been waiting for; Run the installer.

That’s pretty much it! With all these amazing efforts from the Linux community, the day we’ll be able to use Adobe’s Suite on Linux is not far.

Do let us know in the comments section below if you face any issues during the installation, and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

How to install microsoft office on linux

Linux users can use LibreOffice, Google Docs, and even Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, but some people still need — or just want — the desktop version of Microsoft Office. Luckily, there are ways to run Microsoft Office on Linux.

This is particularly useful if you’re still on the soon-to-be-unsupported Windows XP and don’t want to pay an upgrade fee to upgrade your computer to Windows 7 or 8. This obviously isn’t supported by Microsoft, but it still works fairly well.

Ways to Install Microsoft Office

  • Wine: Wine is a Windows compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows programs on Linux. It’s not perfect, but it’s optimized enough to run popular programs like Microsoft Office well. Wine will work better with older versions of Office, so the older your version of Office, the more likely it is to work without any trouble. Wine is completely free, although you may have to do some tweaking yourself.
  • CrossOver: CrossOver is a paid product that uses code from the free version of Wine. While it costs money, CrossOver does more of the work for you. They test their code to ensure that popular programs like Microsoft Office run well and ensure upgrades won’t break them. CrossOver also provides support — so if Office doesn’t run well, you have someone to contact who will help you.
  • Virtual Machine: You could also install Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine using a program like VirtualBox or VMware and install Microsoft Office inside it. With Seamless Mode or Unity Mode, you could even have the Office windows appear on your Linux desktop. This method provides the best compatibility, but it’s also the heaviest — you have to run a full version of Windows in the background. You’ll need a copy of Windows, such as an old Windows XP disc you have lying around, to install in the virtual machine.

We’ll be focusing on using Wine or Crossover to install Office directly on Linux. If you want to use a virtual machine, all you have to do is install VirtualBox or VMware Player and create a new virtual machine. The program will walk you through installing Windows and you can install Office inside your virtualized Windows as you normally would.

Installing Microsoft Office With Wine

We tested Office 2007 with this process, as Office 2013 is known not to work properly and Office 2010 doesn’t appear to be well supported. If you want to use an older version of Office, like Office 2003, you’ll likely find that it works even better. If you want to install Office 2010, you may need to perform some more tweaks — check the Wine AppDB page for the version of Office you want to install for more information.

First, install the Wine package from your Linux distribution’s software package repository. On Ubuntu, open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for Wine, and install the Wine package.

How to install microsoft office on linux

Next, insert the Microsoft Office disc into your computer. Open it in your file manager, right-click the setup.exe file, and open the .exe file with Wine.

How to install microsoft office on linux

The installer will appear and, if everything goes well, you should be able to go through the installation process on Linux as you normally would on Windows.

How to install microsoft office on linux

We didn’t run into any problems while installing Office 2007, but this will vary depending on your version of Wine, Linux distribution, and especially the release of Microsoft Office you’re trying to use. For more tips, read the Wine AppDB and search for the version of Microsoft Office you’re trying to install. You’ll find more in-depth installation instructions there, filled with tips and hacks other people have used.

How to install microsoft office on linux

You could also try using a third-party tool like PlayOnLinux, which will help you install Microsoft Office and other popular Windows programs. Such an application may speed things up and make the process easier on you. PlayOnLinux is also available for free in the Ubuntu Software Center.

Why You Might Want to Use CrossOver

If the Wine method doesn’t work or you encounter problems, you may want to try using CrossOver instead. CrossOver offers a free two-week trial, but the full version will cost you $60 if you want to keep using it.

After downloading and installing CrossOver, you’ll be able to open the CrossOver application and use it to install Office. You can do everything you can do with CrossOver with the standard version of Wine, but CrossOver may require less hacking around to get things working. Whether this is worth the cost is up to you.

Using Microsoft Office on Linux

After the installation, you’ll find the Microsoft Office applications in your desktop’s launcher. On Ubuntu, we had to log out and log back in before the shortcuts would appear in the Unity desktop’s launcher.

How to install microsoft office on linux

Office works pretty well on Linux. Wine presents your home folder to Word as your My Documents folder, so it’s easy to save files and load them from your standard Linux file system.

How to install microsoft office on linux

The Office interface obviously doesn’t look as at home on Linux as it does on Windows, but it performs fairly well. Each Office program should should work normally, although it’s possible that some features — particularly little-used ones that haven’t been tested very much — may not work properly in Wine.

How to install microsoft office on linux

Of course, Wine isn’t perfect and you may run into some issues while using Office in Wine or CrossOver. If you really want to use Office on a Linux desktop without compatibility issues, you may want to create a Windows virtual machine and run a virtualized copy of Office. This ensures you won’t have compatibility issues, as Office will be running on a (virtualized) Windows system.

Although we already have Libre Office out of the box on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, yet if you have a Microsoft office 2007 copy then you can install it on Ubuntu Linux using Wine; to use just like any other software…

Microsoft Office is one of the popular office suites used around the world, however exclusively available for Windows and macOS. Which makes Linux users feel left out if they want to use MS-Office. Well, installation of the latest office suite 360 is not possible on Ubuntu Linux using Wine but for office 2007 it is possible. By the way, Office 360’s stripped-down version is available online to use free of cost which only needs a browser and can be used on any operating system including Linux.

Install & Run Microsoft Office 2007 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Here we use the popular Windows program loader platform for Linux called Wine. The steps given here to run MS Office on Linux will also work for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, MX Linux, Zorin OS, Debian, and other similar Linux distros.

On your Ubuntu 20.04 or other similar Linux distro open command terminal. You can use the Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut to run it.

1. Add Wine GPG Key

The first step is to add the GPG key available for Wine provided by its official website which helps our system to verify the packages we will download from its repository.

2. Wine repository on Ubuntu 20.04

The next step is to add Wine’s repository on Ubuntu 20.04, however, if you are using some other Linux version then use the other given one.

For all Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, and 20.10 including others:

For Debian and its based OS:

3. Enable 32-bit Architecture

Well, many applications still support 32-bit architecture, thus we will also enable its support on our Ubuntu system using the below command:

3. Run system update

After that, first run, the system update command to rebuild the system repository cache so that our system could recognize the latest added repo.

4. Install Wine HQ on your Linux

Finally, to set up Wine on Ubuntu or Debian Linux, let’s run the installation command. This will download the stable packages for Wine to set up on our OS…

5. Download Microsoft Office 2007

To install Microsoft office on Ubuntu you should have its copy, if you already have one then you can use that otherwise either download the trial version or download Microsoft Professional Office 2007 from archive.org (Internet Archive) along with the license key free of cost.

6. Install MS Office 2007 on Ubuntu 20.04 via Wine

Once the downloading of the Office setup is completed, go to the location where it has been saved by you. And right-click on the file to select “Open with other Application“.

How to install microsoft office on linux

1. Open With Wine Program Loader

Select Wine Windows Program Loader to run the Microsoft office 2007 pro setup directly on Ubuntu with Wine from the Graphical user interface of Ubuntu, which makes the installation process easy and you don’t need to deal with commands.

How to install microsoft office on linux

2. Wine Gecko Installer

Applications that require HTML support to run correctly need the installation of Wine Gecko, thus when it pop-ups then click on the Install button.

How to install microsoft office on linux

3. Wine Mono Installer

To implement .NET framework applications on Wine, we need a Mono installer, hence install it as well.

How to install microsoft office on linux

4. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 extraction

Once the installation of dependencies gets completed, you will see the Office 2007 setup file extraction window.

How to install microsoft office on linux

5. Install Now or Customize Office 2007

If you want to install only a particular module of Office such as Excel, PowerPoint, and Word only, and want to leave the rest of the features uninstalled select Customize, whereas for the whole Office 2007 use the “Install Now” button.

How to install microsoft office on linux

6. Enter a Product key

Supply the product key of MS Office otherwise get the one online.

How to install microsoft office on linux

7. Accept Terms and Conditions

How to install microsoft office on linux

Once the installation is completed, close the setup.

How to install microsoft office on linux

Run MS Word, Excel, or Powerpoint on Linux

Finally, go to All applications and search the Office application that you want to use such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and others. Click on its icon. Or else, simply double click on the document file you want to open, and the system will automatically identify and open its corresponding supported the application of Office.

In this new guide today we will talk about how to install Microsoft Office on Linux as the most popular productivity suite in the world is not officially available for this operating system.

How to use Microsoft Office on Linux via browser

Even if all the functions present in the complete suite are not available, it is possible to use a simple browser to write a document via Word, create a spreadsheet using Excel or create a presentation through PowerPoint. You can do this using the online versions of the 3 famous software. Obviously, Outlook is also available.

Additionally, if you have an Office 365 subscription, you can access additional tools. Since we are talking about Microsoft Office Online, obviously you will not be able to use the 3 programs without having an Internet connection.

To start using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook via browser, use the link below.

We remind you that in order to use the online suite it is necessary to have a Microsoft account that can be created through the appropriate Web page.

How to install Microsoft Office on Linux via PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux is a powerful software that allows you to install Windows software and games on a Linux computer. In this case, you can use it to install Microsoft Office.

First of all, it is necessary to install Wine and PlayOnLinux. To do this, open the terminal and type the command sudo apt install wine. In the next step, add a public key for the PlayOnLinux software that runs along with Wine by giving the command wget -q “ -O- | sudo apt-key add – .

Now, we need to add PPA information to the package manager via the sudo wget command -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list. Completed this procedure correctly, you need to proceed with updating and installing PlayOnLinux using the commands sudo apt update and sudo apt install playonlinux. In addition to the terminal, it is possible to install Wine and PlayOnLinux using the application store.

At this point, all you need to do is start the program from Menu > Applications, click on the Office tab and select the appropriate version of Microsoft Office. With PlayOnLinux, you can use up to 32-bit Office 2013. However, to get the best results in terms of stability and performance, we recommend using Office 2010.

For this, it is necessary to have the ISO file and an original key. To proceed with the Office 2010 download, connect to the dedicated Web page, enter the product key in the appropriate field and press Check. If successful, proceed with downloading the image file.

Once you have the right version of Microsoft Office, start PlayOnLinux, select DVD-ROM or the installation file and click on Next. In case you had chosen the setup.exe file, you will have to search for it. At this point, PlayOnLinux will proceed with the installation of the Office suite and, once completed, you will be able to use Microsoft Office 2010.

As an alternative to PlayOnLinux, you might consider CrossOver. It is a paid tool (with free trial version) that allows you to run even the most recent versions of Microsoft Office such as Office 2016 (currently it is not supported by PlayOnLinux). In addition to this, the installation of CrossOver is much simpler than the program seen earlier.

So, to proceed with the download of the trial version of the program for Linux (valid for 14 days), you just need to connect to the download page, choose the Linux distribution in use via the drop-down menu under Linux Distribution (eg Ubuntu or Debian ), fill in the Name and Email fields and press the Download Trial Now button.

How to install Microsoft Office on Linux via VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful, well-known free software that allows you to virtualize one operating system over another without having to perform the actual installation. In this case, therefore, you can use Microsoft Office on your Linux computer by installing the package on the Windows virtual machine. Since we have already written and published a guide on the subject, we report it below so you will have access to all the steps to follow to proceed.

Install Microsoft Office 2013 in Linux with the help of some tools that will help you to run the office files directly on your Linux. So follow the guide to proceed.

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]inux clients can utilize LibreOffice, Google Docs, and even Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, however, a few people still need the desktop rendition of Microsoft Office. Fortunately, there are approaches to run Microsoft Office on Linux. This is especially valuable in case you’re still on the forthcoming unsupported Windows XP and don’t have any desire to pay an updated expense to overhaul your PC to Windows 7 or 8.

How to Install Microsoft Office 2013 in Linux

There are a few distinctive approaches to introduce Microsoft Office on Linux and below we have listed all those ways.

#1 Wine

Wine is a Windows similarity layer that permits you to run Windows programs on Linux. It’s not impeccable, but rather it’s upgraded enough to run famous projects like Microsoft Office well. Wine will work better with more seasoned adaptations of Office, so the more seasoned your rendition of Office, the more probable it is to work with no inconvenience. Wine is totally free, in spite of the fact that you may need to do some tweaking yourself.

#2 Crossover

CrossOver is a paid item that utilizations code from the free form of Wine. While it costs cash, CrossOver accomplishes a greater amount of the work for you. They test their code to guarantee that prevalent projects like Microsoft Office run well and guarantee updates won’t break them. Cross over likewise gives bolster — so if Office doesn’t run well, you have somebody to contact who will help you.

#3 Virtual Machine

You could likewise introduce Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine utilizing a program like VirtualBox or VMware and introduce Microsoft Office inside it. With Seamless Mode or Unity Mode, you could even have the Office windows show on your Linux desktop. This technique gives the best similarity, but on the other hand, it’s the heaviest — you need to run a full form of Windows out of sight. You’ll require a duplicate of Windows, for example, an old Windows XP circle you have lying around, to introduce in the virtual machine.

Installing Microsoft Office With Wine:

We tried Office 2007 with this procedure, as Office 2013 is known not to work appropriately and Office 2010 doesn’t have all the earmarks of being very much bolstered. On the off chance that you need to utilize a more established variant of Office, similar to Office 2003, you’ll likely find that it works far and away superior. On the off chance that you need to introduce Office 2010, you may need to play out some more changes — check the Wine AppDB page for the variant of Office you need to introduce for more data.

    In the first place, introduce the Wine bundle from your Linux dissemination’s product bundle archive. On Ubuntu, open the Ubuntu Software Center, look for Wine, and introduce the Wine bundle.

Run Microsoft Office In Linux

  • Next, embed the Microsoft Office plate into your PC. Open it in your document supervisor, right-tap the setup.exe record, and open the .exe document with Wine.
  • The installer will show up and, if everything goes well, you ought to have the capacity to experience the establishment procedure on Linux as you regularly would on Windows.

    How to install microsoft office on linux
    Run Microsoft Office In Linux

  • We didn’t keep running into any issues while introducing Office 2007, yet this will change contingent upon your adaptation of Wine, Linux circulation, and particularly the arrival of Microsoft Office you’re attempting to utilize. For more tips, read the Wine AppDB and scan for the adaptation of Microsoft Office you’re attempting to introduce. You’ll discover more inside and out establishment guidelines there, loaded with tips and hacks other individuals have utilized.
  • You could likewise take a stab at utilizing an outsider apparatus like PlayOnLinux, which will help you introduce Microsoft Office and other well known Windows programs. Such an application may speed things up and make the procedure less demanding on you. PlayOnLinux is additionally accessible for nothing in the Ubuntu Software Center.

    If you are using Ubuntu and need to use Microsoft Office either for compatibility reasons or out of preference this guide will show you how to install it.

    Download & Install PlayOnLinux

    PlayOnLinux is a useful piece of software based on Wine which allows you to easily install many Windows applications with relative ease. PlayOnLiux is free and does not require a Windows licence for use.

    Download PlayOnLinux – Click ‘Ubuntu’ under packages to locate the PlayOnLinux .deb file.

    Install PlayOnLinux – Locate the PlayOnLinux .deb file in your downloads folder, double click the file to open it in Ubuntu Software Centre, then click the ‘Install’ button.

    Mount Microsoft Office Disc or ISO

    Disc – Simply insert the disc in to your disc drive.

    ISO – Locate your ISO, ‘Right click‘ the ISO and select ‘Open with‘ then ‘Disk Image Mounter‘.

    Install Microsoft Office

    Open playOnLinux by searching for it in the dash then clicking on the icon:

    Once open click on the ‘Install’ button located near the top of the window:

    A new window will open, click ‘Office’ then click on the version you will be installing for example ‘Microsoft Office 2010’ then click install:

    Click ‘Next’ when the new window opens:

    Select ‘Use a setup file in my computer’, then click ‘Next’:

    Click ‘Browse’ when prompted:

    Locate the disc on the left hand side of the file manager the select the ‘Setup.exe’ then click ‘Open’:

    Once you have located the ‘setup.exe’ file and see the screen below click ‘Next’:

    PlayOnLinux will now configure itself ready for the install:

    When ready proceed with the install the same as you would on Windows:

    Once the install is complete you can open the office applications either by clicking on the icons on your desktop or through opening PlayOnLinux.

    Thank you for reading this article. Please share if you liked it.

    Overview

    Microsoft builds and supports a variety of software products for Linux systems and makes them available via standard APT and YUM package repositories. This document describes how to configure the repository on your Linux system, so that you can then install/upgrade Microsoft’s Linux software using your distribution’s standard package management tools.

    Microsoft’s Linux Software Repository is comprised of multiple sub-repositories:

    prod – The Production sub-repository is designated for packages intended for use in production. These packages are commercially supported by Microsoft under the terms of the applicable support agreement or program that you have with Microsoft.

    mssql-server – These repositories contain packages for Microsoft SQL Server on Linux – See also: SQL Server on Linux.

    Packages in the Linux software repositories are subject to the license terms located in the packages. Please read the license terms prior to using the package. Your installation and use of the package constitutes your acceptance of these terms. If you do not agree with the license terms, do not use the package.

    Configuring the repositories

    Repositories can be configured automatically by installing the Linux package that applies to your Linux distribution and version. The package will install the repository configuration along with the GPG public key used by tools such as apt/yum/zypper to validate the signed packages and/or repository metadata.

    Microsoft Teams on Linux is part of a bigger push from Microsoft

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    Share All sharing options for: Microsoft’s first Office app arrives on Linux

    Microsoft is bringing its first Office app to Linux today. The software maker is releasing Microsoft Teams into a public preview, with the app available in native Linux packages in .deb and .rpm formats. “The Microsoft Teams client is the first Office app that is coming to Linux desktops, and will support all of Teams’ core capabilities,” explains Marissa Salazar, a product marketing manager at Microsoft.

    The app looks identical to what is available on Windows and macOS, and it’s entering public preview before Microsoft finalizes it. Microsoft is bringing Teams to Linux as part of a bigger push to align Teams as its hub for Office and teamwork, alongside supporting mixed environments that rely on Linux. Microsoft has been gradually improving the Teams feature set as it battles rivals like Slack.

    Microsoft: Slack doesn’t have the ‘breadth and depth’ to reinvent work

    “I’m really excited about the availability of Microsoft Teams for Linux,” says Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “With this announcement, Microsoft is bringing its hub for teamwork to Linux. I’m thrilled to see Microsoft’s recognition of how companies and educational institutions alike are using Linux to transform their work culture.”

    It’s significant to see Microsoft invest in desktop Linux, especially an Office app. Microsoft has never embraced Linux with its own Office apps before, and this Teams launch appears to be a way for the company to address that gap. It’s unlikely we’ll see full versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint anytime soon, but this Teams launch could act as a bridge to improved Progressive Web App versions of Office.

    Microsoft is also developing its new Fluid Framework, which takes the idea of documents and turns them into a cloud app that multiple people can contribute to with graphs, tables, text, and more. Microsoft revealed recently that Teams will act like the “scaffolding” to combine old experiences like Word and new ones like Fluid into a single hub.

    How to install microsoft office on linux

    Linux users can use LibreOffice, Google Docs, and even Microsoft’s Office Web Apps, but some people still need — or just want — the desktop version of Microsoft Office. Luckily, there are ways to run Microsoft Office on Linux.

    This is particularly useful if you’re still on the soon-to-be-unsupported Windows XP and don’t want to pay an upgrade fee to upgrade your computer to Windows 7 or 8. This obviously isn’t supported by Microsoft, but it still works fairly well.

    Ways to Install Microsoft Office

    • Wine: Wine is a Windows compatibility layer that allows you to run Windows programs on Linux. It’s not perfect, but it’s optimized enough to run popular programs like Microsoft Office well. Wine will work better with older versions of Office, so the older your version of Office, the more likely it is to work without any trouble. Wine is completely free, although you may have to do some tweaking yourself.
    • CrossOver: CrossOver is a paid product that uses code from the free version of Wine. While it costs money, CrossOver does more of the work for you. They test their code to ensure that popular programs like Microsoft Office run well and ensure upgrades won’t break them. CrossOver also provides support — so if Office doesn’t run well, you have someone to contact who will help you.
    • Virtual Machine: You could also install Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine using a program like VirtualBox or VMware and install Microsoft Office inside it. With Seamless Mode or Unity Mode, you could even have the Office windows appear on your Linux desktop. This method provides the best compatibility, but it’s also the heaviest — you have to run a full version of Windows in the background. You’ll need a copy of Windows, such as an old Windows XP disc you have lying around, to install in the virtual machine.

    We’ll be focusing on using Wine or Crossover to install Office directly on Linux. If you want to use a virtual machine, all you have to do is install VirtualBox or VMware Player and create a new virtual machine. The program will walk you through installing Windows and you can install Office inside your virtualized Windows as you normally would.

    Installing Microsoft Office With Wine

    We tested Office 2007 with this process, as Office 2013 is known not to work properly and Office 2010 doesn’t appear to be well supported. If you want to use an older version of Office, like Office 2003, you’ll likely find that it works even better. If you want to install Office 2010, you may need to perform some more tweaks — check the Wine AppDB page for the version of Office you want to install for more information.

    First, install the Wine package from your Linux distribution’s software package repository. On Ubuntu, open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for Wine, and install the Wine package.

    Next, insert the Microsoft Office disc into your computer. Open it in your file manager, right-click the setup.exe file, and open the .exe file with Wine.

    The installer will appear and, if everything goes well, you should be able to go through the installation process on Linux as you normally would on Windows.

    We didn’t run into any problems while installing Office 2007, but this will vary depending on your version of Wine, Linux distribution, and especially the release of Microsoft Office you’re trying to use. For more tips, read the Wine AppDB and search for the version of Microsoft Office you’re trying to install. You’ll find more in-depth installation instructions there, filled with tips and hacks other people have used.

    You could also try using a third-party tool like PlayOnLinux, which will help you install Microsoft Office and other popular Windows programs. Such an application may speed things up and make the process easier on you. PlayOnLinux is also available for free in the Ubuntu Software Center.

    Why You Might Want to Use CrossOver

    If the Wine method doesn’t work or you encounter problems, you may want to try using CrossOver instead. CrossOver offers a free two-week trial, but the full version will cost you $60 if you want to keep using it.

    After downloading and installing CrossOver, you’ll be able to open the CrossOver application and use it to install Office. You can do everything you can do with CrossOver with the standard version of Wine, but CrossOver may require less hacking around to get things working. Whether this is worth the cost is up to you.

    Using Microsoft Office on Linux

    After the installation, you’ll find the Microsoft Office applications in your desktop’s launcher. On Ubuntu, we had to log out and log back in before the shortcuts would appear in the Unity desktop’s launcher.

    Office works pretty well on Linux. Wine presents your home folder to Word as your My Documents folder, so it’s easy to save files and load them from your standard Linux file system.

    The Office interface obviously doesn’t look as at home on Linux as it does on Windows, but it performs fairly well. Each Office program should should work normally, although it’s possible that some features — particularly little-used ones that haven’t been tested very much — may not work properly in Wine.

    Of course, Wine isn’t perfect and you may run into some issues while using Office in Wine or CrossOver. If you really want to use Office on a Linux desktop without compatibility issues, you may want to create a Windows virtual machine and run a virtualized copy of Office. This ensures you won’t have compatibility issues, as Office will be running on a (virtualized) Windows system.