Installing MS office in Ubuntu without CD-ROM

Question

I wanted to install MS Office in Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS. I installed playonlinux and try to follow the Office 2007 installation. But it is asking CD ROM as the source whereas what I have is only setup file in my computer. In this case, how can I install it? Anyone knows?

Solution

I've had that problem once too.

If you have an .exe file

It all depends on the type of setup file you have. Microsoft allows both .exe files as downloads and .iso files. If you have an .exe file you can just follow standard installation instructions using PlayOnLinux or just click or right-click on the file and use wine to process the install.

If you have an .iso file

Burn a CD

If you have an .iso file, there are a few easy solutions. The easiest being to write your .iso file to a CD. Just open the HUB, type brasero, open the brasero disk burner and choose the option to burn image. Then you can install from the CD (again using PlayOnLinux).

Or mount the .iso file

The other option is to mount the .iso file directly. You can do so as follows:

sudo mkdir /mnt/iso
sudo mount -o loop the-path-to-your-iso-file.iso /mnt/iso

Once the .iso file is mounted it is possible to install office using PlayOnLinux and use the /mnt/iso directory as if it were a CD.

In that case you need to select your directory in this dialogue box:

After the install you can sudo umount /mnt/iso.

The last screenshot comes from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-install-microsoft-office-2007-linux/ which also provides a nice HOWTO for installing Office 2007 using PlayOnLinux.

Comments

[Jason Southwell]

Have you tried the PlayOnLinux forums? You might be able to get assistance on this issue there.

[Abhijit Navale]

@Anu it seems that you have solved the issue by yourself. Please use 'Answer your own question' link at the bottom of this page to answer your own question. So that someone else looking to solve same issue will get a better help. Mentioned what you was dogng wrong before and then what you did right in order to solve the issue.

[Misery]

You can probably choose iso as the cd i think. However I would discourage you from installing MS Office on linux. It won't work very well. Use Libre Office instead.

[a20]

@Misery I suspect you haven't tried using Ms Office on Linux. It works very well and is way better than Libre Office. Libre Office is extremely clunky.

[Misery]

@a20 Well, I did install MS Office 2010 on Ubuntu 12.04. It was a disaster actually. Maybe MS Office 2013 with ubuntu 14 would work better. However I would still discourage one from loosing one license.

[gertvdijk]

What makes you think the OP didn't pay for it? It's available online as a purchased download nowadays...

[wil]

@gertvdijk You should try to open the installer with Wine Program loader instead. By right clicking it and selecting Open with wine program loader.

[gertvdijk]

I'm not the one asking... ;) And it sounds like information you would like to put in your answer instead.

[user98085]

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Please elaborate on the essentials of the linked guide.

[Anu]

Thanks for the help. After open the program using wine, I am able to install it successfully.