Author: Ralf S. Engelschall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Last-Modified: 18-Jul-2003
Microsoft Office Viewer for WINE -- or
how to display Microsoft Office format files on x86-based Linux/FreeBSD
=======================================================================
Description
-----------
For viewing Microsoft Office format files under Linux/x86 and
FreeBSD/x86 there exists the possibility to run the official and
freely available Win32/x86 ABI based Microsoft Office 2000 Viewer
applications for Word, Excel and PowerPoint using WINE (Wine Is Not an
Emulator).
The advantage in contrast to using VMWare+Windows is that one does
not need a Windows installation (and license!) and that there is
less startup- and run-time overhead and complexity. The advantage in
contrast to using OpenOffice is that the whole installation is a lot
smaller and the displaying of the format files perhaps more accurate.
Step-By-Step
------------
Unfortunately, building and installing WINE, establishing personal
WINE environment, and installing and running the viewers into the
personal WINE environment is a complex, tricky and error-prone task.
It especially involves reading many HOWTO documents (like this one
;-). Hence I've packaged both WINE and the three Freeware viewers
from Microsoft for OpenPKG-CURRENT, including two small from-scratch
written utilities ("winesetup" and "msov") which (together with RPM)
hide all the complexity for you. With the following step-by-step list
you can establish your Microsoft Office Viewer environment within a
few minutes.
1. Download, build and install the OpenPKG-CURRENT packages "wine" and
"wine-msov" as super-user:
$ <prefix>/bin/openpkg build wine wine-msov | sh -
2. In your personal account, establish a fresh WINE environment under
$HOME/.wine/. If you already have an existing $HOME/.wine/, this is
not destroyed.
$ <prefix>/bin/winesetup
3. In your personal account, install into the WINE environment under
$HOME/.wine/ the viewer applications. This graphical procedure is
interactive and requires your manual intervention. But all you have
to do is to three times repeat clicking the button sequence "YES"
-> "CONTINUE" -> "OK" -> "ACCEPT" -> "INSTALL" -> "OK".
$ <prefix>/bin/msov --setup
4. Now you're ready to view Word (.doc), Excel (.xls) and PowerPoint
(.ppt) format files by just running "msov" on them.
$ <prefix>/bin/msov foo.doc
$ <prefix>/bin/msov foo.xls
$ <prefix>/bin/msov foo.ppt
References
----------
o WINE:
http://www.winehq.org/
o Microsoft Office Viewers:
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/wd97vwr32.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/ppview97.aspx
o OpenPKG-CURRENT Packages:
ftp://ftp.openpkg.org/current/SRC/wine-20030709-20030718.src.rpm
ftp://ftp.openpkg.org/current/SRC/wine-msov-20030718-20030718.src.rpm
Ralf S. Engelschall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.engelschall.com
______________________________________________________________________
The OpenPKG Project www.openpkg.org
User Communication List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
