so i type in su, then my pass, but what is the command to start open office?

soffice

-JAX

when i type in
soffice
it says command not found

is it installed ?

if so it is not in your $PATH variable.

do a find for soffice and then execute it with the absolute command

eg. /usr/local/OpenOffice/program/soffice

i found many files called soffice. some are soffice.png, soffice.bin, soffice(without extension)
and can u explain how i can do this 'absolute' command plz? thx!

an absolute file name is one that starts from the root directory

eg. cd /usr/bin ----> cd (change directory)

a relative command is one that is executed relative to your current position is the filesystem heirarchy.

eg. if you were currently in /usr/local/src and you wanted to be in /usr you could type

cd ../..

which means go down two directories

or you could use the absolue file name

cd /usr


Anyway

you need to find out where OpenOffice executable (soffice) in installed on you system. On my system it is installed in usr/local/OpenOffice/program/

so I would go to that directory with the command

cd usr/local/OpenOffice/program/

then I would execute the command

soffice

as it is in that directory.

If you are running a GUI go to the "search for files and folders" option in you menu.

type soffice as the file to search for and / as the directory and / is the root directory (the bottom most directory in you system, all directories stem from root)

this will tell you where the file soffice is located in the system. go there and with the cd command and execute soffice.

OR

you can use the locate command

just type

locate soffice

and it will return all the files with soffice in it.

look for the file soffice with no extensions etc.

the type the absolute path of the location of soffice into the command prompt.

eg

/usr/local/OpenOffice/program/soffice

thank you