Open Office won't install.
 

We now have a dual boot system with windows 7 and Linux Mint Mate Maya.
My husband has tried Libre Office Draw but prefers Open Office. (It is much easier to crop to a set size). He looked in software manager and it said something about transitional packages??? He tried to install Open Office but nothing happened. He then tried via the Open Office web site but is getting nowhere. I looked at a few web sites and all seem to say you have to remove Libre first. Why? I though the idea with Linux was you can have what you want.
What is the best way to proceed. I have just tried to open a database and it says Libre doesn't do Jet so it is no use to me either.

Margaret & Pete (initial enthusiasm waning)

I think you will have to remove LibreOffice first. It was based on OpenOffice, so some of the files will have the same names, giving endless possibilities for confusion.

The transitional package is for converting OpenOffice into LibreOffice, so you don't want that.

Just follow the instructions for "Linux DEB-based Installation" on this page
https://www.openoffice.org/download/...tructions.html

1. Follow this link to the Apache Openoffice download page: https://www.openoffice.org/download/
2. Click where it says "Download Apache OpenOffice 3.4.1"
3. Go to the folder where the .deb files were downloaded and using sudo or as root issue this command:
That's it.
jdk

Here is another link to the openoffice.org forum with explanation why it's necessary to remove (purge) libreoffice on some distros and not others. Includes links to download site for packages.

Me again.
I have just shown him a "You Tube" video from Ambujkumar1988 on how to do it. My other half doesn't do instructions and always tries to intuit how to do things. He had nearly got it right but even after re-doing some bits, Libre has gone but Open Office doesn't show up. Someone else who viewed the video had the same problem and the anwser was " Change the directory to DEBS in terminal or Open that "DEBS" location in terminal. Next just give this command to install all debian packages inside DEBS folder : sudo dpkg -i *.deb"
Pete has looked and there is no DEBS folder in terminal. (These black spaces terrify me but he wades in regardless). Does he just need to create one? If so what is the command in terminal?

Margaret & Pete

I think you'd do better to follow the official instructions I showed you. The people who write the program know how to install it, but people who create Youtube videos might be total idiots for all you know!

Coming back to Jet, I know nothing about it (I've never had Windows), but searching for "convert jet database to linux" produced quite a few results.

I don't know whether this is relevant, but note that wit case sensitivity, DEBS is an entirely different name from debs (and DebS, etc). Is that the cause of you other half's confusion?

Hi Margaret,
When you download the file from www.openoffice.org is will be a "tarball" (a tar.gz file). This is a compressed group of files. To extract the files you must execute the following command (no need to use sudo or be root). Go to the folder where you downloaded this file.
Navigate to the .../en-US/DEBS/ folder and you will see a mass of .deb files.
Then follow the instructions (sudo dpkg ...blah blah blah) given above.
N.B. It offered me the en-US file even though I'm in Italy. I don't know if you'll get offered the en-UK version.
ciao,
jdk

Thnaks David

I was lucky the video did show the same instructions as your link.(I have just printed them.)I have only really looked at "you tube" recently to see what the different desktops looked like. I had just assumed it was full of people doing pratfalls so had ignored it, I feel it may be useful if you are selective. I will do more research on the jet thing, but I have managed to open some simple and very small databases in Open Office before so I know it works to an extent. The tables transferred but as I recall no forms appeared.

Salasi my husband is not confused by DEBS he just can't find her at all!

Bye for now Margaret

Calling London, Gorizia, Illionios and Center of the earth!

Deep joy! Office is installed and working. I hope installing stuff isn't always like this. What is this package manager for? The manual says it is wonderful, it does nowt as far as I can see.
The printed instructions from the office page did the trick, I read he typed. I must say it opened one of my documents with loads of pictures in very fast. I am definatley going to install Mint on my old tin box - sorry laptop.

Cheers all its time for a bottle of London Pride.

The only thing that remains is to mark this thread as [Solved]. Use the Thread Tools menu located just above your first post.
Ciao,
jdk