I have installed Lotus WordPro Release 9 on my Linux system, using Wine. It runs quite nicely.

WordPro is a solid, fully professional wordprocessing program. I have decades of files created with it, and OpenOffice's “Writer” does not directly open WordPro files, so I wanted to be able to run WordPro to easily access my older files when needed.

Since it took me about six hours to get it to work, (being a newbie, everything in Linux is a Learning Experience), I thought I'd share the procedure in case anyone else wants to try it.
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First, a word about installing WordPro from the SmartSuite CD-ROM:

After putting the installation disk in the drive, <mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom>.

From within an Xterminal (or similar terminal), launch <wine /cdrom/install.exe>

The first time I did it, the installer began to work, and shortly gave a message:
“Update System Dependencies: Some Windows files must be updated for install to complete successfully.” Click OK, and it soon says “Updates successful.” It says to Reboot, and launch install again.

What I did was ugly: I clicked “Reboot.” It proceeded to hang the system. I finally had to push the “reboot” button on the front of the computer. Ugly. But... once I got back to where I'd started, and ran <wine /cdrom/install.exe> again, it worked.

I suspect that you could click the other option, which I think was “cancel,” then reboot more cleanly in Linux as usual.

From there, the installer seems to work normally. I did a full SmartSuite installation, using the defaults throughout. Finally, you get the good news:

“Wine exited with a successful status.”
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And now, on to WordPro:

Upon running <wine [pathname]/wordpro.exe> the first time, I got a series of Windows error messages (Windows, not the Wine error log). These messages said “Unable to load” a series of four .DLL's. Write them down for reference: the list I got was this:

ltdlgn03.dll
lticnc80.dll
ltsbc61.dll
ltaswn22.dll
(and later on, once working with the software, one gets an “unable to load” for:
ltss98.dll -- this doesn't come up until you actually create a document and start typing, but you might as well fix it at the same time you fix the others)

But then the WordPro software continues to load, giving the “Welcome” screen. It invites you to create a new document, but it cannot do so. So, hit “Cancel” on this welcome screen, and that takes you to the blank WordPro screen, with the menu bar on top.

You might as well exit the program for now, and fix the DLL errors.

What you need to do is to copy the missing DLL's from where they (probably) are already, which is the directory </lotus/compnent> (yes, it is spelled that way, not “component”), into the directory </lotus/wordpro>. Do that by the method of your choice, and re-run <wine ...wordpro.exe>.

The error messages should be gone, but at the Welcome screen, you still cannot create a new document (you CAN open an existing document at this point, if you want). It cannot locate a SmartMaster template.

To fix that, still in WordPro, from the menu bar go to <File: User Setup: WordPro Preferences>. On the tab for “Locations,” you want to adjust the listing for “SmartMaster.” Browse around until you find the right directory; it should be <\lotus\smasters\wordpro>. While you're at it, you might want to set up the other file locations to suit your needs.

Click “OK.” The next time you start WordPro, you can use any of the SmartMasters that are in the directory, or there are ways to create your own.

I have not yet run into any difficulties with WordPro running under Wine – but then again, I haven't done anything complicated with it yet.

A quick footnote on the other SmartSuite applications. The above technique of copying DLL's from <lotus/compnent> to the working directories clears up some of the error messages you get from them, but other error messages continue. I have not gotten Lotus 123, Approach, or Organizer to run yet, and I probably won't bother with Freelance Graphics, since I never much liked it anyway.

There are newer versions of SmartSuite than what I work with: I see that they are up to Release 9.8, and mine was plain old Release 9. The above methods should work on the newer version, but someone would have to try it.

(Edit: One more WordPro detail. To convert files from WordPro's .LWP format to OpenOffice, export them from WordPro as .RTF, open them in Writer and save as .ODT files)

Maybe, but I still don't get people who use word processors at work they're great if you want to create ads with font size 300+ to be nailed to the local fence, but if you want to create something longish with a uniform outfit, for example, they're all horrible. This is just an opinion..no offence.

Is it really needed to reboot the box? I mean, Wine is just a program and if you close it, then the emulated environment stops running which, in my opinion, is basically the same thing as shutting Windows down. I might be wrong but I think it's enough to shut Wine down and restart it again to have the same effect as if you had rebooted your "Windows". Then again, I've seen other weird stuff with Wine so it's not impossible..

Great that you wrote this, I'm sure people using WP can get help out of this. I hope more people wrote this kind of "howtos" after solving a problem, not just mention "hey it works"