Has anybody been able to get a recent version to fly? Everything I try sends me on a one way trip to the Dependency Abyss.

There are two ways of easy install software in Mandrake, using "urpmi" in a console, and by means of MCC in a graphical interface. Try (as root):
#urpmi koffice

For best instructions see:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=203939

as was mentioned above, you can try installing apps via CLI using the urpmi command (as root), or in Mandrake Control Center (MCC). people will have different opinions as to which is better. neither way is "wrong", per se. for a newbie, MCC is probably easier. open MCC by navigating to it via kicker, or in a terminal as root type mcc (hit enter). go to the software installer module, then type koffice in the search & click "search". select the main koffice package & MCC will tell you if you need dependencies, what they are, then automatically select & install them for you. the urpmi command can be a bit frustrating dealing with dependencies, but it's good to get to know how to use that because it can get you out of a jam sometimes should you lose your GUI and need to install something to fix it via command line. (i had that happen to me once with a disastrous XFree86 upgrade, but that's another story.........)

otis

All my attempts at installing koffice through various methods have failed, but it doesn't matter. My ultimate aim was to be able to send faxes directly from an office app, and I thought by using koffice I could take direct advantage of KDE's nifty pseudo-printer fax drivers which OpenOffice would not seem to recognize.

However, I've found a quick and dirty way to make OO print directly to fax. If anybody is interested, here's the link:

http://www.jennings.homelinux.net/fax_cups.html