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Software - Support => Other => Topic started by: rayon on July 26, 2014, 11:50:03 AM

Title: Opening MS Office files by default with MS Office
Post by: rayon on July 26, 2014, 11:50:03 AM
Hello,

I want to open all .doc/.docx , .xls/.xlsx and .ppt/.pptx by default with Microsoft Office.
I installed Microsoft Office 2003 with Wine and it's working fine.

In Ubuntu or Linux Mint, you can just open a file (like .doc), select properties --> open with --> choose MS Word and clck 'set as default'.
In Linux Lite I could not find this option. (Btw. would be great if this feature would come with the next version :) )

Anyway there is the seccond option of editing the /usr/share/applications/defaults.list . So I tried this:

First I copied the starters of MS Office from the start menu into /usr/share/applications/ :

Microsoft Word:
Code: [Select]
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Microsoft Office Word 2003
Exec=env WINEPREFIX="/home/jurgen/.wine" wine C:\\\\windows\\\\command\\\\start.exe /Unix /home/jurgen/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/jurgen/Start\\ Menu/Programs/Microsoft\\ Office/Microsoft\\ Office\\ Word\\ 2003.lnk
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Comment=Erstellen und ändern Sie Text und Grafik in Briefen, Berichten und Webseiten oder E-Mails - Microsoft Office Word macht's möglich.
Icon=1282_wordicon.0

Then I opened the defaults.list with sudo.

And found this entry:

Code: [Select]
application/msword=libreoffice-writer.desktop;
I changed it to:

Code: [Select]
application/msword=“Microsoft Office Word 2003.desktop“;
I tried it with and without ""

I did a reboot and opened a .doc file and still Libre Office Writer was the default launcher.

I don't know what I' am doing wrong.

Is there maybe a more easy way of doing this?

Greets,

rayon

PS: I personally like Libre Office, I am doing this for someone else  ;)
Title: Re: Opening MS Office files by default with MS Office
Post by: Jerry on July 26, 2014, 04:49:32 PM
I would love to help you with this but I don't have any MS products to test, sorry.
Title: Re: Opening MS Office files by default with MS Office
Post by: N4RPS on July 26, 2014, 07:27:15 PM
Hello!

Firstly, files with the .docx/.xlsx/.pptx extension are designed to be used only with Office 2007 or later. However, I believe that OpenOffice will allow you to work with such files, but some formatting commands may not survive the transfer.

Secondly, .desktop files exist in at least three locations:

~/.local/share/applications (selecting 'show hidden' files in File Manager will reveal folders/files that start with a period)
/usr/local/share/applications
/usr/share/applications

Make sure you change all three and you'll be closer to achieving the results you're looking for.

More info here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/117341/how-can-i-find-desktop-files (http://askubuntu.com/questions/117341/how-can-i-find-desktop-files)

73 DE N4RPS
Rob