LibreOffice installation on Ubuntu

If you're using Ubuntu, don't install LibreOffice manually from the ".deb" files available at LibreOffice.org. Otherwise you will not get automatic updates & upgrades when new versions come out and you will be missing the integration to Ubuntu. Using official packages also ensures you get the best assistance from the community as this is the recommended method to install & use LibreOffice in Ubuntu.

Please note OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice don't coexist. Install LibreOffice following these instructions will effectively remove OpenOffice.org.

The current status of LibreOffice packaging for Ubuntu can be followed by looking at or subscribing to Bug #651124.

If you find any issues when using LibreOffice with Ubuntu, please follow the bug reporting guidelines.

Making sure LibreOffice is available for you Ubuntu version

Ubuntu 11.04

Starting with Ubuntu 11.04, LibreOffice is part of Ubuntu. Since LibreOffice is already part of the standard packages, just search for "libreoffice" in your favorite package manager.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and 10.10

For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and 10.10, it is recommended that you use the LibreOffice Personal Package Archive (PPA) repository. A PPA is always considered a third-party application and unfit for production purposes (as far as official commercial support goes), however LibreOffice is becoming part of Ubuntu in April 2011, and this PPA is the source for such official version. Make sure you test this appropriately if you intend to use this in a production environment under Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or 10.10.

Follow these steps to make LibreOffice available for installation in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or Ubuntu 10.10:

1. Open a terminal window under Applications > Accessories > Terminal

2. Once the repository is added, we need to let the system know about the new packages available:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

3. Update the packages list:

   sudo apt-get update

Installing LibreOffice

Selective installation

To install only part of LibreOffice, you can install the appropriate meta-package:

• libreoffice-writer: Word processor
• libreoffice-calc: Spreadsheet
• libreoffice-impress: Presentation
• libreoffice-draw: Drawing
• libreoffice-base: Database
• libreoffice-math: Equation editor
• libreoffice-filter-mobiledev: Mobile Devices filters

• libreoffice-filter-binfilter: legacy filters (e.g. StarOffice 5.2)

Full installation

To install all the LibreOffice core packages:

1. Install the LibreOffice meta-package with this command: sudo apt-get install libreoffice

2. Complete the installation by including the Ubuntu (Gnome) desktop integration:

   sudo apt-get install libreoffice-gnome

If you're using Kubuntu (KDE):

• sudo apt-get install libreoffice-kde

Installing other related packages, dictionaries, extensions, clipart, templates

Additional language modules, help files and extensions are also available if you search for libreoffice in your package manager. Here are a few examples:

• libreoffice-help-*: help files
• libreoffice-l10n-*: localization files

• libreoffice-pdfimport - LibreOffice extension for importing PDF documents

• libreoffice-presentation-minimizer - LibreOffice extension for size-efficient presentations

• libreoffice-presenter-console - LibreOffice Impress extension for a separate presenter's console

• libreoffice-report-builder-bin - LibreOffice extension for building database reports -- libraries

• mozilla-libreoffice - office productivity suite -- Mozilla plugin

Spell checking, hyphenation and dictionaries

To install proper support for language writing aids you must install the corresponding package. The name will consist of language-support-writing- followed by your language ISO 639-1 code. A complete list of such language codes is available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_639-1_codes

For French, Spanish and Italian, for example, the corresponding packages are:

• language-support-writing-fr
• language-support-writing-es
• language-support-writing-it