How to Install OpenOffice on Ubuntu 20.04

Apache OpenOffice is an open-source office application software suite available for Unix-based systems. You can use documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and drawing software freely. OpenOffice is a project build by the Apache foundation and providing the latest features and security updates.

This tutorial will help you to install Apache OpenOffice 4.1 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system.

Step 1 – Installing Java

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 required Java runtime 8 or higher version to run on any platform. Make sure you already have installed Java on your system.

To install latest available OpenJDK Java on your Ubuntu system, type:

sudo apt install default-jdk -y 

After completing installation, check the installed Java version by running command:

java -version 

openjdk version "11.0.8" 2020-07-14
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.8+10-post-Ubuntu-0ubuntu120.04, mixed mode, sharing)

Step 2 – Download Apache OpenOffice Debian Package

Apache OpenOffice Debian packages are available for download on official web page. You can visit download page and download the latest Debian packages, or use the following command to download files on your system.

wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/openofficeorg.mirror/files/4.1.7/binaries/en-US/Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz 

Once the download is complete, extract the Debian packages on your system.

tar xzf Apache_OpenOffice_4.1.7_Linux_x86_install-deb_en-US.tar.gz 

This will create an installation directory named en-US under the current directory, and place all the Debian packages there.

Step 3 – Install Apache OpenOffice on Ubuntu

Before installing OpenOffice make sure you don’t have installed OpenOffice on your system. If have, uninstall it using the following command.

sudo apt remove -–purge openoffice* 

Then, navigate to Apache OpenOffice extracted packages directory and DEBS folder. You will see a list of Debian packages there. Install all packages using the following command.

cd en-US/DEBS/ 
sudo dpkg -i *.deb 

Next is to install the desktop integration features. Navigate to the desktop-integration directory, and install the required package.

cd desktop-integration/ 
sudo dpkg -i openoffice4.1-debian-menus*.deb 

Step 4 – Launch Apache OpenOffice

After successful installation of all the packages in the above steps, You have installed Apache OpenOffice on your system. Now launch the OpenOffice suite from command line by typing:

openoffice4 

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned to install Apache OpenOffice on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux system.