Install OpenOffice 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10

OpenOffice 3.0 adds updated ODF format support, Microsoft Office XML format support (reading only), usability improvements, a new start center, improved annotations in Writer, and improved PDF support.

OpenOffice 3.0 on Ubuntu 8.04

You can replace Ubuntu 8.04’s now outdated version of OpenOffice, or keep both versions installed at the same time. It’s not clear whether OpenOffice 3.0 will be available in Ubuntu 8.10, so I’ve tested these instructions with it as well.

1. Visit the download page, and select the Linux DEB download. The download should be about 150 MB. Extract the tar.gz archive.
2. OpenOffice is very complex software, and consists 47 packages. The easiest way to install them all is using the terminal. Use dpkg to install all of the packages in the DEBS subdirectory (command is one line, you will be prompted for your password):
sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS/*.deb
3. If you’re happy with OpenOffice 3.0, you can optionally remove the older Ubuntu-provided version. Note that removing the old OpenOffice will also remove the ubuntu-desktop metapackage, so don’t do this if you want to be able to upgrade Ubuntu to a new major version.

sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-base-core openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-evolution openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev openoffice.org-gnome openoffice.org-gtk openoffice.org-help-en-us openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-java-common openoffice.org-l10n-common openoffice.org-l10n-en-gb openoffice.org-l10n-en-za openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-style-human openoffice.org-writer

4. Once the old version of OpenOffice has been removed, you will be able to install the package that provides menu items for OpenOffice 3.0:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS/desktop-integration/openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9354_all.deb

[update] If you chose to keep the old version of OpenOffice installed, you’ll have to create your own menu items. Use this command to run OpenOffice 3:
/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice
5. One last step is to associate the document formats to open with OpenOffice 3.0. To do this, right-click on a document file and select Open With->Open With Other Application. Then select the appropriate OpenOffice component for that file.

If you want to remove OpenOffice 3.0, here the huge command to do so:
sudo apt-get remove ooobasis3.0-base ooobasis3.0-binfilter ooobasis3.0-calc ooobasis3.0-core01 ooobasis3.0-core02 ooobasis3.0-core03 ooobasis3.0-core04 ooobasis3.0-core05 ooobasis3.0-core06 ooobasis3.0-core07 ooobasis3.0-draw ooobasis3.0-en-us ooobasis3.0-en-us-base ooobasis3.0-en-us-binfilter ooobasis3.0-en-us-calc ooobasis3.0-en-us-draw ooobasis3.0-en-us-help ooobasis3.0-en-us-impress ooobasis3.0-en-us-math ooobasis3.0-en-us-res ooobasis3.0-en-us-writer ooobasis3.0-gnome-integration ooobasis3.0-graphicfilter ooobasis3.0-images ooobasis3.0-impress ooobasis3.0-javafilter ooobasis3.0-kde-integration ooobasis3.0-math ooobasis3.0-onlineupdate ooobasis3.0-ooofonts ooobasis3.0-ooolinguistic ooobasis3.0-pyuno ooobasis3.0-testtool ooobasis3.0-writer ooobasis3.0-xsltfilter openoffice.org3 openoffice.org3-base openoffice.org3-calc openoffice.org3-dict-en openoffice.org3-dict-es openoffice.org3-dict-fr openoffice.org3-draw openoffice.org3-en-us openoffice.org3-impress openoffice.org3-math openoffice.org3-writer openoffice.org-ure