To view ever-prevalent Microsoft Word and Excel attachments on the Department UNIX machines, use the word processing program StarOffice. To do this, you first need to install StarOffice, and that's easy. Just follow these simple instructions:

1. Open a terminal (console) window, type soffice, and hit Enter.
2. The setup program will begin and all you have to do is click Next a whole bunch of times. (In the process, do make sure you opt for the Standard Workstation Installation and NOT the Local Installation).
3. Now test StarOffice by opening a terminal (console) window and typing soffice.
4. A note about printing. You cannot print directly from Star Office. Instead, choose File/Print, then check the box next to print to file then print your file. Remember the location and name you assign to this file, then send it to a printer with the lpr command.

Hopefully the installation worked. If not, email us at staff@math.wisc.edu.

Now you're ready to view those Word/Excel documents. If you use Netscape Messenger for email, just click on the attachment and it will automatically be opened in StarOffice. If you use Pine or another email program, save the attachment somewhere, and then open it with StarOffice.