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Using NeoOffice Outside of /Applications
From NeoWiki
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Running NeoOffice from a location other than /Applications
Officially, this cannot be done. /Applications is the only supported location for installing NeoOffice.
There are two very important reasons for this:
- First, a bunch of the underlying OpenOffice.org code expects things to be installed in a single known place and never moved, so there are lots of hard-coded pathnames in the app.
- Secondly, because of the above and because searching an entire large disk for the NeoOffice install location could take "forever," the patch installers only look in /Applications for the NeoOffice app to update.
That said, unofficially, if you're really adventurous and careful, you could probably get it to work. Recently, some updates to the installation process and path checking code have been made that will make it easier to install or move NeoOffice into other places, but this is still experimental.
N.B.: Put the NeoOffice app on a drive that does not have any spaces in its name and only in folders that do not have spaces in the folder names. Parts of the OpenOffice.org code do not handle spaces in pathnames. If you will be attempting to use NeoOffice from a USB key or "Flash" drive, make sure the drive is formatted as HFS Extended, not FAT-32.
Installation and Patching Instructions:
- Install NeoOffice in /Applications for the first time (Don't launch it).
- Immediately move NeoOffice to your USB key or other portable disk.
- Never rename your USB key or other disk once you have ever launched NeoOffice.
- Move ~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice-2.2 to your USB key.
- On each machine where you use NeoOffice, use the Finder to make an alias to the NeoOffice-2.x folder on your portable drive and place that alias at ~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice-2.x (i.e., name the alias NeoOffice-2.x and place it in the ~/Library/Preferences folder) so that NeoOffice will follow the alias to your portable drive.
Alternatives
UNIX-style symbolic links
If you have /Applications symlinked to your USB key or other disk, some of the complexity is removed (NeoOffice more-or-less supports situations where /Applications is on a second drive/partition and where /Applications on the main drive has been replaced by a UNIX symbolic link to its location on the second drive).
Installation on another volume
It's easy to install NeoOffice to another volume.
If you have several partitions or physical disks, just create an "Applications" folder at the root of this volume and it will be offered as a choice for the installation and patches thereafter.
