Tips & tricks

Portable installation

FreeOffice for Windows

If you want to have FreeOffice for Windows and important documents with you when on the go, you can copy FreeOffice to a USB flash drive. You can then run FreeOffice from the USB flash drive on any Windows-based computer (for example, a borrowed or public computer). Once you unplug the USB flash drive, no trace of FreeOffice remains on the PC.

Here's how it works:

  1. Install FreeOffice on your regular PC's built-in hard drive. This lets you work with the applications as usual on your PC, even without a USB flash drive.
  2. Click on the Windows Start button and then select Programs > SoftMaker FreeOffice 2024 > Utilities > Install SoftMaker FreeOffice on a USB flash drive.
  3. Follow the prompts, and the program will copy the complete SoftMaker FreeOffice folder and the complete folder My Documents\SoftMaker to your USB flash drive. All FreeOffice program files as well as all of your documents and settings from My Documents\SoftMaker will be transferred to the USB flash drive.

When the program is installed, your USB flash drive will contain a fully functional copy of FreeOffice which does not register itself in Windows, in addition to all of your documents and configuration files.

To launch one of the programs, open the FreeOffice folder on the USB flash drive and click on the program that you want to run (for example, TextMaker.exe or PlanMaker.exe).

FreeOffice for Linux

FreeOffice for Linux can also be installed on a USB flash drive. Here's how it works:

  1. Install FreeOffice on the built-in hard drive of your Linux PC. This lets you work with FreeOffice as usual, even without a USB flash drive.
  2. Create a folder on the USB flash drive and copy the entire contents of the FreeOffice application folder (usually /usr/share/freeoffice2024) to this folder:
mkdir /media/disk/freeoffice (replace /media/disk with the path of your USB flash drive)
cd /usr/share/freeoffice2024
cp -Rv * /media/disk/freeoffice (replace /media/disk with the path of your USB flash drive)
  1. In the new folder on the USB flash drive, create a file with the name portable.txt. Its content is irrelevant:
cd /media/disk/freeoffice (replace /media/disk with the path of your USB flash drive)
touch portable.txt

The portable.txt file is just a "marker file" that informs FreeOffice that it should run in portable mode and not leave any configuration files on the host operating system.

  1. Launch TextMaker:
textmaker

TextMaker then creates the folder /media/disk/freeoffice/SoftMaker for your documents, templates and settings. Next, TextMaker copies its default document templates and configuration files into this folder. Once the installation is complete, TextMaker starts.

If you want, you can now copy additional documents and templates to the flash drive.

  1. Place documents in /media/disk/freeoffice/SoftMaker.
  2. Copy your TextMaker document templates to /media/disk/freeoffice/SoftMaker/TextMaker 2024 templates.
  3. Copy your PlanMaker document templates to /media/disk/freeoffice/SoftMaker/PlanMaker 2024 templates.
  4. Copy your Presentations design templates to /media/disk/freeoffice/SoftMaker/Presentations 2024 designs.

To launch one of the programs, open the FreeOffice folder on the USB flash drive and double-click on the program you want to launch.