How To Install WPS Office On Linux
WPS Office is a leading contender on the Linux platform for those looking for an office suite as close to Microsoft Office as possible. The office suite has support for many different Linux distributions, and as of now is free. It also has a premium version that adds additional features like cloud backup, encryption, and document collaboration. It has a a 10-day trial period if you’re interested in trying the premium features out or you can install WPS Office for free, and use it as is without getting the premium version. The premium version is a subscription based service so it’s not a one-time purchase.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial at the end of this article.
Be sure to also check out our list of 4 best alternatives to Libre Office, if you’re looking for something that looks more like MS Office on the Linux desktop.
Ubuntu/Debian Instructions
The primary way Ubuntu and Debian users can install WPS Office is with a downloadable Debian package file. Sadly, the developers have no PPA, nor Debian software repository that the users can add. Having no software repositories available is a pain when it comes to updating software, but it’s still nice to see that there is a binary package available. Currently, WPS has support for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
To install WPS Office, head over to the WPS downloads page, and grab the latest Debian package file. Keep in mind that WPS doesn’t have the packages sorted by distribution, so you’ll need to be careful that you don’t download the wrong file. If you can’t find it from the list of links, consider pressing Ctrl + F in the browser, and type in “deb.” Doing so will highlight the correct packages.
Once you’ve downloaded the WPS Debian package file, open up the file manager, click on your Downloads folder and click on the WPS file. Selecting the file should open it in the Debian (or Ubuntu) GUI package installer tool. From there just enter your password, and click the install button.
Want to install via terminal instead? Open up a terminal window, and use cd to move the terminal to ~/Downloads. From there, install the package via the dpkg package installer tool.
cd ~/Downloads sudo dpkg -i wps-office_*_amd64.deb
or
sudo dpkg -i wps-office_*_i386.deb
During the installation, you may run into an issue resolving dependency files. To fix the problem of missing dependencies, run apt install -f. This command goes out, searches for missing programs and installs them.
sudo apt install -f
Uninstall WPS Office at any time with:
sudo apt remove wps-office
or
sudo apt-get remove wps-office
Alternatively, search for WPS Office in the Ubuntu software center, and click the uninstall button.
Arch Linux Instructions
Need WPS Office for Linux on Arch Linux? If so, you’ll need to install it via the AUR, as WPS Office doesn’t currently support Arch Linux, and there are no official packages. To generate an installable package, open up a terminal. Then, use the git command to pull the latest source code for the package.
Note: be sure to install the “git” package, or WPS Office will not pull from the AUR.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/wps-office.git
Using the cd command, enter the WPS Office folder.
cd wps-office
All that is left to do is to generate the package with the makepkg command. Keep in mind that when you create the package, you may run into dependency issues. To mitigate this, be sure to add -si to the end of your command. This command tells the Pacman package manager to go out and find as many installable dependencies as possible. If they still aren’t satisfied, you’ll need to manually get them from this page here (under dependencies).
makepkg -si
Uninstall WPS Office from Arch with this command:
sudo pacman -R wps-office
Fedora/OpenSuse Instructions
Those on Fedora and OpenSUSE who love WPS Office are in luck! It turns out that the developers have an RPM file available! Here’s how to get it going for both operating systems.
Fedora
Go to the release page and press Ctrl + F on the keyboard. In the search box, enter “rpm.” Using the “find” feature will highlight all of the downloadable RPM package files for WPS Office. Download the latest version, and then open up the file manager.
Inside the file manager, click on Downloads, then double click on the RPM file. If this is done correctly, the Fedora RPM GUI installer tool should open. Enter your password, and click the install button to install it. Alternatively, install WPS Office via terminal with:
cd ~/Downloads sudo dnf -y install wps-office-*.x86_64.rpm
Uninstall WPS Office from Fedora using dnf remove.
sudo dnf remove wps-office
OpenSUSE
Once you’ve downloaded the RPM file, open up the file manager, go to Downloads and double-click on the RPM file. Opening it should launch the SUSE RPM GUI tool. Enter your password, and click the install button.
Want to install WPS Office with terminal instead? Do:
cd ~/Downloads sudo zypper install wps-office-*.x86_64.rpm
Want to uninstall the software? Run:
sudo zypper remove wps-office
Source Instructions
Looking to install WPS Office on Linux but don’t have one of the distributions that the developers support? Not to worry, because it turns out that there is a downloadable, standalone binary archive file that users can use to run the WPS Office software. To install it, head over to the release page, press Ctrl + F, and search for “tar.xz”. Select either the 32-bit or 64-bit variant, and download the archive to your Linux PC.
Next, open up a terminal window and use the cd command to navigate to the ~/Downloads directory. From there, extract the downloaded tar.xz archive.
tar xvfJ wps-office_*.tar.xz
Extracting the files should take a couple of minutes at most. When the process is complete, use rm to delete the tar.xz file and cd into the folder.
rm wps-office_*.tar.xz cd wps-office_*
First, use the “install_fonts” script to install any missing fonts on the system.
sudo sh install_fonts
From here you’ll be able to run any of the WPS software tools right from this folder.
To run the text editor, type ./wps in the terminal. Additionally, access the WPS presentation tool with ./wpp and the WPS spreadsheet tool with ./et.
