Open a word document via a network from a PC does not have installed office

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zillah

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2005
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I have got two PCs (Desktop and Laptop) connected to each other through crossover cable.

They can see each other and they can ping each other.

Desktop has got Microsoft office installed on it,,,,laptop has not got installed Microsoft office.

Desktop has got a word document file called: invoice.doc

From Laptop (does not office installed) I tried to open the invoice.doc on Desktop,,,,but I could not.

Is this normal ?

Do I need to install Microsoft office on laptop as well ?
 
Yes, you need the program on both machines (or whatever machine you want to view it on).

Sharing a file does not share the programs associated with it, nor is there a way to share most applications like office.
 
Yes, you need office on each machine. You could get MS office viewer (here) if you just need to read the document. If you need to edit though, either get another copy of Office/Word, or Open Office.
 
Grentz said:
Yes, you need the program on both machines (or whatever machine you want to view it on).

Sharing a file does not share the programs associated with it, nor is there a way to share most applications like office.
Click to expand...

There is a way to do so, but not the way you think. This used to be a feature of office, you installed it on a network drive that all users could connect to. But it was rediculously slow and not worth it.

Grentz is right. You must remember that by being 'networked', you are only sharing the filesystem. When you open a file over the network, you are really copying the file locally and then relying on your PC to know how to deal with it. By networking the computers, they don't form a Borg of sorts. They just get access to the same file resources.

A Borg is possible with grid computing, but that idea hasn't caught on yet. Something about "why should I buy an expensive PC if I can have someone else's faster one do it for me".
 
This used to be a feature of office, you installed it on a network drive that all users could connect to. But it was ridiculously slow and not worth it.
Click to expand...
If you had came across such a good article could you please point me to it for the future reference ? otherwise I will google it
 
zillah said:
If you had came across such a good article could you please point me to it for the future reference ? otherwise I will google it
Click to expand...

Well I can't find one now, but look for "run from network server" specifically with Office 97. I think Office 2000 supported it too, but I don't believe newer versions do.

It basically was a way to save disk space. A minimal version of Office was still installed on each client, including stuff like registry settings, while most files remained on the server common to all users.
 
Ditto- it would be painfully slow.

Better off using an online application (like Google's stuff) versus that...

Not sure what the issue is (money... something else??).
 
Could possibly use virtualization software as well..but I don't think that's the best use for it. ;)
 
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