Access MS Office Files

[sspivey]

I have installed VirtualBox on my Mac OS X 10.10.1 running Windows 7 as a guest OS so my kids can access MS Office for school projects. Now that I have the VM installed and running in seamless mode can I set up a seamless way for the kids to access the MS Office programs? So far the only way I have figured out to do this is to launch the VM and then access MS Office through the Windows interface. I would like to set it up so that the programs are accessible through the Apple Dock or Desktop or something so when the kids launch the MS Office program the VM launches in the background. Is this possible?

[socratis]

Nope, not at this moment.

[mpack]

It should however be possible to set up a shortcut which you can call Office, but which actually launches the VM and perhaps leads to a desktop with a bunch of Office icons.

[loukingjr]

I hope no one minds this info but, VMWare Fusion 7 does have the capability to launch Windows applications directly from the dock. Of course it's not free and I would consider it expensive just for the one feature.

[mpack]

I have no problem with people fairly mentioning or contrasting VMWare on these forums. It's only when people imply that VirtualBox should be a clone of VMware (like there's only one market for VMs, and only one way to serve that market) that it can get a tad irritating.

[loukingjr]

Don't blame you for that. I do own a copy of Fusion and use VirtualBox 99.99999% of the time. I actually got it specifically for OSX guests and as it turns out they have no 3D acceleration support for OSX either. But it has some other advantages for OSX guests.

[sspivey]

mpack - setting up the shortcuts may work for what I need to accomplish. any thought on how I would do that?

[sspivey]

loukingjr - I considered VMWare Fusion and also Parallels for this purpose, but since I am just using the VM for MS Office I wanted to go with the cheapest alternative, and you can't beat the price on VirtuaBox. I think I have gotten it functional enough that it will work for what we need. But if the last few issues I have can't be worked out then I may have to go with one of the paid options.

[mpack]

mpack - setting up the shortcuts may work for what I need to accomplish. any thought on how I would do that?

I would right click vm, and choose "Create shortcut" from the menu. I assume this works now on OS X hosts.

[socratis]

I am just using the VM for MS Office

Why don't you save yourself the hassle and either a) get MS Office for the Mac or b) get LibreOffice for the Mac. The second option is definitely cheaper (0€).

[sspivey]

socratis - I have tried several options for an alternative to ms office for Windows, but there are enough inconsistencies in between the versions, especially with power point, that it causes my kids trouble in completing projects for school. Unfortunately our school system is 100% Windows so my options are severely limited.