The great advantage (although not the only one) that laptops offer us Chromebook is the possibility of synchronizing a large part of your files in the cloud. This means freeing up storage space which results in much more agile general operation. But, despite everything, there are some applications that should always be installed, even if only out of habit. In this post we will explain how to install Microsoft Office on a Chromebook laptop quickly and simply.
Before starting with the explanations, it should be noted that, in principle, it is not possible to install the desktop versions of Office on a Chromebook. However, there are other ways to have the office suite installed with all its programs (Word, Excel and PowerPoint). We tell you everything in the following paragraphs.
We already know that this is a very peculiar range of laptop computers that, among other things, is characterized by using the Google's Chrome OS operating system. There is only one reliable method to install Microsoft Office on our Chromebook. However, there are other similar alternatives that can be equally useful. Take good note of all of them:
Installation via Google Play Store
La android app store It is a resource that we always have when downloading and installing all kinds of programs and apps for our devices. In it we will be able to find, of course, all the Microsoft Office products to be installed on a Chromebook (there is no problem in the most recent models, those from the year 206 and later, since they have the necessary support).
Still, it doesn't hurt check compatibility before starting the download. Sometimes, the software is not prepared to support the app and in that case it will not work. But if everything matches, this is how we should proceed to install the Microsoft Office package on our Chromebook:
- First of all, we open the application of Google Play Store.
- Let's go to the search bar and in it we write the name of the Microsoft Office product that you want to install (for example, Excel).
- We select the application we want to download and click on the button "Install".
- After completing the download and installation, we click on the App Launcher button. In this way we place the app inside the Chromebook.
- Lastly, We access our Microsoft account.
After this, we will be able to start using the new tool. In case, for whatever reason (for example, because our Chromebook is too old) we have not been able to complete the installation, there are still two possibilities that we can explore:
Microsoft Office Online
This is a solution to use all Microsoft Office programs in the event that we have not been able to download them to our Chromebook from the Google Play Store. For situations like this we have Microsoft Office Online, which allows us to have all the programs in the office suite online. This is an alternative that It works quite well, as long as our WiFi connection is good.
Almost all the usual Office functions are available, so we will be able to access all our documents and edit them as we want. The only thing to keep in mind is that there are many others that we will not be able to execute. The explanation is simple: these Google laptops are designed to run Chrome OS. Thus, some of the features that would be accessible using Windows or macOS may be restricted.
In any case, if you want to try this option, this is the link where you can access it.
Streaming from PC to Chromebook
Finally, we mention another option to have Microsoft Office on our Chromebook if the two previous methods have failed or do not convince us. Consists in run Microsoft Office on a PC and from there transmit it to our Chromebook.
The great advantage of this method is that it gives us the option of run the full desktop version specifically designed for PC, not a limited one as in the case of Office Online. The only essential requirement for everything to go well is to have a stable Internet connection on both devices. Once this has been verified, the steps to follow are as follows:
- To begin, we open the Chrome browser on the PC and go to the website Chrome remote desktop.
- Then we click on the option «Set up remote access».
- Next we install the extension «Chrome Remote Desktop«.
- Now we return to the original PC tab and assign it a name.
- We click on Next and we create a PIN (this must be at least six digits), which will be requested to start the connection.
After doing that, we can start using Microsoft Office, transmitted from the PC, on our Chromebook. All functions are available, just as if we had installed it.