I initially used the VMware guide http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_newguest_tools_linux.html
From installing a few times on a variety of Linux flavours this is my interpretation.
In the Virtual Infrastructure right click on the Virtual Machine and select Guest and Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
Click OK on the warning message
The VMware tools are loaded as a CD/DVD drive in the guest Linux virtual machine. Ensure that you are logged in with root privileges, right click on the tar file and select Extract to
Select an extraction location from the Extract in folder field. In this case I have chosen /tmp
Once extraction is complete open a Terminal window and type cd /tmp
The vmware-tools-distrib directory should exist inside the /tmp directory. Type
cd vmware-tools-distrib
Next type
./vmware-install.pl
Answer the various configuration questions pressing Enter if you are happy to accept the default values
Also take care choosing display resolution as certain applications require a minimum for installation
In this case I chose 1024 x 768
Once completed you will need to restart X session to pick up the resolution
A quick and easy way to restart is to use Ctrl-Alt and Backspace which will log you out of your desktop session
MartCJ 