LibreOffice viewer app for Android
Outdoor Office Helper
The LibreOffice Viewer for Android displays office documents on mobile devices and now even has simple editing features. We investigate whether the smartphone and tablet app is useful as a helper for the main office suite.
At the end of May 2015, the LibreOffice developers released the first stable version of LibreOffice Viewer for Android on Google play [1]. The free app has been released under the Mozilla Public License and was developed in cooperation with Igalia, Collabora, and Smoose, as well as some Google Summer of Code students. If you run Android without Google, you will find an APK at the Document Foundation website [2].
The viewer uses the same engine as the desktop version of LibreOffice. The front end is based on Firefox for Android. According to the release notes, the app displays the free ODT, ODS, and ODP formats, and the Microsoft DOX, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, PPT, and PPTX formats. An experimental editing feature provides tools for bold and italic fonts as well as underline and strikethrough.
LibreOffice Viewer requires at least Android 4.0. The test team installed the app on a tablet (Tolino Tab 8.9 with Android 4.2.2) and on a smartphone (Galaxy Nexus, Android 4.3) and tasked the mobile office assistant with opening Writer, Calc, and Impress files as well as MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents; we also tried to edit them (Table 1) in the viewer. One thing up front: The app did not open password-protected documents as a matter of principle – it even crashed reproducibly.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Kubuntu Focus Goes Ultra
The Kubuntu Focus team has upped the performance ante of its M2 and Zr laptops with the latest, greatest CPUs from Intel.
-
Linux Gamers May Soon See Less Mouse Lag in KDE Plasma
Gamers using KDE’s Plasma desktop have been suffering from a slight input delay in mouse movement that could lead to getting fragged.
-
Three Lines of Code Improve Linux Storage Performance
A developer changed three lines of code, giving Linux storage performance a 5% bump.
-
AUR Hit Again with Malicious Packages
Once again the Arch User Repository is plagued by a high volume of malicious packages.
-
Alpine Linux 3.24 Features Fresh Desktops and a Newer Kernel
If you're a fan of Alpine Linux, it's time to upgrade because the latest version has been released with KDE Plasma 6.6, Gnome 50, and Linux kernel 6.18 LTS.
-
EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
Comprehensive measures adopted by the European Commission aim to reduce dependency on non-EU countries.
-
Linux Foundation Report Indicates AI Driving Tech Hiring
Within growing security and skills gaps, AI has been found to be a positive driving force behind tech hiring trends in Europe.
-
United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
A new open source portal seeks to coordinate and scale open source efforts across the United Nations system.
-
KDE Linux Drops AUR
KDE Linux developers have dropped the Arch User Repository from the build pipeline due to security concerns; other distributions should consider doing the same.
-
California May Exempt Linux from Its Age-Verification Law
After backlash from the Linux community, California may be backing off on its promise to force all operating systems to verify age, but one platform may still have to comply.