Open Office is not on Android, but you have very good alternatives: we choose the best

Opening and editing documents is not strange on Android: there are very good office automation applications for the system. Neither Open office nor Libre Office are officially available since their managers have not adapted them to Android, but you can download other applications and office suites powerful and capable of meeting all your needs regarding documents. We have chosen the best.

That the mobile has evolved from a telephone to a handheld is something that we normally assume despite the enormous number of features that it was including. And with screens as big as we currently have we can comfortably edit Word documents or open Excel tables: Android is enough and is left over for the most common uses. Drive, Microsoft Office, OfficeSuite and more: on mobile you have really good alternatives to Open Office or Libre Office. Of course, with the disadvantage of not be open source and, depending on the application, with the usual ads tarnishing the experience.

Microsoft Office

The best-known office suite is antagonistic to Open Office as far as open source is concerned, but its Android application allows the edit and open almost any document on mobile, which is what interests us. In a single app, with offline operation (as long as there is no need to upload files from the Microsoft account) and with extremely intuitive tools.

Microsoft Office has what most users need on the phone: a complete document editor that opens most files, including Open Office and Libre Office (in addition to Microsoft’s own). Office includes the most popular tools from the desktop office suite in one app: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more. It’s free, doesn’t include ads, and you don’t need an Office365 account to use its features.

Google drive

We cannot leave out the Google suite even if a good part of its tools are pre-installed on Android devices. And is that Drive allows you to view most files, also edit them. Although yes, you have to download several applications depending on the documents you want to edit.

Google Drive offers a simple, powerful office suite adapted to smartphones, although not as complete as Microsoft’s Office. In addition, it allows upload all kinds of files to the cloud and share them, for this there is the Google Drive application itself. If you need to edit documents you need:

• Google docs.
• Google Sheets.
• Google Presentations.
• Google PDF viewer.
• Google Keep.

Office Suite

One of the best document editors Android has had is still active, although it has changed its way of monetization: from one-time payment to free download with subscription. For most reading assignments can be used without problems, also for editing.

OfficeSuite opens a huge number of files, it also allows direct editing on Android. It is a very powerful application, of great quality, with high-level features and with certain limitations if you use the free version (no matter how useful it is for the usual uses). Includes ads and a one-week trial subscription. And it works in offline mode (and you remove the advertising).

Polaris Office

Another of the office suites with extensive experience in Android: it has been in the operating system since 2014. As OfficeSuite did, Polaris Office has also moved its monetization to the free download format with ads and subscription. Even so, can be used free of charge for most office applications: opening, reading and editing documents.

Polaris Office includes support for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and also PDF files. The interface is well adapted to smartphones, allows to open files from the phone and is also compatible with the most used clouds, such as Google Drive or Dropbox (this option is paid). It is a very good tool to operate documents on the phone, both online and offline. Includes subscription to fully unlock the app and also a comparison to remove only the ads. These can be avoided by putting the airplane mode (to edit the documents saved on the mobile, for example).

AndrOpen Office

Although Open Office does not have an official version for Android that does not mean that you cannot use its suite on the phone: AndrOpen Office is an adaptation of the desktop tool to mobile devices. This is evident in the appearance of the interface since it is difficult to manage all the elements on the vertical screen of a smartphone.

With AndrOpen Office you can do almost the same thing on your mobile that you do with open Office on your computer: editor of text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, it includes drawing tools and also an editor of mathematical equations, among many other tools. Its use is not properly adapted to smartphonesAlthough it can be used without too much trouble. And yes, it slightly violates the ‘open source’ spirit of Open Office since AndrOpen Office includes advertising and has purchases ‘in app’ to remove the ads. You can edit in airplane mode and with the documents saved on your mobile.

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The news

Open Office is not on Android, but you have very good alternatives: we choose the best

was originally published in

Xataka Android

by
Ivan Linares

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