Checking for Latest Info on OO for iPad

[3ME]

Just got a new M1 chip iPad with Magic Keyboard to replace my laptop. I have tons of .ods files stored and looking for the latest news on what I can install on my iPad to view, edit and create OO files. I’ve searched but the threads are a bit older.

Is there an OO app planned? What’s the best app currently to use that will take its place?

[Villeroy]

https://blog.tcea.org/libreoffice/

[3ME]

https://blog.tcea.org/libreoffice/

Where do I find the download? I went to the App Store and it only shows a viewer called Libre Office Viewer Lite.

[robleyd]

There is a link in the article under the heading LibreOffice Goes Mobile to https://apps.apple.com/us/app/collabora ... 1440482071

[3ME]

There is a link in the article under the heading LibreOffice Goes Mobile to https://apps.apple.com/us/app/collabora ... 1440482071

Ah, ok… I was confused. I saw it said Collabora was a mobile app that allowed opening of LibreOffice files. I was looking for something to compatible with Open Office.

So I understand, is LibreOffice just a different open source platform that’s OpenOffice?… just a different option? Wondering why we have both.

Right off the bat, I use a Magic Keyboard with my iPad and it doesn’t seem to allow scrolling with the track pad. Is there a place to get help with this or suggest this feature be added?

[Villeroy]

The one and only most important feature of OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Collabora and dozends of smaller applications is the Open Document Format. OpenOffice was not released as a surrogate for MS Office. The sword to fight Microsoft Office was the Open Document Format. This file format has the potential to make everything compatible with everything else, even if a smaller applications may not support each and every possible feature.

OpenOffice lost most of its developers when Sun Microsystems was eaten by Oracle Corp. Long story short: Free source code can be forked into another project when the old one is about to sink.

[3ME]

OpenOffice lost most of its developers when Sun Microsystems was eaten by Oracle Corp. Long story short: Free source code can be forked into another project when the old one is about to sink.

Do I understand correctly, then LibreOffice/Collabora are going to be better supported than OO? Should I also be replacing Open Office on my Mac desktops with one of these? Is this still the forum to get answers and support on these platforms or do they have their own?

[Villeroy]

Since many years LO is better supported than OO. This forum is the most active part of OpenOffice.

Read the header of this web page.

[Hagar Delest]

Read the header of this web page.

I would say "look carefully at the header". The sentence is in tiny and white font on a very light blue background, not a very optimized contrast.

[3ME]

What is Apache Open Office? I have this app on my iPhone and seems do similar to what Collabora does.

[sveld]

"What is Apache Open Office? I have this app on my iPhone and seems do similar to what Collabora does."

Don't there is an App in the store exactly called "Apache Open Office", there is a bunch of ports the pretty much move the desktop experience 1:1 from desktop to mobile like "AO Office", they just cannot use the Apache's OpenOffice name blindly as it's protected. The "problem" with those app, interface/integration/etc, is they're not optimized for mobile usage; mostly just a quick and dirty port to mobile.

There difference with the Collabora Office app for IOS is that this App's interface is written from scratch for mobile usage and integrates much better in the mobile infrastructure. The "engine" is LibreOffice so any document you can open/save with LibreOffice, or OpenOffice etc, can be used with the mobile version. It's just a much optimized mobile experience.
Collabora Office for IOS/Android (but also available for Win/Mac/Lin) really is an enterprise level version of LibreOffice, for which an company/organization can have a support subscription. There are more enterprise level supported versions of LibreOffice, if you like have a look at the link https://www.libreoffice.org/download/li ... -business/
The enterprise versions are just for ones seeking regular maintenance and support, anyone else just can leverage the free and open LibreOffice, just like you can use OpenOffice.
If you want to know more of the mobile/online effort, have a look at the projects page https://collaboraonline.github.io/

The reason there is yet no a real "LibreOffice" branded app in the IOS and Android appstores is that the organization behind LibreOffice, the Document Foundation, is still looking into this, but as an charity cannot just do such (the are not allowed to "sell" anything if you like) and hence are in the process puttying an organization in place which is allowed to use the LO brand to perform this on behave of the foundation. In the mean time Collabora, which is one of the most active supporters of the LibreOffice-Online and Mobile effort, publishes the Apps for free in the Apple and Android store. In the Microsoft and Apple MacOS store there are also version which for the mentioned reason not directly pubished by the Document Foundation but build by the LO enterprise supporters Collabora and CIB and can be found there as "LibreOffice vanilla". Reality is as more platforms close in to using appstores for distribution of software and making it harder to install software which is not signed, projects (like LibreOffice in this case) are forced to look into that. Publishing seems quite time consuming and needs resources like certificates so a fee may be asked for those like the Vanilla versions do. Then you can hassle free install and update the software, which is fine for the not-so-tech-savvy users. Those of us that are do-it-yourselves types can always download and install a for free version from the LibreOffice site. Besides easy install and update, the vanilla version for MacOS also support the Apple M1 chips.

Then LibreOffice is a spin off of OpenOffice.org just like Apache OpenOffice. Long history short, like was mentioned earlier in the thread, LibreOffice is well maintained and offers a lot of new features. If you need those features or not is a seperate subject, reality is there is a demand for it. There is a lot to find on that subject, good start is the LO Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice

[Villeroy]

What is Apache Open Office? I have this app on my iPhone and seems do similar to what Collabora does.

Searching for "Open Office" on the Apple store, I find "AO Office" by Akikazu Yoshikawa who made "the world wide first port of OpenOffice for iOS". This is the amazing work of a single person. How this compares to Collabora would be subject to extensive testing.

P.S. I find no hint what the "AO" in "AO Office" stands for. Certainly it is not "Apache Open".

[3ME]

Thanks for all the explanation guys!

Clearly I misspoke when I mentioned Apache Open Office. The app is known as AO Office but when I click on settings, it says Apache OpenOffice(TM) in there. Was just an assumption on my part.

Tried to upload a screenshot here, but don’t have an easy place to host a pic and couldn’t easily make it smaller than 128kb to load as an attachment.