OpenDocument Reader Pro

Review by eFreeware

OpenDocument Reader Pro is an Android app from Stefl und Taschauer OG that opens documents made in LibreOffice or OpenOffice. It is a paid download at $4.69, carries no ads and offers no in-app purchases, so the price you see is the whole cost. The main reason to consider it is simple: if your working files live in the Open Document Format and you want to read or lightly edit them on a phone or tablet, this is built for exactly that job.

The app handles the core ODF types, meaning text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings, and it also opens PDFs, Microsoft Office files, Apple iWork files and a long list of image, video, audio and text formats. The developer describes it as a reader and editor in one, and the Pro version adds a set of writing and markup tools beyond plain viewing. It has been on Google Play since November 2020, sits at a 4.4 average from 806 ratings, and has passed 5,000 installs.

That combination, a narrow format focus plus a broad format fallback, is what shapes everything else about the app. It is not trying to be a general office suite. It is a viewer with enough editing muscle to fix a document in place, and the rest of this review looks at where that approach pays off and where it asks something of you.

Opening ODF files without a desktop

The headline capability is opening ODF documents, which covers Writer text files, Calc spreadsheets, Impress presentations and drawings, including the flat variants of each. The developer says complex formatting and embedded images come through, and graphs are handled as well. I would treat that as the promise to judge the app on, because it is the reason most people would pay for it rather than use a free viewer.

You can open a file from inside another app as well as from the device itself. Files can be opened from Gmail, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, Nextcloud, Box.net and Dropbox, and Android's own file picker handles anything stored locally. That matters more than it sounds: the practical test of a document reader is whether it can open a file that lands in your inbox or cloud folder, and this one is set up to do that.

Once a document is open, you can search for keywords and see them highlighted, select and copy text out of it, and switch to a fullscreen reading mode when you want fewer distractions. Password-protected documents open too, which is useful for anyone who receives protected files rather than creating them. None of this requires a connection, since the app is fully offline capable.

The editing tools the Pro version adds

The paid version is not just a viewer. The app lets you fix typos, edit cells in spreadsheets, and mark up text in PDFs and documents. Beyond that, the Pro tier adds new paragraphs, text formatting such as bold, colors and sizes, and extra ways to mark up PDFs: underline, strike out and drawing. The recent update extended editing further, so PowerPoint files, spreadsheet cells and plain text can now be changed as well, with undo and redo available while you work.

I would read those additions as a repair kit rather than a writing environment. Inserting a paragraph, bolding a heading or striking out a line on a PDF are the kinds of changes you make when something needs to go out and you are not at a computer. A full rewrite on a phone keyboard is a different proposition, and nothing here suggests the app is aiming at that.

Two smaller touches from the update are worth noting because they affect how the editing feels. Holding an editing button shows the colors it uses, and the page stays where it was while you edit, so you are not thrown back to the top of a long document after every change. The same update fixed PDF text selection so that marking a passage no longer hides it and covers the whole selection, spaces included.

Formats beyond the ODF family

The developer frames the other formats as best-effort support rather than the main event, and the list is long: PDF, ZIP archives, common image types including JPG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, TIFF, BMP and SVG, video such as MP4 and WEBM, audio such as MP3 and OGG, and text files including CSV, TXT, MD and RTF. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files are covered in both the older and newer extensions, along with Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote formats.

That breadth turns the app into a single place to open whatever arrives, which is convenient if you deal with a mix of formats and do not want a folder full of single-purpose viewers. The caveat is the wording the developer uses: these are supported as well as possible, which is a different level of commitment from the ODF handling. I would expect ODF documents to be the ones that render most faithfully, with the rest varying by file.

Archives are worth a mention on their own. Being able to open a ZIP and get at what is inside saves a step when someone sends a bundle of files, and it fits the general pattern of the app as a utility for whatever lands in your hands.

What the app asks of you

The requirements here are modest and mostly stated plainly. It is a paid app at $4.69 with no ads and no in-app purchases, so there is no free tier to evaluate and no upgrade path to think about. Printing works if your device is connected to a printer. Text-To-Speech is available for reading documents aloud.

The offline claim is the one that carries the most weight for me. Documents stay on your device and are not uploaded anywhere, and the app works without an internet connection. For anyone handling contracts, internal reports or personal records, that combination is often the deciding factor, and it is unusual enough to be worth checking when you compare alternatives.

The app is open source and has no affiliation with OpenOffice, LibreOffice or similar projects. It is made in Austria. Feedback from users is welcome.

How I would fit it into a workflow

The clearest use case is the one the app is designed around: a document created on a desktop in LibreOffice or OpenOffice that you need to consult or correct while away from that machine. A spreadsheet of figures you want to check before a meeting, a report with one wrong date in it, a presentation you need to skim on the way to a client. Those are the moments where a phone-sized viewer with search and a few editing tools is genuinely useful.

The second use case is receiving files rather than making them. A document that arrives by email or syncs to cloud storage can be opened directly. Search and copy let you pull a paragraph or a figure out of a long file without reading the whole thing, and Text-To-Speech gives you a way to get through a document when your eyes are busy elsewhere.

For markup, the PDF tools are the ones I would lean on most. Underlining, striking out and drawing on a PDF is a natural fit for reviewing a document someone sent you, and it is the sort of task that is genuinely awkward on a desktop. Editing a spreadsheet cell or fixing a typo in a text document is the other half of that, and undo and redo make it safer to try a change and back out of it.

The thing to keep in mind is scale. This is a reader that can edit, not a full office suite, and the developer's own framing of the non-ODF formats as best-effort support tells you where the polish sits. If your work is mostly ODF, you will be on solid ground. If you are hoping to do heavy document production on a tablet, the app's tools are narrower than that ambition.

A focused buy for ODF documents on Android

OpenDocument Reader Pro is worth the $4.69 if LibreOffice or OpenOffice files are part of your regular working life on Android. It opens the ODF family properly, handles PDFs and a wide range of other formats as a bonus, and adds editing tools that go beyond reading: paragraphs, bold text, colors, sizes, spreadsheet cells, and PDF markup with underlines, strikeouts and drawing. The absence of ads and in-app purchases keeps the experience simple, and the offline, on-device handling of documents is a real advantage for anyone dealing with sensitive material.

It also serves as a catch-all viewer for the miscellaneous formats it supports. Anyone expecting a full office suite for writing and formatting long documents will find the tools here narrower than that.

For the specific job of handling ODF documents away from a computer, this is a straightforward purchase to make.

What's new

You can now edit PowerPoint files, spreadsheet cells and plain text, with undo and redo. The page stays where it was. Hold an editing button to see the colours it uses. Selecting and marking text in a PDF no longer hides it, and covers the whole passage, spaces included. More PDFs open, some scanned pages show where they were blank, and a wide page zooms out until it fits the screen.