Control LibreOffice Presentations with an Android Device

Productivity Sauce

Using a mobile device to control presentations is not a new idea, but it's still a very good one. So if you rely on LibreOffice Impress as your presentation tool of choice, and you happen to have an Android device, then you can turn the latter into a nifty remote control using the LibreOffice Impress Remote app. Before you put the app to some practical use, you need to do some preparatory work. First of all, install LibreOffice 4.0.0 or higher on your machine. On Ubuntu and its derivatives, this can be done using packages from the LibreOffice PPA:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libreoffice

Launch LibreOffice Impress, choose Tools -> Options, switch to the LibreOffice Impress -> General section, enable the Enable remote control option, and restart the application. Open then the presentation you want.

Next, install the LibreOffice Impress Remote app on your Android device and pair it with the computer via Bluetooth. Launch the app, and it should automatically detect the paired computer. Tap on the computer's name, then tap the Start Presentation button to run the presentation and control it remotely.