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LibreOffice Pt 32: Impress Remote
by Elmer Perry
If you have ever given a presentation, you know that moving back to the computer to advance your slides is a pain, especially if, like me, you move around a lot and actively engage your audience. I recently presented for a training session at work and constantly wished I had a remote. The Document Foundation has provided a solution in the Android application Impress Remote. Impress Remote allows you to control your Impress presentation from your Android phone or tablet. Impress Remote requires LibreOffice version 4.0.1 or greater, and a phone or tablet running Android 2.3 or greater. If you own a recent phone or tablet and your Linux distribution is up to date, you shouldn't have any problem using the program.
Setup
We will need to make changes to our LibreOffice Impress setup to run the remote program. Start by opening a new or existing presentation. Then Tools > Options > LibreOffice Impress > General. Check “Enable Remote Control”. Click OK. Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced. Check “Enable experimental features”. Click OK. Restart LibreOffice and open your presentation.

When we set up the remote control app, we will need the IP address of the computer running LibreOffice. From a Linux terminal prompt, the following command should work for most users:
ifconfig eth0
The information you need is on the line that starts with “inet addr:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx”, where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address for your computer. Write this address down and keep it for later. You will need it when you set up the remote app.
Now, we install the Impress Remote app. From the Google Play store, search for Impress Remote, and install the app on your phone or tablet. The first time you open the app, you see a mostly empty screen. Select “Add WI-FI Computer Manually”. Enter a name for the computer and the IP of the computer. Select Add. Select the computer from the list and let it connect. Back in Impress, Slide Show > Impress Remote. Select your remote device. Enter the code given you by the app. Click Select. In the remote app, click “Start Presentation” to start the presentation.

If your computer has Bluetooth, you can also connect by pairing your phone with your computer. Once you open the app, it will scan for your device using Bluetooth, and you can just select your device from the list. You still need to enable the remote and experimental options in LibreOffice. [sidebar]NOTE: If you are running a firewall on your computer, you will need to open TCP port 1599 for communications through WiFi.

Using Impress Remote App
The remote app is pretty basic, but let's face it, the less complicated the better when you're giving a presentation. The tool bar across the top has the current time, which is handy when your presentation needs to start or end at certain times. To the left of the time is the view switcher, and to the right of the time is the app menu.

Once you start a presentation, you get the slide scroll view of your presentation. This view is the most useful, because while you are in scroll mode, you can also see any notes you made for the slide. While you can use your finger to move between slides, this is not the best method unless you are just needing to skip forward or move back in your presentation several slides at a time. The best, or designed, way to move through your presentation is with the volume up and down buttons. The up button moves forward in the presentation, and the down button moves backward in the presentation.

Sometimes, you need to pause a presentation and move your audiences' attention from the screen to something else. Impress Remote gives you the ability to blank the screen. In the app menu, select “Blank Screen”. Your presentation screen will go blank. When you are ready to return to the presentation, just click “Return to Slide”. The presentation will pick up where you left off.

You can display your slides in two different ways. One we have seen already, the scroll mode. The other is the list mode. You can switch between the two mode by selecting the view switcher button. In the scroll mode, you move quickly to a slide by swiping with your finger. To select a slide in list view, you just select the slide. This is practical only for fixed slides. Any slides with animations will require the use of the volume up and down buttons.

If you select the clock, you have the option of leaving it as the current time or starting a stopwatch. Select the stopwatch to use it. You will get a Start and Reset option. Press Start to start the timer. The timer will begin to count, and the options will change to Pause and Restart. Select Pause to pause the timer, and Restart to start over from 0.00. This is handy for timing an activity or working on your timing for your presentation.

In the app menu, there is an item for Options. The first option is for using the volume up and down buttons to control the presentation. I can't think of a good reason to uncheck this, but I'm guessing it is there because someone had a reason. The second option is for enabling a wireless connection between the phone and the computer. This allows the app to automatically search for devices on the wireless network that are running LibreOffice Impress with the remote feature turned on. Finally, the switch computer option allows you to switch to a different computer.

Conclusion
When giving a presentation, it is nice to have mobility. The Android app Impress Remote gives you mobility by allowing you to control your Impress presentation from your Android phone or tablet. The app is easy to set up through Bluetooth or WiFi. The interface is not cluttered, making it easy to use and control. Since the app was developed by the same people who develop LibreOffice, future compatibility is almost assured.