Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Word Processor

The Raspberry Pi is a small, portable device that you can use for several purposes, including home automation, web server, robotics, and more. It has an operating system called Raspberry Pi, which helps to create different projects through your device. However, the Raspberry Pi system doesn’t have a built-in tool where you can write freely, create your important documents and perform other important tasks.

If you are a writer and want to turn your Raspberry Pi device into a word processor, you can follow this article for detailed guidance on how to make it happen.

Turn Raspberry Pi into a Word Processor

LibreOffice Writer is a tool you can install on your Raspberry Pi system that performs similar tasks you do on Microsoft Word. To install LibreOffice Writer easily on your system, use the following steps:

Step 1: Install Java on Raspberry Pi

There are few LibreOffice Writer pieces that may require Java platform; thus, it’s better to go with installing Java on your Raspberry Pi system through the following command:

$ sudo apt install default-jdk -y

Step 2: Install LibreOffice Writer on Raspberry Pi

After installing Java runtime environment, you can use the following command to install LibreOffice Writer on Raspberry Pi:

$ sudo apt install libreoffice-writer -y

You may experience the following error while running the above command:

If that happens, you can use the following command to fix it.

$ sudo apt install --fix-missing

Afterwards, you can again run the installation command to successfully install the LibreOffice Writer tool on your Raspberry Pi system.

Step 3: Run LibreOffice Writer on Raspberry Pi

To run LibreOffice Writer on Raspberry Pi, use the following command:

$ libreoffice

Select the “Writer Document” to open the word processor on your desktop.

This opens the LibreOffice Writer (word processor) tool on the Raspberry Pi desktop.

Run Word Processor at Startup

If you want to dedicate your device just for writing purposes, you can use the following steps to AutoStart the LibreOffice Writer on your Raspberry Pi desktop whenever you reboot the device.

Step 1: Go to the configuration directory using the following command:

$ cd .config

Step 2: Create a directory “lxsession” and a subdirectory “LXDE-pi” using the following command:

$ sudo mkdir -p lxsession/LXDE-pi

Step 3: Create a file “autostart” inside the directory using the following command:

$ sudo nano lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

Then write the following lines inside the file:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi

@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi

point-rpi

@libreoffice

Save the file using “CTRL+X” and reboot your device to complete the AutoStart process successfully. When your device reboots, LibreOffice will automatically open on your desktop.

You can also run LibreOffice in Kiosk mode from here where instead of Chromium, you have to write “libreoffice”.

At this point, you have successfully turned your Raspberry Pi into a word processor.

Conclusion

LibreOffice Writer is an ideal alternative for those who want to use a word processor on Raspberry Pi. You can install this writer tool directly from the source Raspberry Pi repository. You may experience an error and can fix it using the “–fix-missing” command. After the installation, you can run it directly from the terminal using “libreoffice” command. You can also create an AutoStart process or enable the Kiosk mode to ensure that the word processor runs whenever your device reboots.