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soffice

LibreOffice suite launcher and converter

TLDR

Open LibreOffice

$ soffice
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Open document
$ soffice [document.odt]
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Convert to PDF
$ soffice --convert-to pdf [document.docx]
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Headless conversion
$ soffice --headless --convert-to pdf [document.docx]
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Start Writer
$ soffice --writer
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Start Calc
$ soffice --calc
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Start in safe mode
$ soffice --safe-mode
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SYNOPSIS

soffice [--headless] [--convert-to format] [options] [files]

DESCRIPTION

soffice is the main launcher for LibreOffice, the open-source office productivity suite. It can open documents in Writer (word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (vector graphics), and other components based on the file type or explicit module selection.
The --headless flag runs LibreOffice without a graphical interface, enabling server-side document processing and scripting. Combined with --convert-to, it provides powerful batch document conversion between formats including PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, and many others.
Headless mode is commonly used in automated pipelines to convert documents, generate PDFs from templates, or perform mail merges without user interaction. Multiple files can be processed in a single invocation, and the output directory can be specified with --outdir.

PARAMETERS

--headless

No GUI.
--convert-to FMT
Convert format.
--writer
Start Writer.
--calc
Start Calc.
--impress
Start Impress.
--safe-mode
Safe mode start.
--outdir DIR
Output directory.

CAVEATS

Heavy application. Conversion may be slow. Format fidelity varies.

HISTORY

soffice is the main launcher for LibreOffice, the free office suite forked from OpenOffice.org.

SEE ALSO

> TERMINAL_GEAR

Curated for the Linux community

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> TERMINAL_GEAR

Curated for the Linux community