Format Readers

While SCERA allows access to PDFs, video, and audio from within your browser, there are files that require outside software to access. Alternatively, you may want to access PDFs, video, or audio files without being on our website. This page contains a list to software that is freely available and it indicate what operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac) are supported. Most of these applications are available for both desktop/laptop computers and as apps for mobile devices. The Archives cannot guarantee universal usability of a program with all operating systems or hardware configurations, but will do its best to provide the easiest to use options. Please let the archives know if a download link is no longer functional so we can update information as soon as possible.

PDF Viewers

Adobe Reader
Adobe is one of the most widely used PDF viewers available. It contains a significant number of features and is available for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

PDF-XChange Editor
This software comes in both free and Pro versions, with the Pro version requiring a purchase. The free version has more features and functionality than Adobe Reader. It is available only for Windows.

Foxit Reader
Like PDF-XChange Editor, Foxit Reader also comes in free and paid versions. It is available for Windows and Linux.

Video and Audio Players

Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player has been the standard pre-installed media application for Windows since the release of Windows XP in 2001. It can play most media formats, including two proprietary ones that can be created by the program: Windows Media Audio (.wmv) and Windows Media Video (.wmv). A plugin is available for Mac computers to allow Apple Quicktime software to play Windows Media files.

Kodi
Kodi is an open-source media player and home theater software. I can handle most audiovisual file formats, as well as a few less common ones like Free Lossless Audio Format (FLAC) and High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). It can also act as a picture viewer. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

VLC Player
VLC Player can support many different types of audiovisual files as well as media streaming over a local network. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Office Productivity Software

Microsoft Office Viewers
With the release of Office 2007, Microsoft also created a set of Viewers for popular elements of Office like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The viewers allow users to view and print Office files without requiring Microsoft Office to be installed on their computer. They allow access to files created in Microsoft Office 1997 up through 2010. For Office 2013 and later, you can use Office Online, which is free but requires a user to setup an account.

Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is a free, open-source office productivity software suite that is comparable to Microsoft Office. It includes software for word processing (Writer), spreadsheets (Calc), presentations (Impress), graphic editing (Draw), and databases (Base).

LibreOffice
LibreOffice is another free, open-source software suite that is similar to Microsoft Office. It was created by a team who left the OpenOffice project. The names and functions of the software components are the same as those for OpenOffice.