OT Kinda: best tablet option for workplace read-only document access

[Mr Sandman]

Hi peeps, I need to make easily available to staff in multiple locations documents st ored in Dropbox. We have always kept paper folders but keeping them uptodat e and in order has been a mare of a job. So I want to get each location a c heap tablet in a rough service case, where I can lock the device to only ac cess one app, dropbox, so staff can browse uptodate docs at leisure and not be able to edit or print them(unless I specifically permit this). What would be your solution? Ta Steve

[John Rumm]

Both iOS and Android support a "kiosk" mode, which can be used to limit access to a single app etc. In IOS its called "Guided Access" (under Accessibility in settings), and should be there out of the box. In Android there is a screen pinning facility in security under settings. There are also various third party apps that can tie it down further.

Other options might be to just leave the tablet to access an intranet page of some form, and keep all your docs on that, so they automatically get the latest "live" version of everything. (you could configure the web browsers to access the web via a proxy which you control)

[Brian Gaff]

Well is it the cheap or configurableness that is important, if its the cheap The Amazon tablets seem ideal for it. I do not know how easy they are to configure to remove bits of the underlying Android system to stop them playing or tv on it though. Brian

[newshound]

You could also "distribute" the docs as PDFs to make them uneditable. I was also going to suggest the intranet type of option but maybe the business is such that it does not have or need an intranet. Could also put the docs on a NAS drive?

[spuorgelgoog]

PDFs can be set to prevent printing or copying of the contents, although that may contravene accessibility requirements.

Owain

[charles]

I have a commecially available program that allows me to edit pdfs.

[newshound]

Yes but they won't. And they can be locked against editing for the paranoid.

[Mr Sandman]

Thanks all. I have an old tab2 I could practice on. Dropbox can be configured to not allow edits so will go with that for now. Cheers