The ODT extension des­ig­nates text files that are based on the OASIS Open Document Format, or ODF for short. They are primarily used as a standard file format in the license-free office packages Lib­reOf­fice and Open­Of­fice. Since it is an in­ter­na­tion­ally stand­ard­ised format that was developed as an open source al­tern­at­ive to Microsoft Word, the ODT format can be opened with common desktop and online ap­plic­a­tions under Windows, Linux, Apple and on mobile devices.

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What is an ODT file?

The Open­Doc­u­ment text format, ab­bre­vi­ated ODT, saw the light of day in the pro­gram­ming world with the de­vel­op­ment of the Open­Doc­u­ment format (ODF). Created by Sun Mi­crosys­tems, ODF was specified by the non-profit or­gan­isa­tion OASIS (Or­gan­isa­tion for the Ad­vance­ment of Struc­tured In­form­a­tion Standards) and further developed as an open-source file format. The Open­Of­fice XML Working Group, founded by OASIS in 2002, pro­grammed ODF on an XML basis. In 2006, ODF was of­fi­cially in­tro­duced as an in­ter­na­tion­al ISO/IEC 26300 standard.

Note

The file ex­ten­sions of ODF include the following file ex­ten­sions:

ODT: text file

ODS: table file

ODP: present­a­tion file

ODG: drawing/graphic/il­lus­tra­tion

The ODT extension stands for text files of the ODF, which like other text file formats don’t only contain text, but also various metadata, format­ting, images, and graphics. Since the eval­u­ation of text files is done dif­fer­ently depending on the word pro­cessing program, there may be slight dif­fer­ences when opening an ODT file under Word. As a rule, ODT files are com­pat­ible with Microsoft Word, at least to a limited extent.

The advantage of ODT is that it is an open source, license-free text format that allows free, un­com­plic­ated exchange between different ap­plic­a­tions and operating systems. Nev­er­the­less, with important files you should always check whether there are changes in display and layout when opening them in licensed (i.e. paid) ap­plic­a­tions.

Open ODT format with these desktop ap­plic­a­tions

ODT is com­pat­ible with many word pro­cessing programs. This means that as an Open­Of­fice or Lib­reOf­fice user, for example, you can share an ODT file with Word users easily. The exception is Apple's Pages program, which does not have an import filter for the ODT format. Only Apple's Preview and TextEdit apps can open and edit an ODT file, but the format­ting may be lost entirely.

Opening ODT on the desktop is possible with the following desktop ap­plic­a­tions:

  • Apache Open­Of­fice and Lib­reOf­fice: License-free, free word al­tern­at­ives that use ODT as the default file format and are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
  • Microsoft Office with Word: Due to format­ting dif­fer­ences, ODT has no problems but limited com­pat­ib­il­ity.
  • Calligra Suite: Uses ODT as the default file format.
  • AbiWord (for Linux): Limited com­pat­ib­il­ity.
  • Google Drive: Limited com­pat­ib­il­ity.
  • IBM Docs: Limited com­pat­ib­il­ity.

Opening, editing, and saving ODT files

Opening, editing, and saving Open­Of­fice text files with Word is also possible without problems, provided you use at least MS Office 2010. Older versions without service packs require the ‘ODF Add-In’ for ODF. In addition, it should be noted that there are dif­fer­ences in format­ting between the open source Open­Of­fice standard and the Word format (DOC or DOCX), and not all Word features are available under ODT. This can lead to a loss of format­ting when opening in Word.

To open ODT in Word:

Step 1: Click ‘Open’ under the ‘File’ tab.

Image: ‘Open’ in Word ‘File’ tab.
Click ‘Open’ in the ‘File’ tab.

Step 2: Click ‘Browse’ and double-click the ODT file to open and edit it in Word.

Image: Open an ODT file in Word
Open the location under ‘Browse’ and double-click the ODT file.

Here's how to convert an ODT file:

Step 1: Open the ODT file.

Step 2: Go to ‘File’ and ‘Save As’.

Step 3: Click the arrow in the file name field, select the format (e.g. DOC or DOCX), and click ‘Save’ to convert the file.

Image: Convert ODT file to Word by saving in DOCX format.
Under the file name, select the format you want to convert the file to.
Tip

Use the IONOS package Microsoft 365 with Office to save or convert ODT files. Although the free Word al­tern­at­ives Lib­reOf­fice and Open­Of­fice are powerful equi­val­ents to MS Word, they don't cover the full spectrum of pro­fes­sion­al word pro­cessing. Microsoft 365 with Office lets you use the latest in­stall­a­tion, store data centrally in your OneDrive storage, and ef­fort­lessly share files with col­leagues and clients.

Open ODT files with these online ap­plic­a­tions

Even without local desktop ap­plic­a­tions, you can easily save and open ODT files online using Google Drive. To do this, create text files in Google Docs and export them via ‘Save as’ in the open source ODT format. To open ODT in Google Docs, upload the file in question to Google Drive and right-click to open it with Google Docs.

Other possible ap­plic­a­tions for online display of ODT are free online viewers such as ‘Open Document Format’ (supports odt, odp, and ods) and the Google Chrome Extension ‘ODT, ODP, ODS Viewer’. Up to a size of 15 megabytes you can upload ODT files in the viewer, open them online, transfer them to a PDF, and save them on your device.

Tip

Working in a team requires flexible, com­pat­ible exchange of documents and files. With Google Workspace from IONOS, you not only store, syn­chron­ise, and share your data centrally in the cloud. You can also use it in­de­pend­ent of location and device and share it in your team. It also makes opening and editing ODT files a breeze.

Open an ODT file with Android and iOS

There are plenty of ODT viewers for iOS and Android, but there are some lim­it­a­tions here: ODT formats can be opened and displayed on a smart­phone, but format­ting and layout are lost or heavily distorted. Opening ODT files is therefore primarily re­com­men­ded for viewing text content, but not for present­ing or editing formatted texts.

Examples of ODT viewers for iOS and Android are the apps:

  • Open­Doc­u­ment Reader
  • Open Office Viewer
  • Lib­reOf­fice & Open­Of­fice Document Reader
  • ODT, ODP, ODS Viewer (for Chrome)

In order to edit, display and import/export ODT files in full on an Android smart­phone, you need the ‘AndrOpen Office’ app, which you can download free of charge from the Google Play Store. However, using the app optimally is only possible via a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, or on the tablet.

ODT con­ver­sion to PDF

If you want to share a finished ODT file with others and avoid format­ting errors when dis­play­ing it in other ap­plic­a­tions, you should Convert ODT to PDF. On the one hand, format­ting and layout remain unchanged. On the other hand, users can view your file in Adobe PDF Reader, Adobe Acrobat al­tern­at­ives, or display it unchanged in the browser.

In Word, simply go to ‘Export’ under ‘File’ and save the ODT file as a PDF.

Image: Save a text file in Word by exporting it as PDF.
Convert ODT to PDF under ‘Export’.
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