.odt file format
View, preview, inspect, and learn how ODT files are used for open document editing, word processing, reports, schoolwork, templates, documentation, and office workflows.
Also known as: OpenDocument Text, OpenOffice Document
Format
.odt
Original files stay unchanged. Tools download a new file when output is generated.
Every tool listed here works with .odt files and runs in your browser. If the task you need is not here, the related formats below may cover it.
ODT is the text document format of OpenDocument, an ISO-standardised specification and the native format of LibreOffice and OpenOffice. Structurally it resembles .docx: a ZIP archive with content.xml holding the text, styles.xml holding the formatting, and a meta.xml holding document properties.
Word opens and saves ODT, and plain documents round-trip cleanly. Fidelity degrades with the features that have no exact counterpart in both formats: complex tables, text boxes and anchored frames, footnote numbering schemes, tracked changes, and fields. If a document will be edited in both applications repeatedly, expect drift.
Author, timestamps, editing cycles, and generator string live in meta.xml rather than the docProps parts a .docx uses. The privacy implications are the same — the initial author and the total editing time are both recorded — but a cleanup tool has to know to look in a different place.
Yes. Word reads and writes ODT. Simple documents convert cleanly; complex layout, tracked changes, and text frames are where fidelity slips.
If the recipient uses Word and will edit the file, converting avoids repeated round-trip drift. If they only need to read it, a PDF export is more predictable than either.
Yes. Because it is ZIP-plus-XML, a browser-based viewer can read the document content directly with nothing installed.