ODT File Format

ODT file format is a rich text format developed by OASIS to provide an open, XML-based file format to give users an option of independence from Microsoft Office Suite.

Since the format was created to counter Microsoft DOCX, ODT files are very similar to their formal predecessors. Typical file of ODT extension consists of editable text with possibility of embedded graphics like images and objects of any sort. Text itself can come in different colors, shapes and sizes.

ODT format provides almost the same experience that DOCX format provide: you can ever add hand-written notes to your ODT file. Sure, some Microsoft Office features are disabled in OpenOffice compatible software, but those features missing won’t make a big deal since every feature you need to create nice edited text is here to use.

The ODT format is default for Apache OpenOffice Writer, but can be opened using any OpenOffice compatible program. There is a huge variety of them because the format is widely supported even by paid software. Let’s discover more about programs that are capable of managing ODT file type.

How to Open, Create and Edit ODT File

The most obvious solution in opening ODT files is using Apache OpenOffice Suite. The piece of suite is OpenOffice Writer. This software is free ODT editor, so you can get your installation pack without any problem.

If you’ve received an ODT document by any chance and you don’t want to spend time on installation of new software, you can open and edit ODT files using Microsoft Word. Microsoft Office Suite is very popular and there is a huge chance that you already have it on your computer. The nice bonus is that you don’t have to install Apache OpenOffice to create ODT file – Microsoft Word is capable of saving text files in ODT.

If you’re searching for solution to open ODT files on Mac and Linux, Apache OpenOffice works for both operating systems. You can also use LibreOffice if you don’t like OpenOffice for some reasons as LibreOffice works for both Mac and Linux as well.

You can import your ODT file into Google Docs and edit it online. To do so, you should first upload your ODT file into Google Drive account. It’s easy and lets you to take your ODT files with you to many devices that your Google Account is attached to.

If mobile devices are to be mentioned, to open ODT file in iOS you will need OOReader or TOPDOX Documents. If you’re using Android-powered device, install the OpenDocument Reader app.

If you’re not planning on editing your ODT file, you might consider using ODT Viewer.

How to Convert ODT File

Method of conversion depends on what format you want to convert ODT file into. Using Apache OpenOffice Suite you can create ODT document but you cannot save it as DOCX or PDF document. Counterwise, you can create, edit and convert ODT files using Microsoft Word function “Save as” and picking format of interest from the menu.

But this works only with DOCX to OTD or ODT to DOCX conversions. To convert ODT to other formats, you should use one of the ODT converters that are available online since there are no programs that you can download to be able to do so offline. To convert ODT file to other formats online use one of the websites like zamzar.com, files-conversion.com or odt2pdf.com which specifies in converting ODT to PDF.