Open Document Text
Use when asked about OpenDocument Text (`.odt`) files — the ISO/IEC 26300 ZIP+XML word-processing format, its package structure, or conversion to/from `.docx` — as distinct from [[microsoft-word]]'s proprietary format, [[google-docs]] (a tool that can import/export ODT, not the format itself), and sibling formats [[open-document-spreadsheet]], [[open-document-presentation]], [[open-document-graphics]].
OpenDocument Text (ODT) is an open, vendor-neutral word-processing file format, standardized internationally as ISO/IEC 26300 (based on the OASIS OpenDocument Format, ODF). It's the text-document member of the OpenDocument family alongside Open Document Spreadsheet, Open Document Presentation, Open Document Graphics, Open Document Formula, and Open Document Database — and it exists as a royalty-free, standards-based alternative to Microsoft's proprietary .docx.
Package structure
Like every OpenDocument format, .odt is a ZIP archive of XML sub-documents, not one monolithic file:
mimetype— a plain-text file holding the stringapplication/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text; it must be the first entry in the ZIP and stored uncompressed, so a reader can identify the format without inflating the whole archive.content.xml— the document's actual text and structure.styles.xml— paragraph, character, list, and page styles shared across the document, kept separate from content so a single style change updates every use of it at once.meta.xml— metadata (author, creation/modification dates, editing statistics).settings.xml— application-specific state (current view, print settings) that isn't part of the document's actual content.META-INF/manifest.xml— an index of every file in the package and its media type, plus encryption metadata if the file is password-protected.
Content model
Inside content.xml, an <office:text> root element holds the document body as a sequence of <text:p> (paragraph) and <text:h> (heading) elements, each referencing a named style defined in styles.xml — the same styles-over-direct-formatting model Microsoft Word uses, just expressed as an open XML vocabulary instead of a proprietary binary or OOXML one.
Template variant
.ott (OpenDocument Text Template, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template) is the same package structure flagged as a template rather than a document — opening one starts a new, unsaved document pre-loaded with its styles, margins, and boilerplate, rather than editing the template file itself.
Software compatibility
| Category | Software | | --- | --- | | Native/open-source | LibreOffice Writer (its default format), Apache OpenOffice Writer | | Cloud-based | Google Docs (imports and exports .odt) | | Commercial | Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 can open, edit, and save directly to .odt) |
Common pitfalls
- Assuming perfect
.docxround-trip fidelity — track changes, complex tables, and custom fields can shift or lose formatting when converting between.odtand.docx, especially with vendor-specific features neither format's spec covers identically. - Manually formatting text instead of using styles — the same pitfall as Microsoft Word: direct formatting applied instance-by-instance makes global restyling and consistent structure much harder to maintain, regardless of which format the file is saved as.
- Macro portability — LibreOffice Basic macros embedded in an
.odtfile don't run in Word, and VBA macros in a.docxdon't run in LibreOffice; macros are not part of what round-trips cleanly between the two ecosystems.
Learn more
- ISO/IEC 26300 — the international standard defining OpenDocument Format.
- OASIS OpenDocument Format — the underlying OASIS specification ODT implements.
- Microsoft Word for the closest proprietary equivalent,
.docx. - Google Docs for a cloud-based tool that natively imports/exports
.odt. - Open Document Spreadsheet, Open Document Presentation, Open Document Graphics, Open Document Formula, Open Document Database for the other members of the OpenDocument family.