Why is the Open Document Format (ODF) important?

Consider the history of control over user files, whether for organisations or individuals Think about all the documents you have created in your lifetime: School assignments. Work presentations and reports. Household budgets. Letters. Perhaps even a personal diary or your CV. Now imagine this: a few years go by, and when you try to open one of those files, it doesn’t work. The software has disappeared. Or it has been updated and no longer supports that format. Or you have to pay to unlock it. It’s not just frustrating. It’s a real problem. That’s why the Open Document Format (ODF) was created: it’s a file format that allows computers to save documents such as letters, spreadsheets and presentations. You can recognise these files by their extensions: .odt for text files, .ods for spreadsheets and .odp for presentations. What makes ODF special is that it is an open, transparent format that doesn’t hide anything from users. This means that anyone can use it freely; no company owns or controls it; and it is designed to work with different software, even years later. In short, it gives you control over your documents. Let’s look at some everyday situations in which ODF can

What is the Open Document Format (ODF)?

An introduction to the Open Document Format The documents we create today, whether reports, spreadsheets or presentations, are essential for communicating, sharing and storing knowledge. However, the format in which these documents are saved often goes unnoticed. This is where the Open Document Format (ODF) comes in. ODF is a technical standard and a tool that ensures documents remain accessible, editable and usable over time without being tied to a specific vendor or product. Approved by OASIS as an open standard document format in May 2005 and by ISO/IEC in May 2006, ODF has been around for over 20 years. Despite 20 years having passed, most productivity software users are not familiar with the format and therefore do not use it, as it is not as widespread as its proprietary counterpart, Microsoft OOXML. This means that a huge number of documents — equivalent to over 100 zettabytes of data in 2025 — are subject to the commercial strategies of a company and completely beyond the control of their authors. These authors may suddenly find themselves unable to manage their own content unless they use specific software. This also means that the enormous wealth of information contained in these documents does

ODF 20th Anniversary Video

On May 1st, 2005, the Open Document Format (ODF) become an OASIS standard. One year after, it became an ISO/IEC standard. After two decades, it is the only true open standard for document formats available on the market, and the only one protecting users from proprietary lock in and ensuring a full control over contents. The presentation provides an overview over ODF features and explains why ODF should be used versus Microsoft OOXML (DOCX, XLSX and PPTX). PeerTube: https://peertube.opencloud.lu/w/2b9JeZw1M884V5BK21RioW YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z-Xo9v9-1YU (please note that once you leave this blog to access the video, a different set of privacy rules will apply) Open Document Format (ODF) has been designed as a document standard for the next 20-50 years, to liberate users from the lock-in strategy built into yesterday’s and today’s proprietary formats and foster interoperability. On the contrary, OOXML – approved by ISO/IEC in 2008 in a version never implemented by MS Office – has been designed as a document pseudo-standard format to propagate yesterday’s document issues and lock-in strategy for the next 20-50 years, to the detriment of users and interoperability. The philosophy behind the ODF standard document format was to design a mechanism in a vendor neutral manner from

Celebrating 20 Years of the OASIS Open Document Format (ODF) Standard

A Milestone for Open Document Formats and Digital Sovereignty Berlin, 1 May 2025 – Today, The Document Foundation joins the open source software and open standards community in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ratification of the Open Document Format (ODF) as an OASIS standard. Two decades after its approval in 2005, ODF is the only open standard for office documents, promoting digital independence, interoperability and content transparency worldwide. Originally created as an XML-based format to enable universal access to documents across platforms and software from multiple vendors, ODF has become a technology policy pillar for governments, educational institutions and organisations that choose open, vendor-independent formats to assert their digital sovereignty. “ODF is much more than a technical specification: it is a symbol of freedom of choice, support for interoperability and protection of users from the commercial strategies of Big Tech,” said Eliane Domingos, Chairwoman of the Document Foundation. “In a world increasingly dominated by proprietary ecosystems, ODF guarantees users complete control over their content, free from restrictions.” ODF is the native file format of LibreOffice, the most widely used and well-known open source office suite, and is supported by a wide range of other applications. Its relevance – twenty

Germany committing to ODF and open document standards

Digital sovereignty is of vital importance for data freedom. If governments and organisations use proprietary or pseudo-standard formats, they limit the tools that citizens can use to access data. So we’re happy to see that the IT Planning Council in Germany is committing to move to the Open Document Format – a fully standardised format (and the default used in LibreOffice). The German IT Planning Council is a 17-member committee consisting of representatives of Germany’s federal government and the state governments. They say: Open formats and open interfaces are an important building block for the necessary transformation process of public administration in Germany on the path to greater digital sovereignty and innovation. The IT Planning Council is committed to ensuring that open formats such as the Open Document Format (ODF) are increasingly used in public administration and become the standard for document exchange by 2027. It is commissioning the Standardization Board to implement this. More information (in German) on this page. Also see the updates from Schleswig-Holstein moving to LibreOffice.

Announcing the ODF Toolkit 0.12.0 release

ODF is the Open Document Format, the native format used by LibreOffice (and supported by many other apps too). It has various sub-formats such as .odt for text files, .ods for spreadsheets, and .odp for presentations. Meanwhile, the ODF Toolkit is a set of Java modules that allow programmatic creation, scanning and manipulation of ODF files. And at the end of last month, the developers announced a new version: 0.12.0! Big changes include a new ODF 1.3 mimetype “Text master template”, while the API for Text Selection was completely refactored. In addition, there were many fixes to improve reliability and security. Check out the full announcement and link to the release notes here