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BlogHow it works

ODT to DOCX Converter

OpenDocument Text is the native format of LibreOffice and many public-sector offices, while most businesses, publishers and upload portals run on Word's DOCX. This converter carries an .odt across that line with its styles, comments and tracked changes.

Document Converter

or drop PDF, DOC, DOCX … files here ·

Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes

Output

Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.

How to use this tool

  1. 1

    Upload the .odt files

    Select up to 20 OpenDocument files, up to 95 MB each, saved by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, Collabora or Google Docs.

  2. 2

    Keep the review data

    Formatting stays on Keep all and Include comments is on, so margin comments and recorded changes appear in Word's review pane.

  3. 3

    Convert and send

    Press Convert to DOCX and send the Word file. Keep the .odt if you will continue editing in LibreOffice.

OpenDocument and Office Open XML: two standards for one job

ODT comes from the OpenOffice.org project and was standardized by OASIS before becoming ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006, two years ahead of Microsoft's Office Open XML. LibreOffice, which forked from OpenOffice.org in 2010, saves .odt by default, and several governments chose it for public documents; the UK government, for example, adopted ODF in 2014 as its standard for sharing editable documents.

Word, meanwhile, dominates offices, publishing and education outside those institutions. Microsoft added ODF support to Word 2007 with Service Pack 2 and has followed newer ODF versions since, but support for opening a file is not the same as acceptance. A journal's submission system, a recruiter's applicant tracker or a company's template workflow is often hard-coded for .docx.

So the conversion usually happens at a border: a LibreOffice user sending work out, or a Word user receiving an .odt from a council, university or open-source project. The same goes for other formats from outside the Office world, such as RTF to DOCX for files from older editors, all listed on the document converter.

ODT support in Word, by the dates

ODF 1.0 published as ISO/IEC 26300
2006
Word 2007 SP2 opens and saves .odt
2009
OASIS approves ODF 1.3
2021

ODT

OpenDocument Text

ODT is the word-processing format of the OpenDocument standard, created by OASIS in 2005 and approved as ISO/IEC 26300. It is the default format of LibreOffice Writer and is required or preferred by several governments for document exchange. Like DOCX it is a ZIP package of XML files and supports styles, images, tables and tracked changes. Microsoft Word and Google Docs can open ODT, though complex layouts may shift slightly.

Compression
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Transparency
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Animation
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Introduced
2005 · OASIS
ODT converter

DOCX

Microsoft Word document

DOCX is Microsoft Word's default document format since Office 2007, based on the Office Open XML standard (ECMA-376, ISO/IEC 29500). It is a ZIP package of XML files holding text, styles, images, tables, comments and tracked changes. It is the most common format for editable documents in offices, schools and job applications. Layout can shift slightly between Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and Pages, especially with complex formatting. Most word processors open DOCX files.

Compression
–
Transparency
–
Animation
–
Introduced
2007 · Microsoft
DOCX converter

ODT files are converted to DOCX when a document written in LibreOffice or for a public body that standardized on OpenDocument has to reach a Word-based client, publisher or upload system.

Saving ODT as DOCX in LibreOffice, Word or Google Docs

LibreOffice Writer

  1. 01Open the .odt
  2. 02Choose File > Save As
  3. 03Set the file type to Word 2007–365 (.docx)
  4. 04Confirm Use Word 2007–365! in the format dialog

Microsoft Word

  1. 01Open the .odt with File > Open
  2. 02Choose File > Save As
  3. 03Pick Word Document (*.docx)
  4. 04Save under a new name

Google Docs

  1. 01Upload the .odt to Google Drive
  2. 02Open it with Google Docs
  3. 03Choose File > Download
  4. 04Pick Microsoft Word (.docx)

TipConverting a whole folder? Upload twenty .odt files here at once instead of opening and resaving each one in an office suite.

ODT to DOCX questions

Word opens ODT files already. Why convert ODT to DOCX at all?

Word can open an .odt, but upload portals, document management systems and many reviewers check for a .docx and stop there. A converted file spares the recipient the open-and-resave step, so they can edit it like any other Word document.

Will my LibreOffice paragraph styles keep their names in Word?

Yes. Custom styles keep their names, and built-in ones such as Heading 1 map to Word's own Heading 1 style, so the Navigation Pane and an automatic table of contents still work.

Do tracked changes made in LibreOffice show up in Word?

With Include comments on, recorded insertions, deletions and comments become Word revisions and comment balloons that can be accepted or rejected as usual.

Why did my page count change after converting?

Usually fonts. LibreOffice defaults to Liberation Serif, which has the same character widths as Times New Roman, but other free fonts may be missing on the Word computer and get replaced. Switch to a font both computers have before converting, such as Liberation Serif paired with Times New Roman or Carlito paired with Calibri.

Is ODT a less capable format than DOCX?

No. Both are open XML-based standards in ZIP packages, and ODT covers everything an ordinary letter, report or thesis uses. The difference is adoption, not capability.

What if the recipient only needs to read the document?

Send a PDF instead. ODT to PDF fixes the layout so it looks the same everywhere, whatever fonts the other computer has.