Open PDF File

Open Document File

Open Document Format for Office Applications is an important document open file format popular with governments and public entities due to it being open and free from corporate legal obligations. ODF (Open Document Format) is a format of choice for several governments in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

ODF is based on OpenOffice.org document format and initial version of it was released on May 1st, 2005. Similar to Office Open XML it is an XML language with ZIP compression.

Open Document Format could be opened by many free and proprietary software packages. Most popular of them are:

• LibreOffice (free office suite)
• Microsoft Office (support varies depending on version)
• OpenOffice (free office suite)
• TextEdit editor for Mac OS
• Calligra Office Suite by KDE

It is possible to switch Microsoft Office to use Open Document Format as a default format for storing document files. This limits certain features but at the same time introduces wider compatibility and interoperability.

Developers can create applications which use Open Document Format free of charge. ODF format was specifically analyzed for potential legal issues and it was found that there are no potential legal consequences for using Open Document Format in free, open source or licensed software.

ODF specification is available as ISO/IEC 26300 – Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument).

ODF documents use following file extensions:

• ODT and FODT to identify word processing files
• ODS and FODS to identify spreadsheet files
• ODG and FODG to identify graphics files
• ODP and FODP to identify presentation files
• ODF to identify formulas and equations

Open Document Format files are transferred over e-mail or internet using application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME).