Convert DOCX to ODT Word ↔ OpenDocument Text Free Online Secure
The content moves across: headings, paragraphs, bold and italic, lists, tables, links and images. The page layout does not.
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Where these formats come from
Both of these formats are the same thing underneath: a zip archive full of XML files describing the text, the styles and the pictures. OpenDocument came first, from the OpenOffice project, and became ISO 26300 in 2006. Microsoft's Office Open XML followed and became ISO 29500 in 2008, after a standardisation fight so bitter that national bodies changed their votes under public argument. The outcome is that the world now has two open, documented, interchangeable office formats rather than one proprietary one — which is precisely why converting between them is possible at all, and why it mostly works.
Where you meet them
The conversion is needed whenever two people use different software on the same document: a colleague who works in LibreOffice sending a file to one who works in Microsoft Office, a public body that accepts only ODF, a client who insists on .docx. It also matters for the long term — an archive kept in an open format can still be opened in twenty years, whoever is still in business.
Questions people ask
Will my formatting survive the conversion?
Ordinary formatting — headings, bold, lists, tables, images, page breaks — comes through faithfully, because both formats describe the same things in much the same way. What travels badly is everything at the edges: complex nested tables, text boxes anchored to odd positions, uncommon numbering schemes, and anything built on a feature only one of the two has. Open the result and look at the places where you did something clever; that is where the differences will be, if anywhere.
What happens to my macros?
They do not come across. Macros are program code written for one particular office suite, and the other suite does not run that language — a Word VBA macro means nothing to LibreOffice Basic and the other way round. The conversion carries the document and discards the code. If a file's whole purpose is its automation, it has to be rewritten rather than converted, and that is a programming job rather than a file job.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people convert DOCX to ODT
DOCX is the document format of Microsoft Word. ODT is the document format of the open office suites, LibreOffice Writer and OpenOffice among them. The two do the same job, but they belong to different families of software, and moving a document from one family to the other is a very common chore. People convert DOCX to ODT because a school or public body asks for open formats. Because they have switched to LibreOffice and want to continue working on a document written in Word. Because a colleague uses free software and cannot open the file comfortably. Or because they want to keep a text in a format that no single company controls.
The conversion is also a sensible step for long-term thinking. ODT is an open standard with a published specification, which makes it a safe format for documents that should stay readable for decades. If you have a collection of Word files that you want to keep accessible in the future, converting them is one way to reduce your dependence on any particular program.
This page converts DOCX to ODT in your browser. Your document is not uploaded to a server, which matters for contracts, letters and drafts. Below you will find what moves across, what does not, how to prepare a document for a clean result and how to check it afterwards.
What moves across
The content
When you convert DOCX to ODT here, the content of your document comes across: headings, paragraphs, bold, italic and underlined text, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, links and images. These are the things that make up what a document says and how its parts relate to each other. A heading stays a heading, a list stays a list, a table keeps its rows and columns, a link still points where it did, and your pictures appear where they were.
Structure that helps afterwards
Because headings and lists arrive as headings and lists, not as plain text with formatting painted on top, the converted document is easy to work with. You can navigate it by heading, generate a contents list, restyle all the headings at once or reorder sections. That is a major advantage over simply copying and pasting text, which often loses the structure.
What "content, not layout" means
A document has two parts: what it says and how it is arranged on the page. The first is its content, the second its layout. This converter moves the content faithfully and leaves the layout behind, because the two programs have different ideas about how a page is built. You get the words, the structure and the pictures, and you set the page up again in the new program.
What does not move across
Page layout
The page layout does not come across. Page size and margins, headers and footers, columns and footnotes are not carried over. In the ODT, the page will have the new program's defaults. A Word document with wide margins and a two-column layout will arrive as a single-column text on a standard page, with its words and headings intact.
Fonts and custom styles
Fonts and custom styles do not come across either. Your text will appear in the converting program's default font. If you defined your own styles in Word, such as a special heading look or a quotation style, those definitions are not reproduced; the headings and paragraphs are there, but their appearance is the default.
Tracked changes and comments
Tracked changes and comments are not carried over. If your document contains review marks, such as suggested edits and margin comments, the converted file will show the text as it currently reads, without the history. If the review trail matters, finish the review in Word first, accepting or rejecting changes, or keep the original alongside.
Why layout is the hard part
Page layout depends on dozens of interacting settings: margins, paper size, fonts, line spacing, section breaks. A converter that tried to copy all of them would usually get some wrong, producing a document that looks right at first glance but breaks when edited. Leaving layout out is a deliberate choice, so that what does arrive is reliable.
A typeset document will need laying out again
The honest summary is this: a document with a lot of careful typesetting, such as a brochure, a thesis with precise formatting, a newsletter or a form, will need to be laid out again after the conversion. The words and structure will be there, but the design will not. For plain documents, such as letters, reports, essays and notes, the difference is small and a minute or two of tidying is all that is needed.
Plan accordingly. If the document is a typeset piece and appearance matters, consider exporting it as a PDF for faithful reading and using the ODT only for the text. If the document is mostly text, the conversion does exactly what you need.
What DOCX and ODT are
DOCX is the format Microsoft Word has used by default for many years. Inside, it is a small package of files: the text, a set of styles that say how headings and paragraphs should look, the images, and the page settings. ODT, short for OpenDocument Text, is the equivalent for LibreOffice Writer and OpenOffice, built on a public standard. The two packages are arranged differently, which is why a document cannot simply be renamed from one to the other.
Both can describe the same content. A heading, a list, a table, a link and a picture can be expressed in either. What differs is the way each program applies style and layout. When you convert DOCX to ODT, a program has to read the Word package and write the open one, translating the content and, because the layout machinery differs, leaving the page setup to be redone. That is the source of both the strength and the limit of any converter.
Why not just open the DOCX in LibreOffice?
Often you can, and LibreOffice does a decent job with Word files. But opening and saving inside one program carries all of Word's quirks along, and the result may behave strangely when you edit it. Converting DOCX to ODT first gives you a clean document in the native format of your word processor, with the structure intact and no hidden Word baggage.
Round trips between Word and open software
Some people work in both worlds: they write in LibreOffice and send to colleagues who use Word, and the other way round. For such users, a document may cross the boundary many times, and each crossing can lose a little of its layout. The sensible habit is to decide which format is the master and treat the other as a delivery copy. If your master is the ODT, use the converter in the other direction, ODT to DOCX, only when a colleague needs a Word file, and never edit the copy and then convert back.
If you must go back and forth, keep the formatting simple. Plain headings, simple lists and basic tables survive many round trips unharmed. Elaborate styling does not. Whenever you convert DOCX to ODT, treat the result as a new master: edit it there, and generate Word copies from it as needed.
Which direction to choose as your master
Choose the format your own software handles best. If you use LibreOffice daily, the ODT is the natural master. If you use Word daily but must supply ODT to an institution, keep the DOCX as master and produce ODT only for submissions. In both cases, keep the master safe and regard conversions as one-way exports.
A checklist for after you convert DOCX to ODT
Open the ODT and check five things, in this order. First, the headings: are they all headings, in the right order? Second, the lists: do bullets and numbers look right? Third, the tables: are the rows and columns intact? Fourth, the images: are they all present and in place? Fifth, the page: set the paper size, margins, headers and footers to what you need. Most documents pass the first four checks at once and need only the fifth.
If anything looks wrong in the first four, look at the original: a heading made by enlarging text rather than by a style, or a complex table with merged cells, is the usual culprit. Fix that part in the DOCX, save, and convert DOCX to ODT again. It takes a minute, and the second pass is nearly always clean.
Setting the page afterwards
Page setup in Writer is a single dialogue: paper size, margins, orientation, headers and footers. Do it once, and it applies to the whole document. If your institution has a template, apply it after you convert DOCX to ODT, and the styles and page setup of the template will take over, giving the document the required look in one step.
How to convert DOCX to ODT here
Add your document
Drop the .docx file onto the page or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Convert
Press the button. For a normal document this takes a few seconds.
Download and set up the page
Download the ODT and open it in your word processor. Check the headings, lists and tables, then set the page size, margins, headers and footers the way you want them.
Preparing a document for a clean result
Use real styles
If your headings are made with Word's heading styles, they arrive as headings. If they are just large text, they arrive as large text. Real styles survive far better and make the new document easier to use.
Resolve changes and comments
Accept or reject tracked changes and deal with comments before converting, since neither comes across.
Keep simple tables
Plain tables convert reliably. Complicated merged cells and nested tables are where differences appear first.
Questions people ask before converting
Why did my margins and fonts change?
Because the page layout, fonts and custom styles are not carried over. The content is; the design is set again in the new program.
Where did my comments go?
Tracked changes and comments are not carried over. Resolve them in Word before converting if you need their outcome.
Are images kept?
Yes. Images come across along with headings, paragraphs, lists, tables and links.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser and the file never leaves your device.
Who converts DOCX to ODT
Users moving to open software
People who change from Word to LibreOffice bring their documents with them. Converting gets the content across.
Schools and public bodies
Organisations that require open formats ask for ODT. Converting lets you meet the requirement without retyping.
Archivists and long-term planners
An open standard is a safer bet for documents that must stay readable for decades.
Common mistakes
Expecting identical layout
The page setup is not carried over. Set it again after conversion.
Forgetting review marks
Tracked changes and comments are lost. Deal with them first.
Deleting the original
Keep the DOCX, especially for typeset documents, as the record of the original design.
Related tools
To go the other way, convert ODT to DOCX. To produce a fixed, shareable copy, convert DOCX to PDF or convert ODT to PDF. If you have a PDF and want editable text, convert PDF to DOCX or PDF to ODT. Other office formats have their own routes: XLS to ODS, ODS to XLS, PPTX to ODP and ODP to PPTX.
When to convert DOCX to ODT, and when not to
Converting is right when you need an editable document in the open format: to keep working in LibreOffice, to meet a requirement for open formats or to archive text in a standard that no single company owns. It is the wrong move when you only want someone to read the document, in which case a PDF is more faithful. And it is wrong when the exact design is the point, because the page layout does not come across.
For the common cases, such as letters, reports, essays, notes and ordinary business documents, it is quick, private and dependable to convert DOCX to ODT in the browser. Your original is never changed, so you can come back and convert DOCX to ODT again whenever you like.
Converting a collection
If you have many documents to move, convert them one at a time and keep the originals in a separate folder. Try one first and run through the checklist, so that you know what to expect from the rest. When you convert DOCX to ODT in bulk, consistency matters more than speed: a folder of documents that all behave the same way is far easier to manage afterwards.
Documents with unusual content
Some Word documents contain things this conversion does not handle: embedded spreadsheets, drawings made with Word's shapes, equations, fields that update themselves. The surrounding text and the main structure still arrive, but those special objects may not. If your document depends on them, check the result carefully after you convert DOCX to ODT, and keep the original for reference.
Large documents and slow devices
Everything runs on your own device, so very large documents depend on its memory. A hundred pages of text is no trouble. A document with hundreds of high-resolution images may be slow on an older phone. If it struggles, give the browser a moment and avoid switching to other apps while it works.
Your document stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your document is read by your own browser, written as an ODT there and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server and no one else who could see it. For contracts, letters and drafts, that is the safe way to convert DOCX to ODT.
A worked example
Say you have a report written in Word, with a title, four headings, a bulleted list, a table of figures and two images, and your university asks for ODT. You drop the file here and press the button. You open the ODT: the headings, the list, the table and the images are all there, in order. The margins and font are the defaults, so you set them to the university's requirements in two minutes. You upload the result.
A closing word
The best results come from thinking of the conversion as moving the substance of a document, not copying its appearance. Start with clean structure, convert, check, and then dress the page again. Done in that spirit, the process is quick and leaves you with a tidy, open-format document that you control.
Before you close the page
Check that you downloaded the ODT, that the content is all there, and that you kept the original DOCX.
Summary
To convert DOCX to ODT here, drop the file and press the button. Headings, paragraphs, bold, italic, underline, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, links and images move across. Page size and margins, headers and footers, columns, footnotes, fonts and custom styles, tracked changes and comments do not. A typeset document will need laying out again. Nothing leaves your device.