Convert PDF to ODT Portable Document Format ↔ OpenDocument Text Free Online Secure
Your PDF is read here in your browser and written out as ODT. A PDF records where each letter sits, not what it means, so the headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are worked out from position and size — and you get something you can edit again, not a picture of a page.
Convert your file
Drop a PDF here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
Why this direction is the hard one
PDF was designed as a one-way street. It does not record that a document has paragraphs, headings, tables or columns; it records that a particular glyph sits at a particular point on the page, in a particular font, and that a line runs from here to there. That is exactly what makes it reliable — nothing is left for the other machine to interpret — and exactly what makes coming back out of it difficult. A converter has to reconstruct meaning that was deliberately thrown away: deciding which lines belong to one paragraph, which runs of text form a table, where a column ends. Going into PDF is a recording; coming out of it is a reading, and readings can differ.
Where you need it
The moment you need to change something you only have as a finished document: a contract to amend, a report whose table you want in a spreadsheet, a deck to reuse, an invoice whose figures must go into the accounts, a page you want as an image for a slide. It is also the usual route when the person who holds the editable original cannot be reached, or when the original was made in software you no longer have.
Questions people ask
Why doesn't the result look exactly like the PDF?
Because the layout had to be rebuilt rather than copied. Text in a PDF has a position but no structure, so the converter infers paragraphs, columns and tables from where things sit — and inference is sometimes wrong. Documents with a single column of plain text come back almost perfectly; multi-column layouts, text wrapped around images, and complex tables are where the guessing shows. Expect to tidy the result rather than to use it untouched.
I converted a scanned PDF and got no text at all. Why?
Because a scanned page contains a photograph of text, not text. To the file there is no difference between a page of writing and a picture of a brick wall — both are just pixels. Extracting words from it needs optical character recognition, which is a separate process that looks at the shapes and guesses the letters. Converting such a PDF to a document gives you the image placed in a document, which is usually not what was wanted.
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 PDF to ODT
A PDF is built to be read, not to be changed. It keeps a document looking the same on every screen and every printer, which is why contracts, reports, circulars and forms are sent that way. ODT is the word-processing format of the OpenDocument family, the native format of LibreOffice Writer and Apache OpenOffice, and the format that many schools, municipalities and public offices have chosen as their standard. When a PDF arrives and you work in an open-source office suite, or an institution asks for an open format, you need to convert PDF to ODT: you want the words as a document that can be edited, not as a frozen page.
There is a technical reason why this is not a trivial job. A PDF does not record what a document means. It records where each letter sits on the page: this character here, that line there, this picture in the corner. A heading, a paragraph and a list are not stored as such. A conversion must read the positions and the sizes and work out what is a heading, what is a paragraph, what is a list item and what is a table. This page does exactly that, in your browser, and gives you something you can edit like anything you wrote yourself, not a picture of a page.
Your PDF is not uploaded to a server. That matters for contracts, invoices, medical papers and anything else you would rather not hand to a stranger's machine. Below you will find how the conversion works, what comes through, what does not and how to get the best result.
How the conversion works
The structure is worked out from the page
Your PDF is read inside your browser. For each page, the converter collects the text with its positions and sizes and then decides what is what. A line set larger than the rest is likely a heading. Lines that follow one another with an ordinary gap form a paragraph. Rows beginning with bullets or numbers form a list. Text arranged in aligned cells forms a table. The result is written out as an ODT file in which those headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are real elements.
Why this is better than a picture of a page
Some tools place each page of the PDF into the document as a picture. It looks right and cannot be edited, which defeats the purpose. Here the words are real text again. You can click into a paragraph, change a sentence, add a row to a table or restyle a heading in a minute.
Why the result depends on the PDF
The cleaner the structure of the original, the better the conversion. A PDF exported from a word processor, with ordinary paragraphs and tables, converts well. A PDF built by a designer with text boxes scattered across the page converts less tidily, because its reading order is whatever the designer chose.
What is kept
Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic
Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic are carried across. The text reads in the same order as on the page, and emphasis is preserved where it can be recognised.
Lists and tables
Bulleted and numbered lists come out as lists, and tables come out as tables, with their rows and columns, so you can add or delete a row in Writer as you would in any table you made yourself.
Pictures
Pictures are carried across and embedded in the ODT, so the file is self-contained and can be moved without losing its images.
A file that opens everywhere
What comes out opens in LibreOffice, Word or Google Docs and can be edited like anything else you wrote yourself.
What is not carried over
The layout
A conversion that reads words cannot reproduce the layout. Page size and margins, headers and footers, columns, footnotes, exact fonts and colours have no counterpart and are dropped. The ODT will use the default page setup and fonts of the program that opens it. That is why the result should be treated as an editable draft, not as an identical twin of the PDF.
Columns come out interleaved
A page set in two columns comes out with the columns interleaved, because the lines are read across the page as they sit. The first line of the left column is followed by the first line of the right column, and so on. If your document has columns, expect to untangle them by hand. For a single-column document the problem does not arise.
Scanned PDFs yield nothing
A scanned PDF holds a picture of text, not text. From one of those, nothing comes out at all. Recognising letters in a picture is a different job, called optical character recognition, and this conversion does not do it.
How to convert PDF to ODT here
Add your PDF
Drop the PDF onto the page or pick it from your device. It is opened inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Convert
Press the button. A short document takes a few seconds, and a long one takes longer. Leave the page open until it finishes.
Download and open
Download the ODT and open it in LibreOffice Writer or another program that reads the format. Go through it from the beginning, check headings and tables and fix whatever needs fixing.
A closer look at PDF and ODT
Two different ideas of a document
An ODT stores a document as a flow of content: paragraphs, headings and tables that the program lays out on pages as it goes. If you add a sentence, everything after it moves. A PDF stores a finished page, with every character already placed. The two ideas are almost opposite, which is why going from a word processor to PDF is easy and the reverse is hard. ODT to PDF freezes a flow into pages. To convert PDF to ODT, the flow has to be guessed from the frozen page.
Why an open format matters
An open format is one whose specification is public and whose use requires no licence. For an office or a school, that means documents that will still be readable decades from now, whichever software exists then. For a person who simply prefers free software, it means freedom to choose the program. That is a good reason to convert PDF to ODT even when nobody has asked you to.
Fonts and what happens to them
The fonts of the original are not carried over, so the ODT uses the default font of the program. If you need a particular look, select all the text and set the font in one step. If the document has a house style, apply it after the conversion.
Common situations in detail
Updating a contract or a price list
You receive a PDF price list and need to change a few figures. Convert PDF to ODT, correct the figures and save. Check the tables carefully, since they are the part that most often needs tidying.
Working in a public office or school
Many institutions use LibreOffice and expect ODT. When a citizen or a supplier sends a PDF, an ODT lets the staff edit it, fill it in or reuse it without retyping.
Quoting a long text
Copying text from a PDF often brings broken lines and odd spaces. A converted ODT gives you proper paragraphs that you can quote, cut and rearrange.
Translating or proofreading
Translators and proofreaders prefer an editable file. If a client sends a PDF, converting it to ODT allows them to work with their usual tools and send back an edited version.
Practical advice before you convert PDF to ODT
Test whether the text can be selected
Open the PDF in any viewer and try to select a sentence with the mouse. If the words highlight, the file holds real text and you can convert PDF to ODT with good hope. If you can only drag a rectangle over the page, it is a picture, and no conversion of this kind will find any words in it.
Prefer a quiet document
A plain letter, a report or an article converts far better than a brochure with text wrapped around pictures. When you convert PDF to ODT for a brochure, expect to rebuild the arrangement.
Work in a copy
After you convert PDF to ODT, save the result under a new name straight away and keep the first conversion untouched. If an edit goes wrong, you can return to the starting point without running the conversion again.
Compare side by side
Open the PDF next to the ODT and read both at once for a page or two. You will quickly see where the conversion is sound and where it needs a hand.
Questions people ask before converting
Will the ODT look exactly like the PDF?
No. The words, headings, lists, tables and pictures come across, but the layout does not. Page size, margins, headers, footers, columns, footnotes, fonts and colours are dropped.
Why are my two columns mixed up?
Because the lines are read across the page as they sit, a two-column page is interleaved. You will need to separate the columns by hand.
Why did nothing come out of my PDF?
Almost certainly it is a scan. A scan holds a picture of text, not text, so there are no words to read.
Will it open in Word?
Yes. Word opens ODT files, and so do LibreOffice and Google Docs. If you want a native Word file, PDF to DOCX is the direct route.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the document never leaves your device.
Choosing wisely when you convert PDF to ODT
Start with the cleanest source you have
If you have the choice, use the PDF that was exported from a word processor and not a scan or a copy of a copy. A cleaner source gives a cleaner conversion.
Convert only what you need
If you want only a few pages, use extract pages from PDF first. A shorter document converts faster and is easier to check.
Check the tables first
Tables are the part most likely to need attention. Go straight to them, compare the figures with the original and fix any row that has shifted.
Keep the PDF
The PDF is the authority. Keep it so that you can compare against it and return to it if the conversion misses something.
Getting a good result after the conversion
Set the page up first
Before editing, set the page size and margins you want. Because the original layout is not carried over, the document starts with the default page, and everything flows more naturally once the page is right.
Apply styles
Select a heading and apply the heading style of the program, and do the same for the body text. A few minutes of styling makes the document consistent and gives you an automatic table of contents if you want one.
Proofread the numbers
Reading letters from positions is reliable, but a quick look at figures, dates and names is worthwhile. Compare them with the PDF, in particular in tables and lists.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for documents
PDF files often hold what is private: contracts, invoices, medical results, identity papers, bank statements. Many online converters ask you to upload the file to a server, process it and send back the result, and for a while a copy lives on a machine you do not control. Here your own browser does the work, so the document stays on your device.
What happens when you leave
When you close the page, the converted file disappears from the browser, so download it first. Nothing about your document is kept.
If something goes wrong
The ODT is full of odd line breaks
This happens when the PDF has been set with hard line breaks. Use find and replace to join lines, or delete the breaks by hand.
The page freezes with a large document
Everything runs on your device, and a long document needs memory. Try again on a computer, or convert the document in parts.
The PDF is password protected
A protected document must be opened with its password first. Without it, the text cannot be read.
Related tools
The same family of tools covers the neighbouring jobs. For a Word file, PDF to DOCX is the closest relative of this page. For tables, PDF to ODS finds rows and columns, and for slides, PDF to ODP makes one slide for each page. To read on an e-reader, there is PDF to EPUB, and when you want pictures of the pages, PDF to PNG does it. To go back to a PDF, ODT to PDF is the usual last step, and ODT to DOCX and DOCX to ODT move text documents between the two worlds.
A worked example
Say a town hall sends you a notice as a PDF of three pages, and you need to prepare a reply based on its wording. You drop the PDF here and press the button. A few seconds later you download an ODT with headings, paragraphs and one table. You open it in LibreOffice, set the page, correct the table, write your reply underneath and save. The original PDF stays in your folder, untouched.
A short checklist
Before converting
Check that the PDF is not a scan. Decide which pages you need. Keep the PDF safe.
While converting
Stay on the page until the file is ready.
After converting
Open the ODT, set the page up, apply styles, check tables and figures against the PDF and save under a new name.
Common mistakes
Expecting an identical layout
Do not convert PDF to ODT expecting the same pages. The words come across, the layout does not.
Trying it on a scan
A scanned PDF holds a picture of text, so nothing comes out. Check whether you can select text in the PDF before you start.
Sending the result without proofreading
Always check tables and figures against the original before you send the document on.
Your document stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your PDF is read by your own browser, rewritten there and handed back as an ODT. Nothing is uploaded, so no copy ends up on a server and nobody else can read it. For documents with private content, that is the safe way to convert PDF to ODT.
Summary
To convert PDF to ODT here, drop the document and press the button. Your PDF is read in your browser and written out as ODT. A PDF records where each letter sits, not what it means, so headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are worked out from position and size, and you get something you can edit again, not a picture of a page. Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic, lists, tables and pictures are kept. The layout is not: page size and margins, headers and footers, columns, footnotes, exact fonts and colours are dropped, a two-column page comes out interleaved, and a scanned PDF yields nothing. Nothing leaves your device.