Open Document Format termed ODF is a file format specifically designed for office applications like editing Text & Images, Spreadsheets, Slide Shows, Databases, etc. By keeping this in mind, It was designed and developed as an open standard. So that, It can be adopted by any Institution or Personal. With the help of this format, the document distribution becomes much easy, As it only requires a compatible program, regardless of any operating system or platform. In this blog,
We will have an introduction to the Open Document Format (ODF) along with its features and advantages.
What is “ODF”?
ODF (Open Document Format) is basically a LibreOffice’s native file format with most widely used filename extensions like .odt (open text file), .ods (Spreadsheet), .odp (Presentation), .odb (Databases), .odg (Graphic) and .odf (Mathematical Formulas & equations).
ODF is an OpenDocument developed by the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications. It supports office suites such as Microsoft Office 2007, Google Docs, OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, KOffice, etc.
As everyone turns to electronic documents over paper documents, The creation of an open file format such as the ODF has become a need of an hour. The Open file format is very compatible. That means files saved using a word processor can be easily accessed with another word processor. It even allows electronic documents to be lesser dependent and ensures long-term access to critical data such as legal contracts and government documents. Eventually, it also reduces the cost of opening such documents, Giving many more people the ability to access public domain documents pertaining to their interests.
The OASIS Technical Committee (TC) has developed the open document format(ODF).
Below is the list of requirements an Open Document Format needs to adhere
- The file format is suitable for office documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphics.
- The file format is to be compliant with the W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML) Version 1.0 and the W3C Namespaces in the XML Version 1.0 specifications.
- The file format must contain top-level information for editing the document.
- The format must be compatible with transformations using XSLT or similar XML-based languages or tools.
- The file format must keep document content and layout information separately so they can be processed independently.
- The file format should allow for adapting similar or existing standards wherever possible.
Structure of an ODF file
Once the ODF document has been created, we can see it as a single item, but eventually, it is a collection of files and folders.
Below is the list:
- XML: The file stores the content of the created document
- XML: The file stores the document’s “metadata”, Information such as the Authors name, the date, the number of words used, etc.
- XML – contains styles for the document, such as specific formatting for paragraphs and lists.
- Images (Folder): The folder where images of the document are stored.
All the above-listed files and folders eventually “merge” into a single document. Although files and folders vary depending on the degree of development, the principle applies to all ODF format documents.
ODF Compatible Software
There are many OpenDocument compatible software available in the market. It is simple, the more you recognize the standards, the more you are Compatible. Here is the list of software that works perfectly with ODF.
Office Software – LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, StarOffice, Microsoft Office – 2007
Online Applications – Google Docs, ZOHO,
Other Source – PHP My Admin(Can export data in the .odt format), Copernic (Able to index ODF files)
Advantages
There are numerous advantages if we adapt to Open Document Format. The most important one is that it standardizes the format and is open-source. Open standards are concerned with global interests and give the user greater freedom of choice for the software they want to use. The developers can quickly learn and tweak their software to be more compatible and enable higher quality output results.
