Sometimes you may need to deal with an ODT file. Or, perhaps you have often seen ODT in the output format list when you save a document. If you have never created or edited this type of file or know little about it, you might want a quick overview of it. Read this post to learn what an ODT file is, ways of opening it and how to convert ODT to PDF or DOCX format.
What Is an ODT File
ODT is one of the OpenDocument or ODF document formats or file types. Therefore, an ODT file is a file in ODT format and has the .odt file extension. It is created by several supported free word processors. These applications allow you to format and edit content including text, images, links, and styles in an ODT file like in Word.
An ODT file is a word processing text document. It was originally developed for an open standard for office documents along with other OpenDocument files. The free alternatives to Microsoft Word and Word itself can open an ODT file without any hassle, but there may be formatting differences.
An ODT file is similar to a Word DOC/DOCX document but different. It’s maintained by the community while DOC/DOCX by Microsoft. This file doesn’t support some features of Word documents.
How to Open ODT File
Opening an ODT file is so simple with word processing applications that have ODT as a native format. You can open with Apache OpenOffice suite or LibreOffice suite. The application programs are free, open-source, and available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Another free and open-source software, AbiWord can also open an ODT file.
The free online word processor developed by Google, Google Docs allows you to access ODT files online as Google Docs documents. It also allows you to edit the files and download them in ODT, PDF or another file type and format.
If you use Microsoft Office suite, opening your ODT file in Word is free and straightforward. Launch the Word software, go to File, click Open, browse and select your file to open it. Or, right-click on the file, choose Open with and select the app from the context menu. The methods are almost the same in any ODT file viewer and opener.
The best way to open an ODT file on an iPhone and Android is to get the Collabora Office suite. In the app, click Browse to select the file and it will be opened.
How to Convert ODT to PDF/DOCX
An ODT or a .odt file means an OpenDocument Text file. So just like a regular document, it can be converted to PDF or DOCX format with its viewer. The above mentioned software applications all let you convert ODT to PDF or DOCX. To do that, open the ODT file in one of the word processors, click File, choose Save as or Export or a similar output option, and select the export format as PDF or DOCX. Once you’ve saved the file, you convert it to a PDF/DOCX file.
When you have numerous files, you can convert ODT to PDF in batch with a dedicated converter. There are offline and online ODT to PDF converters to use depending on your preference.
