TheOpen Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known asOpenDocument, standardized asISO 26300, is anopen file format forword processing documents,spreadsheets,presentations and graphics and usingZIP-compressed[6]XML files. It was developed with the aim of providing an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications.[7]
In addition to being an OASIS standard, it is published as anISO/IEC international standard ISO/IEC 26300 – Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument).[2][3][4][5][10][11]From March 2024, the current version is 1.4.[12]
The original OpenDocument format consists of anXML document that has<document> as itsroot element. OpenDocument files can also take the format of aZIP compressed archive containing a number of files and directories; these can contain binary content and benefit from ZIP'slossless compression to reduce file size. OpenDocument benefits fromseparation of concerns by separating the content, styles, metadata, and application settings into four separate XML files.
The OpenDocument standard was developed by a Technical Committee (TC) under theOrganization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) industry consortium. The ODF-TC has members from a diverse set of companies and individuals. Active TC members have voting rights. Members associated with Sun and IBM have sometimes had a large voting influence.[16] The standardization process involved the developers of many office suites or related document systems.
The first official ODF-TC meeting to discuss the standard was 16 December 2002. OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on 1 May 2005. OASIS submitted the ODF specification toISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) on 16 November 2005, under Publicly Available Specification (PAS) rules. ISO/IEC standardization for an open document standard including text, spreadsheet and presentation was proposed for the first time inDKUUG 28 August 2001.[17]
After a six-month review period, on 3 May 2006, OpenDocument unanimously passed its six-month DIS (Draft International Standard) ballot inJTC 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34), with broad participation,[18] after which the OpenDocument specification was "approved for release as an ISO and IEC International Standard" under the name ISO/IEC 26300:2006.[19]
After responding to all written ballot comments, and a 30-day default ballot, the OpenDocumentinternational standard went to publication in ISO, officially published 30 November 2006.
In 2006,[20] Garry Edwards, a member of OASIS TC since 2002,[21] along with Sam Hiser, and Paul "Marbux" E. Merrell[22] founded the OpenDocument Foundation. The aim of this project was to be open-source representative of the format in OASIS.[20][22] The immediate aim of this project was to develop software that would convert legacyMicrosoft Office documents to ODF. By October 2007 the project was a failure: Conversion of Microsoft Office documents could not be achieved.[20] By this time, The foundation was convinced that ODF was not moving in a direction that they supported.[23] As a result, it announced the decision to abandon its namesake format in favor ofW3C'sCompound Document Format (CDF), which was in early stages of its development.[23][20] The foundation, however, never acted on this decision and was soon dissolved. The CDF was never designed for this purpose either.[24]
Further standardization work with OpenDocument includes:
TheOASIS Committee SpecificationOpenDocument 1.0 (second edition) corresponds to the published ISO/IEC 26300:2006 standard. The content of ISO/IEC 26300 and OASIS OpenDocument v1.0 2nd ed. is identical.[5] It includes the editorial changes made to address JTC1 ballot comments. It is available in ODF, HTML and PDF formats.
OpenDocument 1.1 includes additional features to address accessibility concerns.[25] It was approved as an OASIS Standard on 2007-02-01 following a call for vote issued on 2007-01-16.[26] The public announcement was made on 2007-02-13.[27] This version was not initially submitted to ISO/IEC, because it is considered to be a minor update to ODF 1.0 only, and OASIS were working already on ODF 1.2 at the time ODF 1.1 was approved.[28] However it was later submitted to ISO/IEC and published in March 2012 as "ISO/IEC 26300:2006/Amd 1:2012 – Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.1".[10][11]
OpenDocument 1.2 includes additional accessibility features,RDF-based metadata,[29] a spreadsheet formula specification based onOpenFormula,[29] support fordigital signatures and some features suggested by the public. It consists of three parts: Part 1: OpenDocument Schema, Part 2: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format and Part 3: Packages. Version 1.2 of the specification was approved as an OASIS Standard on 29 September 2011.[30] It was submitted to the relevant ISO committee under the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) procedure in March 2014.[31] In October 2014, it was unanimously approved as a Draft International Standard. Some comments were raised in the process that needed to be addressed before OpenDocument 1.2 could proceed to become an International Standard.[32] OpenDocument 1.2 was published as ISO/IEC standard on 17 June 2015.[2][3][4]
OpenDocument 1.3 includes additional features for digital signatures, encryption, change-tracking and inter-operability. Version 1.3 of the OpenDocument specification was approved as an OASIS Standard April 2021. The specification was completed as the result of the COSM crowdfunding project seeded byThe Document Foundation.[33]
The OpenDocument format is used infree software and inproprietary software. This includesoffice suites (both stand-alone and web-based) and individual applications such as word-processors, spreadsheets, presentation, and data management applications. Prominent text editors, word processors and office suites supporting OpenDocument fully or partially include:
Various organizations have announced development of conversion software (includingplugins andfilters) to support OpenDocument onMicrosoft's products.[52][53] As of July 2007[update], there are nine packages of conversion software. Microsoft first released support for the OpenDocument Format in Office 2007 SP2.[54] However, the implementation facedsubstantial criticism and theODF Alliance and others claimed that the third party plugins provided better support.[55] Microsoft Office 2010 can open and save OpenDocument Format documents natively, although not all features are supported.[56] In July 2024, Microsoft announced support for ODF 1.4 (prior to it being released) in Microsoft 365 apps, starting with version 2404 on Windows and 16.84 on macOS.[57]
Versions of the OpenDocument Format approved byOASIS are available for free download and use.[58] TheITTF has added ISO/IEC 26300 to its "list of freely available standards"; anyone may download and use this standard free-of-charge under the terms of a click-through license.[59]
Obligated members[60] of the OASIS ODF TC have agreed to make deliverables available to implementors under the OASIS Royalty Free with Limited Termspolicy.
Key contributorSun Microsystems made an irrevocable intellectual property covenant, providing all implementers with the guarantee that Sun will not seek to enforce any of its enforceable U.S. or foreign patents against any implementation of the OpenDocument specification in which development Sun participates to the point of incurring an obligation.[61]
A second contributor to ODF development,IBM – which, for instance, has contributed Lotus spreadsheet documentation[62] – has made their patent rights available through their Interoperability Specifications Pledge in which "IBM irrevocably covenants to you that it will not assert any Necessary Claims against you for your making, using, importing, selling, or offering for sale Covered Implementations."[63]
TheSoftware Freedom Law Center hasexamined whether there are any legal barriers to the use of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) in free and open source software arising from the standardization process. In their opinion ODF is free of legal encumbrances that would prevent its use in free and open source software, as distributed under licenses authored by Apache and the FSF.[citation needed]
An output of the 10th Plugfest was an ODF toolkit[65] which includes "Open Document Format principles for Government Technology" that has the purpose of simply explaining the case for ODF directed at the "average civil servant" and includes an extract from the UK Government policy relating to Open Document Format.
The toolkit also includes a single page graphical image[66] designed to articulate the consequences of not choosing Open Document Format. The illustration has now been translated into more than 10 languages.
NATO with its 26 members uses ODF as a mandatory standard for all members.[68]
The TAC (Telematics between Administrations Committee), composed of e-government policy-makers from the 25European Union Member States, endorsed a set of recommendations for promoting the use of open document formats in the public sector.[69]
The default text processing applications in Windows 10 (WordPad) and Mac OS 10.9 (TextEdit) support OpenDocument Text.
On 4 November 2005, IBM and Sun Microsystems convened the "OpenDocument (ODF) Summit" inArmonk, New York, to discuss how to boost OpenDocument adoption. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from several industry groups and technology companies, including Oracle, Google, Adobe, Novell, Red Hat, Computer Associates, Corel, Nokia, Intel, and Linux e-mail company Scalix (LaMonica, 10 November 2005). The providers committed resources to technically improve OpenDocument through existing standards bodies and to promote its usage in the marketplace, possibly through a stand-alone foundation.[72] Scholars have suggested that the "OpenDocument standard is the wedge that can hold open the door for competition, particularly with regard to the specific concerns of the public sector."[73] Indeed, adoption by the public sector has risen considerably since the promulgation of the OpenDocument format initiated the 2005/2006 time period.[73]
Different applications using ODF as a standard document format have different methods of providing macro/scripting capabilities. There is nomacro language specified in ODF. Users and developers differ on whether inclusion of a standard scripting language would be desirable.[74]
The ODF specification for tracked changes is limited and does not fully specify all cases, resulting in implementation-specific behaviors.[75] In addition, OpenDocument does not support change tracking in elements like tables orMathML.[76]
It is not permitted to use generic ODF formatting style elements (like font information) for the MathML elements.[76]
One objective of open formats like OpenDocument is to guarantee long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers, and some governments have come to view open formats as a public policy issue. Several governments around the world have introduced policies of partial or complete adoption.[73] What this means varies from case to case; in some cases, it means that the ODF standard has a national standard identifier; in some cases, it means that the ODF standard is permitted to be used where national regulation says that non-proprietary formats must be used, and in still other cases, it means that some government body has actually decided that ODF will be used in some specific context. The following is an incomplete list:
^The standard that was proclaimed to be national is in fact the following: «ISO/IEC 26300:2006 "Information technology - Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0"». Designation as the national standard only means that it's encouraged to be used voluntarily and is not a legally bounding.Eurasian Economic Union is the territory where the standard is assumed to be applied.
^"Words". Calligra Suite. Retrieved23 February 2012.
^Bärwaldt, Eric (1 September 2020)."Working Together Tools for collaborative office work".Linux Magazine (238/2020).For cross-platform use, the suite not only supports the Open Document Format (ODF) but also all newer Microsoft formats, which makes interaction with other office suites easier.
^"Fact-sheet Microsoft ODF support"(PDF). odfalliance. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 11 June 2009. Retrieved24 May 2009.MS Excel 2007 will process ODF spreadsheet documents when loaded via the Sun Plug-In 3.0 for MS Office or the SourceForge "OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office", but will fail when using the "built-in" support provided by Office 2007 SP2.
^David A. Wheeler (21 July 2006)."Formula subcommittee status". office@lists.oasis-open.org, office-formula@lists.oasis-open.org. Retrieved12 September 2012.
^"Archived copy".www.openforumeurope.org. Archived fromthe original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved11 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
OpenDoc SocietyArchived 19 November 2021 at theWayback Machine Association with members around the world that promote best practices in office productivity such as OpenDocument format.
OpenDocument Fellowship Volunteer organization with members around the world to promote the adoption, use, and development of the OpenDocument format.
OpenDocument XML.org The official community gathering place and information resource for the OpenDocument OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300).
Media related toOpenDocument at Wikimedia Commons
