Converting Word to ODT format

24 Mar 20226 minutes to read

The OpenDocument format (ODF) is an open file format for office documents originally developed for Open Office suite by Sun Microsystems. OpenDocument Text (ODT) is the file format for Word processing documents and currently for an OASIS and ISO standard.

The Essential DocIO supports converting the Word document into ODT file. The following code example shows how to convert the Word document into ODT file.

C#

//Loads the existing Word document
WordDocument document = new WordDocument("Template.docx");
//Saves the document as ODT file
document.Save("WordToODT.odt", FormatType.Odt);
//Closes the document
document.Close();

VB.NET

'Loads the existing Word document 
Dim document As New WordDocument("Template.docx")
'Saves the document as ODT file
document.Save("WordToODT.odt", FormatType.Odt)
'Closes the document
document.Close()

UWP

//"App" is the class of Portable project
Assembly assembly = typeof(App).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
//Opens an existing document from file system through constructor of WordDocument class
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument((assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("Sample.Assets.Template.docx")),
              FormatType.Docx))
{
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    await document.SaveAsync(stream, FormatType.Odt);
    //Saves the stream as Word file in local machine
    Save(stream, "WordToODT.odt");
    //Closes the Word document
    document.Close();
}

//Saves the Word document
async void Save(MemoryStream streams, string filename)
{
    streams.Position = 0;
    StorageFile stFile;
    if (!(Windows.Foundation.Metadata.ApiInformation.IsTypePresent("Windows.Phone.UI.Input.HardwareButtons")))
    {
        FileSavePicker savePicker = new FileSavePicker();
        savePicker.DefaultFileExtension = ".odt";
        savePicker.SuggestedFileName = filename;
        savePicker.FileTypeChoices.Add("Word Documents", new List<string>() { ".odt" });
        stFile = await savePicker.PickSaveFileAsync();
    }
    else
    {
        StorageFolder local = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder;
        stFile = await local.CreateFileAsync(filename, CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);
    }
    if (stFile != null)
    {
        using (IRandomAccessStream zipStream = await stFile.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite))
        {
            //Write compressed data from memory to file
            using (Stream outstream = zipStream.AsStreamForWrite())
            {
                byte[] buffer = streams.ToArray();
                outstream.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                outstream.Flush();
            }
        }
    }
    //Launch the saved Word file
    await Windows.System.Launcher.LaunchFileAsync(stFile);
}

ASP.NET Core

FileStream fileStreamPath = new FileStream("Template.docx", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite);
//Opens an existing document from file system through constructor of WordDocument class
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument(fileStreamPath, FormatType.Docx))
{
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    document.Save(stream, FormatType.Odt);
    //Closes the Word document
    document.Close();
    stream.Position = 0;
    //Download Word document in the browser
    return File(stream, "application/msword", "WordToODT.odt");
}

Xamarin

Assembly assembly = typeof(App).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
//Opens an existing document from file system through constructor of WordDocument class
using (WordDocument document = new WordDocument((assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("Sample.Assets.Template.docx")), FormatType.Docx))
{
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
    document.Save(stream, FormatType.Odt);
    //Save the stream as a file in the device and invoke it for viewing
    Xamarin.Forms.DependencyService.Get<ISave>()
                        .SaveAndView("WordToODT.odt", "application/msword", stream);
    //Closes the Word document
    document.Close();
}

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

Supported Document elements

Document Element	Attribute	Support Status	Notes
Bookmark	Id	Yes	-
Border	Color	Yes	-
	Distance from text	No	-
	Line style	Yes	-
	Line width	Yes	-
Document Properties		No	-
Field		Partial	For some of the fields, the field results have been preserved as span text.
Footnotes and Endnotes		No	-
Form Field		No	-
Header / Footer	Different per section	Yes	-
Hyperlink	External URL	Yes	-
	Local	Yes	-
Image	Inline	Yes	-
	Scale	Yes	-
List	Custom bullets	No	-
	Multi-level	Yes	-
	Numbered	Yes	-
	Restart numbering	No	-
	Standard bullets	Yes	-
Comment		No
Symbols		Yes
Paragraph	Alignment	Yes
	Borders	Yes	See Borders, for more details.
	Keep lines and paragraphs together	Yes	-
	Paragraph Indents	Yes	-
	Line spacing	Yes	-
	Page break before	No	-
	Shading	No
	Spacing before and after	Yes	-
Shading	Background color	Yes
	Foreground color	No
Styles	Paragraph styles	Yes	-
	Character styles	Yes	-
	List styles	Yes	-
Table	Alignment	Yes	-
	Cell margins	Yes	-
	Column widths	Yes	-
	Indent from left	No	-
	Preferred width	No	-
	Spacing between cells	Yes	-
	Borders	Yes	See Borders, for more details.
	Shading	No
Nested Table		Yes
Table Cell	Borders	Yes	See Borders, for more details.
	Cell margins	Yes	-
	Horizontal merge	No	-
	Shading	No
	Vertical alignment	Yes	-
	Vertical merge	No	-
Table Row	Height	Yes	-
	Padding	Yes	-
Text	All caps	Yes	-
	Bold	Yes	-
	Character spacing	Yes	-
	Color	Yes	-
	Emboss	Yes	Rendered as bold.
	Engrave	No
	Font	Yes	-
	Hidden	No	-
	Highlighting	Yes	-
	Italic	Yes	-
	Line breaks	Yes	-
	Outline	Yes	Rendered as bold.
	Page breaks	Yes	-
	Shading	No
	Small caps	Yes	-
	Special symbols	Yes	-
	Strike out	Yes	-
	Subscript / Superscript	Yes	-
	Underline	Yes