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Differences between the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format and the Word (.docx) format
 

When you save a file from Microsoft Office Word 2007 in the OpenDocument Text (.odt) format, and then open it again in Word 2007, you might notice some formatting differences between the Word 2007 version and the OpenDocument version. Likewise, you might also see formatting differences when you open an OpenDocument file in Word 2007. This is because of the different features that the file formats support.

 Note   The differences you will experience when you work with two file formats is generally constrained to formatting differences and feature availability. Data and content will convert, but how you format and interact with the data and content might be different between the formats.

If you want to switch your default file format to or from ODF or OpenXML (or other formats) , do the following:

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button Office button image, and then click Word Options.
  2. Click Save, and then under Save documents, in the Save files in this format box, click the file format that you want to use by default.

What happens when I save a Word 2007 document in the OpenDocument Text format?

The table below shows which Word 2007 features are fully, partially, or not supported in the OpenDocument (.odt) format.

  • Supported   Both Word 2007 and the OpenDocument Text format support this feature. Content, formatting, and usability will not be lost.
  • Partially Supported   Both Word 2007 and the OpenDocument Text format support this feature, but formatting and usability might be affected. No text or data is lost, but formatting and how you work with text or graphics might be different.
  • Not Supported   The feature in Word 2007 is not supported in the OpenDocument Text format. If you plan to save your Word 2007 document in the OpenDocument Text format, do not use this feature or you risk losing content, formatting, and usability of that part of your document.

For information about Office 2007 graphic features that are fully, partially, or not supported in the OpenDocument Format, see the Graphic Elements table at the end of this article.

Area Subarea Level of support Comments
Collaboration Address Book Supported
Collaboration Blog Supported
Collaboration Comments Partially Supported When you save the document in .odt format and open it again in Word 2007, comments about a group of words becomes a single point. The single point is usually indicated at the end of the group of words.

Tables are not supported in comments. The contents of the table are maintained in the comment but the structure is lost.
Collaboration Compare-Merge Documents Supported
Collaboration Document Protection Not Supported When you save the Word 2007 file in .odt format, the feature is removed and .odt files with this feature cannot be opened.
Collaboration Information Rights Management (IRM) Not Supported When you save the Word 2007 document in .odt format, the feature is removed and .odt files with this feature cannot be opened.
Collaboration Mail Merge Supported ADDRESSBLOCK and RECIPIENT fields are converted to plain text.

The connection to the data source must be established again if the document is edited by another ODF application.
Collaboration Reviewing Pane Supported
Collaboration Track Changes Not Supported When you save the Word 2007 document in .odt format, all changes are accepted.
Content Bibliography Not Supported Bibliography section is converted to plain text.
Content Captions Not Supported SEQ fields are converted to plain text.

When you add new captions, the caption number is not automatically incremented.
Content Content Controls Not Supported
Content Cross References Supported
Content Document Building Blocks Not Supported
Content Equation Editor Supported
Content Equations Supported
Content Footnotes-Endnotes Supported Custom separators not supported.
Content Frames Partially Supported When you save the Word 2007 document in .odt format:
  • Frames are converted to text boxes.
  • Anchors to some regions in the margin are not supported.
  • Content that is not supported causes frames to be lost but not the content. The content that is not supported include: tables, AutoShapes, text boxes, frames, and SmartArt graphics.
Content Framesets Not Supported
Content Header-Footer Supported
Content Index Supported Multiple columns indices currently not supported.
Content Insert Break Partially Supported When you save the Word 2007 document in .odt format, continuous section breaks might lose some properties, such as top/bottom margins, headers/footers, borders, and line numbering.
Content Office Art Supported See Graphic Elements table for details.
Content Page Numbering Supported
Content Pictures Supported Pictures from a document created in OpenOffice are not displayed.
Content Tables Partially Supported Tables with more than 64 columns are not supported.

Theme formatting are converted to cell level formatting.
Content Templates and Wizards Supported
Content Text boxes Partially Supported Text boxes cannot be nested.
Content Table of Contents (TOC) Partially Supported TOC loses items labeled with a SEQ field.
Content Table of Authority (TOA) Not Supported
Content Table of Figures (TOF) Not Supported
Content E2O Supported See Graphic Elements table for details.
Editing AutoComplete Supported
Editing AutoCorrect Supported
Editing AutoSummary Not Supported
Editing AutoText Supported AutoText entries are stored in Word templates (.dotx). If you save a Word template with autotext entries in the .odt format, the autotext entries are not saved in the .odt version.
Editing Change Case Supported
Editing Click and Type Supported
Editing Cut-Copy-Paste Supported
Editing Drag and Drop Supported
Editing Envelopes and Labels Supported
Editing Selection Supported
Editing Sort Supported
Editing Undo-Redo-Repeat Supported
Editing Word Count Supported
File Operations Binary File Format Supported Can save to binary .doc and .dot file types.
File Operations Bulletproofer Supported
File Operations Encryption Not Supported
File Operations Fixed File Format Supported Can save to .pdf and .xps file types.
File Operations HTML File Format Supported Can save to .html file type.
File Operations Master Documents Not Supported
File Operations Open XML File Format Supported Can save to .docx and .dotm file types.
File Operations Organizer Supported
File Operations RTF File Format Supported Can save to .rtf file type.
File Operations Text Converters Supported
File Operations Text Encoding Supported
File Operations Trust Center Supported
File Operations Word 14 Converter Supported
File Operations WordML File Format Supported Can save to WordML file type.
File Operations WSS Integration Supported
Formatting AutoFormat
Formatting Background Not Supported
Formatting Borders and Shading Supported Patterns on shading not supported.

Picture border styles are not supported. They are converted to a solid line.
Formatting Bullets and Numbering Supported Spacing between number/bullet and text might be slightly different.

Spacing between list items increased to match line spacing of document.

Default bullets in OpenOffice change appearance when .odt file is opened in Word 2007.
Formatting Drop Caps Supported Anchors to some regions of the margin are not supported.
Formatting Format Consistency Checker Supported
Formatting Format Painter Supported
Formatting Highlighter Supported The highlighting is converted to character background color when you save the document in .odt format.
Formatting Horizontal Lines Supported
Formatting Paragraph Supported
Formatting Reveal Formatting Supported
Formatting Styles Supported There is an increase in the number of styles after you save the document in .odt format, and all formatting in ODF is style based.
Formatting Tabs Supported Positional tabs are not supported.
Formatting Text Columns Supported Some properties associated with the section might be lost, for example, top/bottom margins, headers/footers, borders, or line numbering.
Formatting Text Orientation Partially Supported The following text orientation formats are supported:

rltb: right to left, top to bottom

lrtb: left to right, top to bottom

tbrl: top to bottom; right to left

Text orientation in a table cell is not supported.
Formatting Themes Not Supported
Formatting Watermark Not Supported
Formatting Live Preview Supported
Formatting Positioning Partially Supported The position of some text boxes, frames and shapes might change depending on the type of anchor used.
Infrastructure Acetate Supported When you save in the .odt format, content with content controls are converted to regular text.
Infrastructure Bookmarks Supported
Infrastructure Boot-Quit Supported
Infrastructure Cicero - Handwriting - Speech Supported
Infrastructure DataBinding Not Supported
Infrastructure DDE Not Supported Contents of field are converted to plain text.

Link to data source is lost.
Infrastructure Fields Partially Supported Fields that are not supported are converted to plain text.

Fields that are supported continue to be retained as fields.

SEQ fields are not supported and affects the behavior of TOCs and captions.
Infrastructure ActiveX/Forms Not Supported
Infrastructure Freeze Dry Supported
Infrastructure Help Supported
Infrastructure Hyperlinks Supported Documents from OpenOffice do not have the hyperlink style applied but are still functional.
Infrastructure Ink Comments Not Supported
Infrastructure Keyboard Customization Not Supported
Infrastructure OCX Not Supported
Infrastructure OLE Partially Supported Objects embedded in document created in OpenOffice are not displayed. The image type is not supported, and the link is relative.
International IME Supported
International Insert Symbol Supported
International Pluggable UI Supported
International Two Lines In One Supported
MODI OCR Supported
Navigation Document Map Supported
Navigation Find-Replace Supported
Navigation GoTo-GoBack Supported
Printing Supported
Printing Page Setup Supported
Printing Print Preview Supported
Programmability Addins Partially Supported
Programmability C-API Partially Supported
Programmability COM Addins Partially Supported
Programmability Events Partially Supported
Programmability Macros Not Supported
Programmability Object Model Supported
Programmability Smart Documents Not Supported
Programmability Smart Tags Not Supported
Programmability VBA Recording Supported
Programmability VBE Integration Supported
Programmability WordBasic Supported
Proofing Custom Dictionaries Supported
Proofing Grammar Supported Areas of text that that are marked “don’t check spelling or grammar” will lose that property. Spelling and grammar will now be checked for that text.
Proofing Hyphenation Supported
Proofing Intelligent AutoCorrect Supported
Proofing Language Autodetect Supported
Proofing Language Properties Supported
Proofing Spelling Supported Areas of text that that are marked “don’t check spelling or grammar” will lose that property. Spelling and grammar will now be checked for that text.
Proofing Thesaurus Supported
Proofing Translation Supported
Research Research Pane Supported
View Draft Supported
View Outline Supported
View Print Layout Supported
View Reading Supported
View Ruler Supported
View Scrolling Supported
View Status Bar Supported
View Thumbnails Supported
View Web Layout Supported
View Windowing Supported
View Zoom Not Supported
WordMail Autosignatures Supported
WordMail Fax Supported
WordMail HTML Supported
WordMail Options Not Supported
WordMail Plain Text Supported
WordMail RFM supported
WordMail RTF Supported
XML Attach Schema Not Supported
XML Attributes Not Supported
XML External Source Not Supported
XML Include Text Not Supported
XML Merge XML Not Supported
XML OOUI Not Supported
XML Selection Behaviors Not Supported
XML Tree View Not Supported
XML Validation Not Supported
XML XSLT Not Supported

Graphics Features

The table below shows which Word 2007 graphics features are fully, partially, or not supported in the OpenDocument Format (.odt).

  • Supported   The Word 2007 format and the OpenDocument Format support this feature. Graphics using this feature generally appear and behave the same in either format.
  • Partially Supported   The Word 2007 format and the OpenDocument Format support this feature, but graphics might appear different between the formats. No data is generally lost between the formats, but formatting and how you work with these graphics might be different.
  • Not Supported   Because of the unique differences of features and implementation between the Word 2007 format and the OpenDocument Format, this feature is not supported in OpenDocument Format. If you plan to save your document in an OpenDocument Format, do not use these features in Word 2007.
Basic Shapes Level of support Comments
Shapes Supported
Text boxes Supported Supported except for objects in text boxes that are partially supported for Word 2007. SmartArt graphics, shapes, or text boxes inside a text box are not supported and are lost when you open the file.
WordArt Supported
3D shapes options Supported
Pictures Supported Supported except for the insert and link option that are not supported by ODF.
SmartArt diagrams Supported Converted to a group of shapes.
ActiveX controls Not Supported
Objects in charts Supported Converted to a group containing the chart and objects. Word 2007 cannot support a group containing a chart so the objects are ungrouped when you open the file in Word 2007.
Signature line object Not Supported
Ink annotation Supported The ink annotation is converted to a freeform shape.
Group of objects Partially Supported Some objects cannot be grouped together in Word 2007, so the objects are ungrouped when you open the OpenDocument file. This includes anything grouped with a chart, and a picture grouped with a shape, text box, or OLE object.
Object visibility Partially Supported Invisible objects become visible after saving the file in .odt and opening again in Word 2007.
Object borders Supported Not all border styles are supported. Border styles that are not supported are saved as the default border style (black, solid line).
Object fills Supported Supported except for gradient fills with more than two stops lose all stops after the first two.
Line formatting Supported Not all line and line end styles are supported in ODF. Styles that are not supported are saved as the default, black solid line and open arrow type, respectively.
Picture cropping Supported Regular cropping of a picture is supported. However, cropping a picture with a shape is not supported.
Picture recoloring Partially Supported Some picture recoloring has the equivalent in ODF, such as black and white. Other picture recoloring does not have an equivalent and is flattened. The picture appears the same but the recoloring can no longer be changed or removed.
3D picture options Not Supported
Picture styles Partially Supported Borders are partially supported, but might not look the same.
Themes Not Supported
Hyperlink on shape Not Supported

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