Category: Open Document Format

Open standards don’t make headlines. Instead, they work quietly behind the scenes to define how information is created, shared and stored. However, as digital ecosystems become more complex and centralised, open standards are becoming increasingly important.

One of the best examples is the Open Document Format (ODF), the native format of LibreOffice documents.

Open standards in the evolving digital world

The current digital environment is characterised by certain trends, such as cloud platforms, subscription software, artificial intelligence-based tools, and tightly integrated ecosystems. While these tools are powerful, they also increase the lock-in effect exerted by Big Tech.

Open standards act as a counterbalance. They provide shared rules that anyone can implement to maintain system interoperability and user control. When a format is open, no single company can decide how information is stored or who has access to it.

With ever-increasing data volumes and documents being transformed into long-term digital archives, this independence is becoming critical.

ODF was designed with one simple goal: to enable users to read and edit documents on any platform and with any software at any time. This goal is still absolutely valid today.

Because ODF is openly specified and standardised, it allows for the coexistence of multiple tools. LibreOffice and other editors can all work with the same files. Even proprietary software can support ODF without facing legal barriers.

Looking to the future, this aspect is more important than ever. Documents are now inputs for automated workflows, archives for public documents and sources for analysis with artificial intelligence tools, not just files on a desktop. Open formats enable these uses without any constraints.

Government, politics and long-term access

The future of ODF looks particularly secure in the public sector.

Governments are responsible for documents that must remain accessible for decades. Using proprietary formats carries risks in this context: companies change strategy, products are withdrawn from the market (Windows 10 docet), and licences evolve. Open standards reduce this risk.

Since digital sovereignty and transparency are political priorities, ODF is perfectly aligned with these objectives, as it enables public institutions to choose their software freely and maintain consistent access to all data.

ODF in the era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence

Contrary to popular belief, standard and open document formats remain highly relevant in an era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Cloud platforms store documents in the format chosen by the user. If the format is open, users can move, analyse, edit and reuse data across different systems. The XML-based structure of ODF files makes processing documents at the development level easier, which is a key aspect of automation and AI-based workflows.

Since artificial intelligence tools rely heavily on existing documents for training, summarisation and decision support, transparent formats offer a practical advantage as well as a philosophical one.

Future challenges

Open standards are not without their challenges. They require ongoing governance (responsibility of ODF Technical Committee), consistent implementation across tools (which is lacking, because of the strategy of proprietary and open core software, which are pushing users towards proprietary formats against the user’s own interests) and widespread adoption (which has not yet been achieved for the aforementioned reason). Users favour default choices, which are often proprietary, for convenience and lack of expertise.

The future of ODF, and of open standards more generally, depends on continued support from institutions, developers, and users who value openness, even when it is less visible.

Why the future favours open standards

The long-term trend is clear. As digital systems become more powerful, the cost of lock-in grows with them. Open standards offer a way to share innovation without giving up control.

ODF may not be flashy, but it represents a lasting idea: that documents belong to the people who create them rather than the software they use. In the future of open standards, this idea will be more important than ever.

To be honest, I didn’t think I would publish my usual post about ODF over the festive period, as most people are busy with other activities and the document format isn’t a priority. Those who work are focused on the end of the quarter, while those who don’t work are focused on end-of-year celebrations.

However, I then decided to write this post to highlight the importance of ODF during busy periods such as the festive season. After all, document format is always relevant. Using a proprietary format could mean handing over the moments we share with our families or the sales data we have worked so hard to achieve over the previous 12 months to others.

Families organise gatherings, communities organise events, schools prepare holiday programmes and offices compile reports, schedules and shared documents. Everyone collaborates, often under pressure and almost always using different tools and devices.

It is at times like these that the Open Document Format, or ODF, quietly proves its worth.

Holidays are based on shared documents

Behind every celebration is a surprising amount of paperwork.

There are invitations, programmes, menus, budgets, volunteer lists, seating plans and announcements. These documents are shared with relatives, suppliers, communities, and colleagues. Not everyone uses the same software. In fact, not everyone even uses the same operating system.

ODF simplifies all of this because it is an open standard, enabling documents to be opened, edited and shared across different systems and applications without the risk of file corruption. You send a file and the recipient can open it every time without any problems or worries. That’s it.

During the festive season, this simplicity is more important than advanced features.

There’s no time to ask “Can you send it again?”

Festive season planning often takes place late at night or in between other commitments. People don’t have time to solve format-related problems, but they still want to maintain control over the content.

Documents in proprietary formats can cause problems at the worst possible moment and, in any case, do not allow complete control over the content: fonts change, layouts break and comments disappear. Someone asks for a PDF, and then another version is produced that cannot be edited. This creates confusion.

ODF eliminates these problems because it keeps content readable and editable, regardless of the operating system or tool used. This allows people to focus on the event itself, rather than spending time fixing documents.

When people are juggling travel, family and deadlines, having fewer document-related headaches can make all the difference.

Inclusion depends on open formats

Holidays are about bringing people together, including those who use older devices or assistive technologies due to age or lack of interest in technology. Not to mention those who consciously choose to use free and open-source software.

ODF supports all types of inclusion.

In fact, an open standard enables accessibility tools to function reliably, meaning communities are not forced to purchase specific software just to read a programme or complete a form. Public institutions can share any document without excluding anyone.

If an event is designed for everyone, the related documents should be too.

Holiday documents are important on the long term

Programmes become memories, community reports become archives, and photos and articles are reused year after year. Even family recipes and traditions are passed down in the form of documents.

ODF helps preserve these memories.

The open format means that documents can be read years later, regardless of a company’s commercial decisions to abandon a product because it is not generating enough profit. Years later, documents can be opened, copied and shared.

Holidays are fleeting, but documents should not be.

Public events need public standards

Many holidays are organised by schools, local authorities, cultural groups, and non-profit organisations. These organisations serve the public and use public funds. ODF enables the characteristics of these events to be preserved and protects resources from commercial interests.

Using an open standard avoids being tied to a single supplier, allows for predictable costs, and guarantees transparent access to content without barriers. Community newsletters, holiday calendars and funding forms shared in ODF format respect the diversity of tools used by users.

Open standards align with public values, particularly when information sharing is paramount.

A small choice with a big impact

Choosing the standard and open ODF format may seem like a technical detail. For those who stubbornly refuse to understand everything behind a closed and proprietary format, choosing the standard, open ODF format may even seem like an unnecessary imposition. During the festive season, however, it is a choice with a significant cultural and social impact.

It means the difference between smooth collaboration and last-minute stress; transparent inclusion and seemingly accidental, but actually highly deliberate, exclusion; and documents that last and documents that disappear.

ODF does not require attention and does not interrupt the celebrations. It works very simply in the background, allowing people to focus on what matters: being together, sharing time, and creating memories.

Those who think all this is a sterile marketing exercise could do something useful for themselves and their community by considering the end of support for Windows 10 and older versions of Office. These have rendered many perfectly functioning PCs and readable documents obsolete, despite a user licence having been paid for them. Users should draw the appropriate conclusions from this.

Happy 2026 to everyone under the banner of free and open-source software and the only open standard, which defend our personal freedom from the interference of Big Tech and the governments that support them.

I decided to start the current campaign, with one blog post per week focusing on the different aspects of Open Document Format, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the standardisation by OASIS, which happened in May 2005.

My hope was to raise the interest around ODF, which is the document format that every conscious user of office suites should adopt in order to maintain full control on his intellectual property (even if we are not professional writers or researchers, the content of our documents is our intellectual property, and we have the right to decide when, how and with whom we want to share it).

My articles were targeting LibreOffice users, as they have the privilege – over other office suite users – of creating documents (and I am not referring only to text, but also to spreadsheets and presentations or drawings) with the only program adopting ODF as native document format.

I wanted to strengthen their understanding of ODF, and explain in detail the enormous value of the open and standard document format they are using in comparison with the closed and proprietary Microsoft office document format, which is unfortunately the most used worldwide to maintain Microsoft lock in and reinforce Microsoft monopoly.

Software supporting OOXML – the technical name of the closed and proprietary Microsoft office document format – as their native document format are in fact strengthening Microsoft lock in just because in their paramount ignorance of the real situation – today, OOXML is the only lock in tool available to Microsoft – they protect Microsoft rather than protecting their users. In reality, they are enemies of their own users, as they use Microsoft handcuffs to prevent them to own and control their intellectual property.

Unfortunately, the absolute majority of office suite users are not aware of the issues – for their intellectual property – related to the closed and proprietary Microsoft office document format, and are just victim of the irresponsible choice about the native document format made by developers of OnlyOffice and WPS Office, and the likes.

Of course, given Microsoft monopoly on office suites, programs must support OOXML to their best, as LibreOffice does, to “steal” Microsoft stronghold on intellectual property, and give it back to legitimate owners, i.e. users of Microsoft office series suites, whatever the name, and of their accomplishes.

While I was trying to explain all this with my blog posts about ODF, something unexpected happened: several journalists picked up the contents of the articles and relaunched them on their media, showing that there is still hope for a sane attitude about document formats, rather than the current “comfortable” behaviour of choosing the most frequently used document format without even thinking to the consequences of the evil strategy associated to it.

Based on this unexpected – and extremely positive – outcome, I have decided to revive the ODF Advocacy project (which was killed twice in the past) by launching ODF News (https://www.odf.news), where I will write about ODF and publish ODF supporting documents.

ODF News will go live in January 2026, to prepare for the 20th anniversary of ODF being approved as ISO/IEC 26300.

This new version of the native LibreOffice document format standard marks the 20th anniversary of the only open document format for office applications

Berlin, December 3, 2025 – The Document Foundation announces that OASIS Open (www.oasis-open.org), the global open-source and standards organisation, has approved the Open Document Format (ODF) for office applications v1.4 as an OASIS standard, which is the organisation’s highest level of ratification.

The release of ODF v1.4 coincides with the 20th anniversary of ODF’s adoption as an OASIS Standard. Since 2005, ODF has served users as a vendor-neutral, royalty-free format for office documents, ensuring that files remain readable, editable and interoperable across platforms.

Several governments and international organisations, including NATO, the European Commission and countries across multiple continents, have mandated ODF for their operations worldwide.

ODF v1.4 maintains full backward compatibility and improves developer documentation, adds better support for assistive technologies for accessibility, improves professional document formatting and visual design capabilities, and expands features for data analysis and technical documentation. These updates reinforce the Open Document Format’s position as a comprehensive solution for office productivity and document creation.

“ODF provides a vendor-neutral foundation for office productivity and collaboration. With v1.4, the standard continues to evolve, supporting cloud collaboration, richer multimedia, and standardised security,” said Svante Schubert, Open Document Format’s TC Co-Chair. “Looking ahead, ODF is moving beyond document exchange towards standardised, semantic, change-based collaboration, enabling the meaningful sharing of interoperable changes across platforms.”

ODF v1.4 safeguards digital sovereignty by removing a single vendor’s control over documents and returning it to the community, to allows individuals and enterprises to independently decide how and with whom to share content, preventing it from being analysed for commercial purposes or potentially shared without the legitimate owner’s knowledge.
Like all other versions of the standard format, ODF 1.4 is based on an XML schema that complies with simplicity and readability guidelines, making files much more robust and secure than those commonly found on the market.

Overall, this is another significant step towards transparency, openness and digital sovereignty, thanks to the collaborative efforts of open-source software developers, advocates and users.
The finalized four-part specification of ODF v1.4 can be found in the OASIS library by clicking here: docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/.

The announcement mentions OASIS sponsors who have not contributed to the development of ODF 1.4, whereas The Document Foundation, which funded the development of the standard alongside companies such as Microsoft and has always advocated for it, is not mentioned at all. Unfortunately, business is business, even when it comes to open standards.

ODF 1.4 New Features

General

• The writing direction specification has been expanded and clarified.
• Complex backgrounds, such as colour gradients or hatching, can now be applied to a wider range of objects.
• Objects can be marked as “decorative” to support accessibility technologies.
• Shapes can now contain not only simple text and lists, but also tables.
• The method for specifying the handles of shapes has been improved.
• A new, more flexible method has been added for specifying the format of number labels in multi-level lists.

Text Documents

• It is now possible to position objects relative to the page margins.
• A binding area (also known as a gutter) can be set in the page format.
• The overlay behaviour of objects can now be specified more flexibly.

Spreadsheets

• A new function, EASTERSUNDAY, can be used to calculate the date of Easter and its associated dates.
• Text colour and cell background colour can be used as filter criteria.

Charts

• Scales can be labelled more flexibly.
• For logarithmic scales, the underlying base can be specified.

Formula Typesetting

• All versions of the MathML formula language are now permitted.

Reliable data flows, verifiable signatures and predictable structures are essential for digital identity systems, which touch every aspect of modern digital life. They authorise transactions, confirm requests and guarantee security policies.

In this context, the Open Document Format (ODF) offers a transparent, computer-readable foundation for verifying the authenticity of documents and ensuring their long-term integrity.

Each ODF file is a structured ZIP container with a consistent internal layout. It contains a set of XML files that are always located in the same position. These files include meta.xml for metadata, manifest.xml for the list of files and relationships, content.xml for document data and styles.xml for presentation rules. The files are either ODT (text), ODS (spreadsheets), ODP (presentations) or ODG (drawings).

Because everything is in XML format and in the same location, identity systems can analyse the content without searching for it as they would with OOXML files, which vary greatly depending on the application used to create them. Identity systems can therefore focus on specific parts of a file rather than scanning raw binary blocks, which are present in OOXML files.

This is important for signing, integrity validation, metadata extraction and policy enforcement. When documents move from one identity platform to another, APIs can map ODF elements in a stable manner, reducing ambiguity and improving verification speed.

Document Signing

ODF supports the XML Signature and XML Encryption standards via the META-INF/documentsignatures.xml file. This file can contain multiple independent signatures, each relating to specific parts of the document. The signature refers to an explicit path within the ZIP container, making automatic verification easier and avoiding confusion caused by false errors resulting from layout changes.

Each document can contain user signatures, organisational seals, timestamps, and workflow attestations. Each signature can also contain its own certificate chain, revocation information, and policies.

ODF is compatible with standard X.509 certificates, enabling the use of national eIDAS identification systems and corporate PKI systems. Verification pipelines can apply the same trust rules used for signed emails or encrypted communications.

Interoperability and Identity Federation

Digital identity works best when it is portable. ODF’s openness supports this by avoiding vendor-specific binary constructs. Any identity framework can be integrated with ODF because its schema is public and stable, its structure is predictable, and there are no proprietary validators.

In federated identity ecosystems, such as cross-border government services or multi-cloud enterprise configurations, ODF reduces friction and ensures that documents remain compatible, even when authentication systems differ.

Long-Term Signature Validation and Archival Use

In some cases, identity systems must verify a document signed many years earlier, which requires long-term validation. ODF supports long-term authentication because its XML structure is future-proof: it can store timestamps, revocation data and certificate chains, and it avoids vendor-specific cryptographic formats.

In legal, regulatory and archival contexts, this aspect is more important than speed. Formats that rely on proprietary rendering engines risk becoming unreadable over time, whereas ODF remains readable, even many years later.

ODF in Zero Trust Workflows

In Zero Trust architectures, every resource must be verified at every stage. The structure of ODF fits perfectly into this model. Automated systems can verify the following: certificate validity, signature integrity, metadata trust levels, and the consistency of internal component hashes

As ODF exposes everything via XML, identity engines can apply consistent rules without performing custom analysis, thereby reducing attack surfaces and simplifying compliance.

The Evolution of ODF into the Future

Technical opportunities include using more powerful predefined hash algorithms, adopting JSON-based metadata levels, providing native support for verifiable credentials, and creating standardised profiles for government identity systems.

Given the growth of digital identity frameworks, ODF is the optimal format for documents requiring both authentication and additional security features.