Comparison of Office Open XML and OpenDocument

This is a comparison of computer document file formats Office Open XML and OpenDocument

Comparison

File format	Office Open XML	OpenDocument
Based on a format developed by	Microsoft	StarDivision / Sun Microsystems
Predecessor file format	Microsoft Office XML formats	OpenOffice.org XML
Standardized by	Ecma International, ISO/IEC	OASIS, ISO/IEC
First public release date	2006	2005
First stable version	Ecma International Standard ECMA-376 Office Open XML File Formats 1st edition	OASIS OpenDocument Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0
Latest stable version	ISO/IEC IS 29500-1:2012—Office Open XML File Formats^[1]	OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.4^[2]
Latest ISO/IEC standardised version	ISO/IEC IS 29500-1:2012—Office Open XML File Formats^[1]	ISO/IEC IS 26300-1:2015—Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.2^[3]
Language type	Markup language (XML)	Markup language (XML)
XML schema representation	XML Schema (W3C) (XSD) and RELAX NG (ISO/IEC 19757-2)	RELAX NG (ISO/IEC 19757-2)
Expression of extensibility rules	NVDL (ISO/IEC 19757-4)
Compression format	ZIP	ZIP
Container structure	Open Packaging Conventions (ISO/IEC 29500-2:2021)^[4]	ODF Package^[5]
Metadata format	Dublin Core (ISO 15836)	subset of Dublin Core and “urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:meta” elements
Drawing language	DrawingML, VML	“urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:drawing” elements and “urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:svg-compatible” elements
Mathematical notation language	Office MathML (OMML)	W3C MathML (ISO/IEC 40314)^[6]^[7]
Change-tracking	supported^[8]	supported^[9]
Conditional formatting in spreadsheets	supported^[10]	supported^[11]
Spreadsheet formula language	part of the standard	based on OpenFormula
Macro language	application-defined	application-defined
Digital signatures	part of the standard	supported
Thumbnails	JPEG (ISO/IEC 10918)	PNG (ISO/IEC 15948)
Interchange of digital font information	Open Font Format (ISO/IEC 14496-22)	Open Font Format (ISO/IEC 14496-22)
PANOSE font specifications	part of the standard^[12]
Filename extensions	`docx, docm, xlsx, xlsm, pptx, pptm`	`odt, ods, odp, odg, odf`
Internet media types	`application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12 application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12 application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12`	`application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula`
Application support	Office Open XML software	OpenDocument software
Standard licensing	ISO/IEC copyrighted free download^[13] Ecma copyrighted free download / copying allowed	ISO/IEC copyrighted free download^[13] OASIS copyrighted free download / copying allowed
Additional technology patent licensing	Reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing (RAND-Z) Microsoft Open Specification Promise (OSP)^[14] Microsoft Covenant Not to Sue (CNS)^[15]	Sun Microsystems intellectual property covenant IBM Interoperability Specifications Pledge^[16]
Implementations covered by patent license	Patent license covers conforming implementations^[14]	Patent license covers fully compliant implementations^[16]
File format	Office Open XML	OpenDocument

References

1 2 "ISO/IEC 29500-1:2016". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
↑ online, heise (2025-12-04). "OASIS ratifies Open Document Format 1.4 as a standard". iX Magazin. Retrieved 2025-12-04.
↑ "ISO/IEC 26300-1:2015". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
↑ "ISO/IEC 29500-2:2021". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
↑ "Erwin's StarOffice Tango". Archived from the original on 2008-01-17. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
↑ "ODFValidator - Apache OpenOffice Wiki".
↑ "A Demo: Mathematica, MathML and ODF". 20 August 2006.
↑ "Doug Mahugh".
↑ Jean Weber. "OpenOffice.org Writer for Microsoft Word users". Documentation.openoffice.org. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
↑ "Doug Mahugh".
↑ "Conditional Formatting in OpenOffice Calc Spreadsheets".
↑ W3C Panose document standard proposal
1 2 Freely Available ISO Standards
1 2 "Microsoft Open Specification Promise". Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
↑ "Ecma Office Open XML File Formats overview". Archived from the original on 2006-11-17. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
1 2 Interoperability Specifications Pledge

External links

ECMA-376: Office Open XML File Formats
ISO/IEC 29500-1:2016: Office Open XML File Formats
ISO/IEC 26300-1:2015: Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.2
ISO/IEC 26300:2006: Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0
ISO/IEC TR 29166:2011: Guidelines for translation between ISO/IEC 26300 and ISO/IEC 29500 document formats
Lost in Translation: Interoperability Issues for Open Standards - ODF and OOXML as Examples

[:0-1] 1 2 "ISO/IEC 29500-1:2016". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.

[2] , heise (2025-12-04). "OASIS ratifies Open Document Format 1.4 as a standard". iX Magazin. Retrieved 2025-12-04.

[3] "ISO/IEC 26300-1:2015". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.

[4] "ISO/IEC 29500-2:2021". ISO. Retrieved 2023-04-17.

[5] "Erwin's StarOffice Tango". Archived from the original on 2008-01-17. Retrieved 2009-05-14.

[6] "ODFValidator - Apache OpenOffice Wiki".

[7] "A Demo: Mathematica, MathML and ODF". 20 August 2006.

[changetracking-8] "Doug Mahugh".

[9] Jean Weber. "OpenOffice.org Writer for Microsoft Word users". Documentation.openoffice.org. Retrieved 2022-11-18.

[cf-10] "Doug Mahugh".

[11] "Conditional Formatting in OpenOffice Calc Spreadsheets".

[12] W3C Panose document standard proposal

[ISO_free-13] 1 2 Freely Available ISO Standards

[MS-OSP-14] 1 2 "Microsoft Open Specification Promise". Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-12-05.

[15] "Ecma Office Open XML File Formats overview". Archived from the original on 2006-11-17. Retrieved 2008-12-05.

[IBM-ISP-list-16] 1 2 Interoperability Specifications Pledge

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Multi-purpose office document file formats
Editable document formats	Compound Document Format Microsoft Office XML formats MO:DCA Office Open XML Open Document Architecture OpenDoc OpenDocument OpenOffice.org XML Revisable-Form Text Rich Text Format Uniform Office Format Word document
Fixed document formats	DjVu Envoy Open XML Paper Specification Portable Document Format
Related topics	Character encoding ASCII Unicode TeX

Comparison

See also

References

External links