ODT to DOCX Converter

How to Convert ODT to DOCX (Step-by-Step)

1. Upload Your ODT File: Drag your .odt onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse. You can queue several documents at once, and each is uploaded over an encrypted connection and converted independently. The practical limit on a large ODT is your upload speed, not a page count, so a long illustrated manuscript takes longer to send than a one-page letter.
2. Choose a Compression Type (Optional): In "Advanced Options," the Compression Type presets (Screen, Ebook, Default, Prepress, Printer) control how embedded images are re-encoded. Leave it on Screen for everyday documents; pick Prepress or Printer only when the DOCX is bound for a print shop. Plain-text documents are unaffected by this setting.
3. Convert and Download: Click "Convert," wait for the job to finish, then download the .docx. No sign-up, no watermark, and the uploaded ODT is deleted from our servers within the hour.
4. Open and Verify in Word: Open the file in Word, Word Online, Google Docs, or LibreOffice to confirm the layout. For most documents it matches the original; if you used tracked changes, macros, or very wide tables, check the "Common Errors" section below.

This guide is for anyone who wrote a document in LibreOffice or OpenOffice and now needs to hand it to someone on Microsoft Word. The result is an editable .docx that opens cleanly in Word 2007 or later. The sections below cover the handful of features that can shift on the way across and how to keep them intact.

Working With the Compression Type Presets

The single Compression Type control only matters when your ODT contains photos or scanned figures, since it governs how those images are re-encoded in the output:

• Leave it on Screen (Best) for everyday documents headed for email or on-screen review — it keeps images sharp at a sensible size.
• Pick Ebook when you want a smaller file and the document is mostly text with a few illustrations.
• Pick Prepress or Printer if the DOCX will be sent to a print shop and image detail must be preserved.

If your document is plain text with no pictures, this setting changes nothing — convert with the default.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "Tracked changes disappeared" — Per Microsoft's own documentation, converting between OpenDocument and Word formats causes pending revisions to be accepted automatically. Resolve or reject your edits in LibreOffice before converting if you need the revision history intact.
• "My macros are gone" — The OpenDocument format and DOCX use different scripting systems, and embedded Basic/VBA macros do not survive the round trip. Keep the original ODT for the macro logic, or rebuild the macros in Word after converting.
• "A wide table got truncated" — Word's table model tops out at 64 columns. An ODT table wider than that will be clipped; split it into two tables before converting.
• "SmartArt-style diagrams look flat" — Diagrams and SmartArt convert to grouped shapes rather than live SmartArt objects, so they display correctly but are no longer editable as a single graphic.
• "A comment with a table inside it lost its grid" — Tables nested inside comments keep their text but lose their row/column structure during conversion; move tabular data into the document body instead of a comment.

When This Doesn't Work

Most ODT documents — text, headings, lists, images, standard tables, footnotes, and hyperlinks — convert with high fidelity, so this section is about the edges. If your ODT is password-protected or digitally signed, remove the protection in LibreOffice first; encryption and signatures do not carry into DOCX. Heavily designed layouts that lean on ODF-specific frame anchoring or advanced page styles may need a few minutes of cleanup in Word afterward. And if what you actually need is a fixed, non-editable copy to send out, convert to a page-faithful format with our ODT to PDF converter instead. Still holding a legacy binary .doc? Run it through the DOC to DOCX converter first, then it is already in the format you want.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I lose formatting when I convert ODT to DOCX?

Mostly no. Text, paragraph and character styles, lists, images, standard tables, headers and footers, footnotes, and hyperlinks all carry over reliably because both formats store the same kinds of content as ZIP-packed XML. The exceptions are documented by Microsoft and are narrow: tracked changes get accepted, embedded macros are dropped, very wide tables (over 64 columns) are clipped, and SmartArt becomes grouped shapes. For a typical letter, report, or résumé, the converted DOCX looks the same as the original.

What is the difference between ODT and DOCX?

ODT is the OpenDocument Text format defined by the OASIS standard (ISO/IEC 26300) and used by default in LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice. DOCX is Microsoft's Office Open XML format, standardized as ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC 29500 and used by default in Word since 2007. Both are ZIP archives of XML, so they are technically similar; the difference is which software treats each as its native format and a few format-specific features that have no exact counterpart on the other side.

Which version of Word can open the DOCX I get?

Any release from Word 2007 onward opens DOCX natively, as do Word for Microsoft 365, Word Online, Google Docs, Apple Pages, and current LibreOffice. Word versions before 2007 used the older binary .doc format and need the free Microsoft Compatibility Pack to open DOCX. If you are sending the file to an unknown recipient, DOCX is the safest bet for being openable everywhere.

Do I need LibreOffice or Word installed to do the conversion?

No. The conversion runs on our servers after you upload the file, so nothing needs to be installed on your machine — any modern browser works. Your ODT is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted, and deleted automatically after a few hours. You only need Word or another editor afterward if you want to make further edits to the resulting DOCX.

Why would I convert ODT to DOCX instead of just keeping ODT?

DOCX is the expected format almost everywhere outside the open-source world — most workplaces, schools, government offices, and hiring portals assume Word. Converting to DOCX means collaborators on Microsoft Office can open, comment on, and track-change your document without any compatibility prompts. If everyone you share with uses LibreOffice or OpenOffice, keeping ODT is perfectly fine; convert when a recipient needs Word.

Does the converter preserve images and tables from my ODT?

Yes. In our testing, a 12-page ODT report with embedded PNG charts and several multi-column tables converted to DOCX with every image and table intact and editable in Word. The Compression Type setting only affects how those images are re-encoded for size; the table structure, cell text, and alignment are preserved as long as no table exceeds Word's 64-column limit.