PDF to ODT

Convert your PDF files to ODT, right here in your browser.

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... or drop files here

Files never leave your device

Add a PDF file to convert.

Frequently asked questions

What is actually inside a ODT file?

A .odt file is a ZIP archive whose first entry has to be an uncompressed mimetype marker, followed by the XML that holds the content and its styling.

Are my files uploaded to a server?

No. Your PDF is read and the ODT file is built entirely inside your browser, so nothing ever leaves your device.

Can I convert several files at once?

Yes. Add as many PDF files as you like and download the results one by one, or all together as a ZIP archive.

Will the result look exactly like the original PDF?

The text, headings and table columns are recovered and rebuilt as a ODT file. This is a content-faithful conversion rather than a copy of the original page design, so fonts, spacing and images are not carried over.

What happens with a scanned PDF?

A scanned page is a picture of text rather than text itself, so there is nothing to extract from it. Convert it to an image format instead, or run it through OCR first.

Is there a file size or file count limit?

No. Everything runs on your own device, so the only practical limit is how much memory your browser has available.

Do I need to install anything?

No. There is nothing to install and no account to create — the converter runs in any modern browser, on desktop and mobile alike.

Will the ODT look like my PDF?

No. A PDF records glyph positions rather than a document structure, so there is no layout to translate — the text and its heading hierarchy come across, formatted cleanly, and the columns, fonts and page design do not. This is inherent to the format rather than a limitation of this converter.

Should I convert to ODT or DOCX?

Whichever the recipient uses. ODT for LibreOffice and OpenOffice users and for organisations that require open formats; DOCX for anyone on Microsoft Word. The reconstruction is identical either way — only the container differs.

Will LibreOffice definitely open the file?

Yes. It is a properly formed OpenDocument archive, including the detail that trips up hand-rolled ODF writers: the mimetype entry must be the very first file in the ZIP and stored uncompressed, because readers identify the format by sniffing those bytes. That ordering is guaranteed here.

Are headings preserved?

Two levels, detected from relative type size, and written as real heading styles so Writer's navigator and automatic table of contents both work. Headings that were marked by boldness rather than by size will not be detected, since there is no size difference to measure.

My document came out empty.

The PDF is a scan with no text layer. Try selecting text in a PDF viewer — if nothing highlights, there is nothing to extract and the file needs OCR first.

Is my file uploaded?

No. The PDF is read and the .odt written inside your browser tab, so nothing is transmitted to a server.

ODT is the OpenDocument text format — LibreOffice Writer's native file, an ISO standard, and the format to convert into when the destination is an open-source workflow, a public-sector system that mandates open formats, or simply a machine without Microsoft Office on it.

Producing one from a PDF means the same reconstruction every PDF-to-document conversion requires. A PDF holds glyphs at coordinates, not paragraphs, so the text runs are grouped back into lines by their shared baselines, and the lines that are notably larger than the document's usual type size are treated as headings.

The result is a real .odt: a ZIP archive containing `content.xml` and the manifest that describes it, assembled in your browser. One structural detail matters enough to mention — the `mimetype` entry has to be the first file in the archive and stored uncompressed, because ODF readers identify a file by sniffing those first bytes rather than by parsing the whole archive. Get that wrong and LibreOffice refuses the file.

How to convert PDF to ODT

Add your PDF
Drop it in or choose it. Nothing is uploaded at any point.
Convert
Text is extracted with coordinates, rebuilt into lines, classified by relative size, and written as OpenDocument XML inside a correctly ordered ZIP.
Open it in Writer
The document opens with its headings as headings, so the navigator works and a table of contents can be generated. Glance over the heading detection before relying on it.

What survives

All the text: In reading order, with runs sharing a baseline joined back into lines.
Two heading levels: Detected by comparing each line's type size against the size that carries most of the document's text — half again as large reads as a top-level heading, about a fifth larger as a second-level one. Relative rather than absolute, so it works whether the document is set in 9pt or 12pt.
Editable text: Real text in a real word-processor document, not an image or a mesh of text frames.
Page design: Not reproduced. Columns, fonts, colours, margins, headers and footers do not survive; the text and its structure do.
Images and tables: Images are not carried over. Tables come through as text line by line rather than as table objects — convert to ODS instead if the document is mostly tabular.

ODT or DOCX?

Both are available and the reconstruction behind them is identical, so the choice is purely about where the file is going.

Choose ODT when the recipient uses LibreOffice or OpenOffice, when you are submitting to an organisation that requires open formats — which a good deal of European public administration does — or when you simply prefer a format that is fully specified and not tied to one vendor.

Choose DOCX when the file is going to someone using Microsoft Word. Word opens ODT, but its support has always been approximate at the edges, and a document that has round-tripped through both formats tends to acquire small oddities.

Scanned PDFs produce empty documents

If the PDF is a scan, every page is a photograph and there is no text in the file at all. The conversion will correctly produce an empty document, which is an accurate description of the file's text content rather than a failure.

Test it in a viewer: try to select a sentence. If the text highlights, this will extract it. If you get a selection box over a picture, the document needs OCR — a different operation, recognising letter shapes rather than reading letters that are already recorded.

About the ODT format

.odt is the word-processing format OASIS introduced in 2005. It is published as an open specification under the name ISO/IEC 26300, so a file can be read without the program that wrote it.

A .odt file is a ZIP archive whose first entry has to be an uncompressed mimetype marker, followed by the XML that holds the content and its styling.

Files like this usually come out of LibreOffice Writer, Apache OpenOffice, and Collabora Online.

What comes through

body text
heading levels
table rows and columns
bulleted and numbered lists
reading order

What does not

the exact page design
embedded images
embedded fonts

Worth knowing

This is the format LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice save in by default, and the one several governments standardised on precisely because no single vendor controls it.
Heading styles are read as structure rather than as big text, so the levels in the original become real headings rather than a guess based on font size.
A scanned PDF is a picture of a page, not text, so there is nothing for this tool to extract — the result will be empty. That is the honest outcome, not a failure.
This conversion is content-faithful, not pixel-faithful: text, heading levels and table columns survive, the original page design does not.

Information