Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 1: Introduction

OASIS Standard

6 October 2025

This stage:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part1-introduction.odt (Authoritative)

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part1-introduction.html

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part1-introduction.pdf

Previous stage:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/cs01/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-cs01-part1-introduction.odt (Authoritative)

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/cs01/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-cs01-part1-introduction.html

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/cs01/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-cs01-part1-introduction.pdf

Latest stage:

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/OpenDocument-v1.4-part1-introduction.odt (Authoritative)

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/OpenDocument-v1.4-part1-introduction.html

https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/OpenDocument-v1.4-part1-introduction.pdf

Technical Committee:

OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC

Chairs:

Patrick Durusau (patrick@durusau.net), Individual

Svante Schubert (svante.schubert@gmail.com), Individual

Editors:

Francis Cave (francis@franciscave.com), Individual

Patrick Durusau (patrick@durusau.net), Individual

Svante Schubert (svante.schubert@gmail.com), Individual

Michael Stahl (michael.stahl@allotropia.de), allotropia software GmbH

Additional artifacts:

This prose specification is one component of a Work Product which includes:

•Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 1: Introduction. (this part)https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part1-introduction.html.

•Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 2: Packages. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.4/OpenDocument/os/part2-packages/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part2-packages.html.

•Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 3: OpenDocument Schema. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part3-schema/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part3-schema.html.

•Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 4: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument v1.4/os/part4-formula/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part4-formula.html.

•XML/RNG schemas and OWL ontologies. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument v1.4/os/schemas/.

Related work:

This specification replaces or supersedes:

•OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. 27 April 2021. OASIS Standard. Latest stage: https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/OpenDocument-v1.4-part1-introduction.html.

Abstract:

This document is Part 1 of the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4 specification.

Status:

This document was last revised or approved by the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC on the above date. The level of approval is also listed above. Check the "Latest stage" location noted above for possible later revisions of this document. Any other numbered Versions and other technical work produced by the Technical Committee (TC) are listed at https://groups.oasis-open.org/communities/tc-community-home2?CommunityKey=4bf06d41-79ad-4c58-9e8e-018dc7d05da8#technical.

TC members should send comments on this specification to the TC’s email list. Others should send comments to the OASIS public comment list at Technical-Committee-Comments@oasis-open.org.

This specification is provided under the RF on Limited Terms Mode of the OASIS IPR Policy, the mode chosen when the Technical Committee was established. For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the Intellectual Property Rights section of the TC’s web page (https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/ipr.php).

Note that any machine-readable content (Computer Language Definitions) declared Normative for this Work Product is provided in separate plain text files. In the event of a discrepancy between any such plain text file and display content in the Work Product’s prose narrative document(s), the content in the separate plain text file prevails.

Citation format:

When referencing this specification the following citation format should be used:

[OpenDocument-v1.4-part1]

Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) Version 1.4. Part 1: Introduction. Edited by Francis Cave, Patrick Durusau, Svante Schubert and Michael Stahl. 6 October 2025. OASIS Standard. https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/os/part1-introduction/OpenDocument-v1.4-os-part1-introduction.html. Latest stage: https://docs.oasis-open.org/office/OpenDocument/v1.4/OpenDocument-v1.4-part1-introduction.html.

Notices

Copyright © OASIS Open 2025. All Rights Reserved.

All capitalized terms in the following text have the meanings assigned to them in the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights Policy (the "OASIS IPR Policy"). The full Policy may be found at the OASIS website.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published, and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this section are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, including by removing the copyright notice or references to OASIS, except as needed for the purpose of developing any document or deliverable produced by an OASIS Technical Committee (in which case the rules applicable to copyrights, as set forth in the OASIS IPR Policy, must be followed) or as required to translate it into languages other than English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by OASIS or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and OASIS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY OWNERSHIP RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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[OASIS requests that any OASIS Party or any other party that believes it has patent claims that would necessarily be infringed by implementations of this OASIS Standards Final Deliverable, to notify OASIS TC Administrator and provide an indication of its willingness to grant patent licenses to such patent claims in a manner consistent with the IPR Mode of the OASIS Technical Committee that produced this deliverable.]

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[OASIS takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this OASIS Standards Final Deliverable or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on OASIS’ procedures with respect to rights in any document or deliverable produced by an OASIS Technical Committee can be found on the OASIS website. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this OASIS Standards Final Deliverable, can be obtained from the OASIS TC Administrator. OASIS makes no representation that any information or list of intellectual property rights will at any time be complete, or that any claims in such list are, in fact, Essential Claims.]

The name "OASIS" is a trademark of OASIS, the owner and developer of this specification, and should be used only to refer to the organization and its official outputs. OASIS welcomes reference to, and implementation and use of, specifications, while reserving the right to enforce its marks against misleading uses. Please see https://www.oasis-open.org/policies-guidelines/trademark/ for above guidance.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 IPR Policy
1.2 Scope
1.3 Terminology
1.4 Normative References
1.5 Non Normative References
Appendix A Acknowledgments

Link to Table of Contents for Part 2: Packages

Link to Table of Contents for Part 3: OpenDocument Schema

Link to Table of Contents for Part 4: Recalculated Formula (OpenFormula) Format

1.1IPR Policy

This specification is provided under theRF on Limited Terms Mode of the OASIS IPR Policy, the mode chosen when the Technical Committee was established. For information on whether any patents have been disclosed that may be essential to implementing this specification, and any offers of patent licensing terms, please refer to the Intellectual Property Rights section of the TC’s web page (https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/ipr.php).

1.2Scope

This standard specifies the characteristics of an XML-based application-independent and platform-independent digital document file format, as well as the characteristics of software applications which read, write and process such documents. This standard is applicable to document authoring, editing, viewing, exchange and archiving, including text documents, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, drawings, charts and similar documents commonly used by personal productivity software applications.

This standard has four parts.

Part 1 presents a master table of contents for parts 2 (packages), 3 (schema) and 4 (formulas). It also acknowledges the participation of all who made it possible.

Part 2 defines the package format language for OpenDocument documents.

Part 3 defines the XML schema for OpenDocument documents.

Part 4 defines the formula language for OpenDocument documents.

This standard, for illustrative purposes, describes functionality using terminology common in desktop computing environments that contain a display terminal, keyboard and mouse, attached to a computer hosting an operating system with a graphical user interface which includes user interface controls such as input controls, command buttons, selection boxes, etc.

However, this standard is not limited to such environments. The standard also supports the use of alternative computing environments, other form factors, non-GUI consumers and producers, and the use of assistive technologies, using analogous user interface operations.

1.3Terminology

All text is normative unless otherwise labeled.

Within the normative text of this specification, the terms "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not" and "may" are to be interpreted as described in Chapter 7 of[ISO/IEC Directives] .

implementation-defined behavior: behavior that depends on the implementation and that each implementation shall document.

implementation-dependent behavior: behavior that depends on the implementation. The implementation is not required to document which behavior occurs.

Note: Usually, the range of possible behaviors is delineated by the Standard.

Undefined behavior: behavior for which the Standard imposes no requirements. Undefined behavior may also be expected when the standard omits the description of any explicit definition of behavior.

1.4Normative References

[ISO/IEC Directives] ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (Ninth Edition) principles and rules for the structure and drafting of International Standards, International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission, 2021

Other parts of the OpenDocument specification contain normative references.

1.5Non Normative References

None.

The individual parts of the OpenDocument specification may contain further non normative references.

Appendix AAcknowledgments

The following individuals have participated in the creation of this specification and are gratefully acknowledged:

Participants:

Chieko Asakawa, IBM

Waldo Bastian, Intel Corporation

Thorsten Behrens, CIB labs GmbH

Nathaniel Borenstein, IBM

Michael Brauer, Oracle Corporation

Pete Brunet, IBM

Manuel Cano

Francis Cave

Suresh Chande, Nokia Corporation

Robin Cover, OASIS

Pierre Ducroquet

Jerome Dumonteil, Ars Aperta

Patrick Durusau

Cherie Ekholm, Microsoft

Ezer Farhi

David Faure

Siegmund Gorr, CIB labs GmbH

Jean Gouarne, Ars Aperta

Andreas J. Guelzow

Bettina Haberer, Sun Microsystems

Dennis E. Hamilton

Bart Hanssens, Fedict

Donald Harbison, IBM

Alfred Hellstern, Microsoft

Regina Henschel, The Document Foundation

Mingfei Jia, IBM

Bob Jolliffe

Camilla Boemann, KDE e.V.

Peter Junge

Kazmer Koleszar, MultiRacio Ltd.

Peter Korn, Oracle Corporation

Jirka Kosek

Robin LaFontaine

Marcus Lange, Sun Microsystems

Marina Latini, The Document Foundation

David LeBlanc, Microsoft

Fong Lin, Novell

Jun Ma, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co., Ltd.

Yue Ma, IBM

John Madden, Duke University

Doug Mahugh, Microsoft Corporation

Ben Martin, KDE e.V.

James Mason, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34

Rich McLain, Microsoft

Tristan Mitchell

Duane Nickull, Adobe Systems

Michael Paciello

Ganesh Paramasivam, KDE e.V.

Eric Patterson, Microsoft Corporation

David Pawson

Steven Pemberton, Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica

Stephen Peront, Microsoft Corporation

Asokan Ramanathan, IBM

Eike Rathke, Oracle Corporation

Florian Reuter, Novell

Janina Sajka

Svante Schubert

Charles Schulz, Ars Aperta

Richard Schwerdtfeger, IBM

Douglas Schepers

Wei Guo Shi, IBM

Keld Simonsen, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34

Michael Stahl, CIB labs GmbH

Yan Shi, Beijing Sursen International Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Jomar Silva, OpenDocument Format Alliance

Frank Stecher, Sun Microsystems

Hironobu Takagi, IBM

Malte Timmermann, Oracle Corporation

John Tolbert, The Boeing Company

Elias Torres, IBM

Warren Turkal, Google Inc.

Jos van den Oever, Logius

Alex Wang, Beijing Sursen International Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Robert Weir, IBM

Oliver-Rainer Wittmann, Oracle Corporation

David A. Wheeler

Cheng XiuZhi, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co., Ltd.

Panrong Yin, IBM

Kohei Yoshida, Novell

Helen Yue, IBM

Jin YouBing, Beijing Redflag Chinese 2000 Software Co., Ltd.

Thorsten Zachmann, Nokia Corporation

Thomas Zander, Nokia Corporation

Pine Zhang, UOML Alliance