ODT and ODS Text Extractor

How to use the odt and ods text extractor

1. Choose an .odt text document or an .ods spreadsheet (up to 25 MB), or drop it on the box.
2. For a text document, choose whether to add footnotes at the end and to start list items with a dash.
3. For a spreadsheet, choose the sheet from the list and whether to show formulas, and read it as a table and as CSV.
4. Use Copy or Download to save the text or the CSV file.

What the tool reads

OpenDocument is the file family used by LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice and other programs: .odt for text, .ods for spreadsheets, .odp for presentations. Each file is a ZIP package whose main part, content.xml, holds the document. The tool unpacks the package, checks its declared type, reads content.xml as text, and never opens anything the file points to on the web.

In a text document it takes headings and paragraphs, tabs, runs of spaces, line breaks, lists, link text and tables. A table row becomes one line with a tab between cells. Comments, tracked deletions, pictures and text boxes are left out, and the page lists what was skipped. Footnotes can be added at the end as numbered notes. A sample document built with an independent library gave the same text as that library's own extraction.

Spreadsheets

Each sheet is read as rows and columns. Cells that the file marks as repeated, which LibreOffice uses to store runs of identical or empty cells compactly, are expanded, up to a limit of 1,000 copies, and empty rows and columns at the end are dropped. A cell shows the text as stored in the file, with the number or date value used when no text is stored. Formulas can be shown in brackets after the value. The results for a sample workbook matched an independent reader cell for cell. Use the Excel to CSV converter for .xlsx files.

Limits and privacy

The file is read on your device and nothing is uploaded. Presentations (.odp), drawings and other OpenDocument types are refused with a message. Encrypted OpenDocument files cannot be read. The tool refuses images, SVG files and other formats by checking the first bytes, not the name. For other formats see the Word document text extractor, the Office file media extractor and the PowerPoint text extractor.

Assumptions and limits

• The file is a genuine OpenDocument text or spreadsheet package with a type marker and a content.xml part.
• Spreadsheet values are shown as stored; the number formatting a program applies on screen is not reproduced.
• Repeated cells and rows are expanded up to 1,000 copies each, and trailing empty rows and columns are removed.
• Pictures, text boxes, comments, tracked deletions and macros are not read.

Formulas reviewed October 10, 2026. See the calculation methodology for how SumPanda rounds, tests and sources its formulas.

Frequently asked questions