ONLYOFFICE makes it easier to work with ODF in integrated solutions

Hello everyone!

ODT, ODP and ODS conversion is now instant when editing Nextcloud and ownCloud docs via ONLYOFFICE. Read more about what we improved in the new integration apps in this post.

ODF (OpenDocument Format) is a group of formats for electronic text documents (ODT), spreadsheets (ODS) and presentations (ODP). Created as a fully open standard for implementation in office applications, ODF is a OXML-based, ZIP-compressed file format.

Although ODF is visually similar to OOXML, two formats are completely incompatible to each other. In a yet spicy battle between the two, ODF shows to be far less popular, however there is another distinct mission to it: the format implementation pushes forward the free open-source software movement.

Although semi-open OOXML formats are our primary focus due to usability concerns (read our recent story about DOCX to learn why), ONLYOFFICE still works with ODF, processing it with inner conversion.

Obviously, we do not limit the functionality of ONLYOFFICE editors when they are integrated to other solutions like Nextcloud or ownCloud. However, we have been receiving the improvement requests regarding the slightly knotty way of getting to edit ODF via integration apps.

Before, you needed to convert the file and access the new one in the corresponding directory: in the current folder if you had the access rights, or your root folder if not. The reason was the loss of formatting that might occur during the conversion: these changes in the file might no longer be restored afterwords. But now we gave you the choice.

We have just rolled out Nextcloud connector 2.0.4 and ownCloud connector 2.0.3. From now on, you can open ODT, ODS and ODP (as well as CSV, RTF and TXT) files for editing by default. Just as any other file, a ODF-formatted document is immediately converted in the editor and opened after you click on it.

The admin needs to enable the option for each format where the immediate conversion is desired, using the admin settings. You will still be able to convert files the old way by clicking ‘Convert’ in the file context menu.

The result: we made working with ODF more native. You get to edit the exactly same file you aimed at working with, without manually manipulating the conversion, navigating around folders and waiting.

We have already received some great feedback on GitHub. Try it out yourself and tell us what you think!