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File formats are not usually the subject of philosophical debate because most users just want to open, save and share documents without any problems. However, the Open Document Format (ODF) is based on concepts that are much more important to users than might initially seem the case. ODF is not
El camino hacia el lanzamiento oficial de LibreOffice 26.2 entra en su etapa final. Acabamos de publicar RC2 (Release Candidate 2), la segunda versión “candidata” a convertirse en la versión oficial. ¿Qué ha cambiado? Desde la primera versión de prueba (RC1), la comunidad ha trabajado intensamente: se incorporaron 137 mejoras
FOSDEM es el mayor evento europeo de software libre y de código abierto (FOSS), y se celebrará los días 31 de enero y 1 de febrero en Bruselas, Bélgica. El proyecto y la comunidad de LibreOffice estarán presentes. Visita nuestro stand, conversa con nosotros y llévate material promocional (adhesivos, folletos
In LibreOffice development, there are many cases where you want to validate some documents against standards: either Open Document Format (ODF) or MS Office Open XML (OOXML). Here I discuss how to do that.
ODF is the native document file format that LibreOffice and many other open source applications use. It is basically set of XML files that are zipped together, and can describe various aspects of the document, from the content itself to the way it should be displayed. These XML files have to conform to ODF standard, which is presented in XML schemas. The latest version of ODF is 1.4, which is yet to be implemented in LibreOffice.
You can find more about ODF in these links:
There are various tools to do the validation, but the preferred one is the ODF Toolkit Validator:
Compiled binaries of ODF Toolkit can be downloaded from the above Github project:
Then, you can use the ODF validator this way:
$ java -jar odfvalidator-0.12.0-jar-with-dependencies.jar test.odt
You may also use the online validator, odfvalidator.org, to do a validation.
Online odfvalidator toolPlease read this disclaimer before using:
This service does not cover all conformance criteria of the OpenDocument Format specification. It is not applicable for formal validation proof. Problems reported by this service only indicate that a document may not conform to the specification. It must not be concluded from errors that are reported that the document does not conform to the specification without further investigation of the error report, and it must not be concluded from the absence of error reports that the OpenDocument Format document conforms to the OpenDocument Format specification.
MS Office Open XML (OOXML) is the native standard for Microsoft documents format. It is also a set of XML files zipped together, and conform to some XML schemas.
You can find out more about OOXML here:
There are tools to do the validation, and the one is used in LibreOffice is Office-o-tron. One can use it with below command to validate an example file, test.docx:
$ java -jar officeotron-0.8.8.jar ~/test.docx
Office-o-tron can be downloaded from dev-www.libreoffice.org server of LibreOffice, and this is currently the latest version:
It is worth noting that Office-o-tron can be also used to validate ODT files.
To go beyond the current ODF standard, new features are sometimes introduced as “ODF extensions”, then are gradually added to the standard. You can read more in TDF Wiki:
In these cases, you may see validation errors for such extensions. For example:
test.odt/styles.xml[2,3347]: unexpected attribute “loext:tab-stop-distance”
test.odt/styles.xml[2,4849]:
FOSDEM is the biggest free and open source software (FOSS) event in Europe, and will take place on 31 January and 1 February in Brussels, Belgium. And the LibreOffice project and community will be there! Come to our stand, have a chat, and grab some cool merchandise (stickers, flyers, and
The Document Foundation (TDF) es la entidad sin fines de lucro que respalda el proyecto LibreOffice. Recauda donaciones de los usuarios y cuenta con un pequeño equipo que da soporte y coordina a la comunidad mundial que desarrolla el software. TDF cuenta con varios órganos, entre los que se incluyen
Starting in January 2026, at the beginning of each quarter, i.e. in January, April, July and October, I will publish a slide deck with updated statistics on the LibreOffice project. Unless there are specific requirements, the statistics will refer to the last 12 calendar months. Therefore, the January statistics will
LibreOffice 26.2 will be released as final at the beginning of February, 2026 (check the Release Plan). LibreOffice 26.2 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) brings us closer to the final version, which will be preceded by Release Candidate 3 (RC3). Since the previous release, LibreOffice 26.2 RC1, 137 commits have been
por Italo Vignoli Cada vez que hablo con otros usuarios de tecnología —incluidos CTO, CSO y responsables de TIC, que en teoría deberían tener cierto nivel de conocimiento— me doy cuenta de que la mayoría nunca piensa en los estándares cuando utiliza aplicaciones, dispositivos o sitios web. Los usuarios solo
The Document Foundation (TDF) is the non-profit entity behind the LibreOffice project. It collects donations from users, and employs a small team to support and coordinate the worldwide community that makes the software. In TDF there are various bodies including the Board of Directors, Membership Committee, and the Board of
Happy new year 2026! I hope that this year will be great for you, and the global LibreOffice community, and the software itself! I hereby discuss the past year 2025, and the outlook for 2026 in the development blog.
At The Document Foundation (TDF), our aim is to improve LibreOffice, the leading free/open source office suite that has millions of users around the world. Our work is community-driven, and the software needs your contribution to become better, and work in a way that you like.
My goal here, is to help people understand LibreOffice code easier via EasyHacks and tutorials, and eventually participate in LibreOffice core development to make LibreOffice better for everyone. In 2025, I wrote 14 posts around LibreOffice development in the dev blog (4 of them are unpublished drafts).
Focus of the development blog for 2026 in this blog will be:
You can provide feedback simply by leaving a comment here, or sending me an email to hossein AT libreoffice DOT org.
We provide mentoring support to the individuals who want to start LibreOffice development. You are welcome to contact me if you need help to build LibreOffice and do some EasyHacks via the above email address. You may also refer to our Getting Involved Wiki page:
Let’s hope a better year for LibreOffice (and the world) in 2026.
Whenever I talk to other technology users — including CTOs, CSOs and ICT managers, who in theory should have a certain level of expertise — I realise that most of them never consider standards when using applications, devices or websites. Users just want everything to work, but they don’t realise
por Italo Vignoli Los estándares abiertos no suelen ocupar titulares. En cambio, trabajan silenciosamente en segundo plano para definir cómo se crea, comparte y almacena la información. Sin embargo, a medida que los ecosistemas digitales se vuelven más complejos y centralizados, los estándares abiertos adquieren una importancia cada vez mayor.
LibreOffice is available in over 120 languages – but we want to do more! Jonathan Clark recently joined the TDF team to improve LibreOffice’s support for RTL (right-to-left) and CTL (complex text layout) scripts. In this episode, he talks to Mike Saunders about his work, and how users can help
Open standards don’t make headlines. Instead, they work quietly behind the scenes to define how information is created, shared and stored. However, as digital ecosystems become more complex and centralised, open standards are becoming increasingly important. One of the best examples is the Open Document Format (ODF), the native format
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