OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), a nonprofit, global standards body that develops open standards and open-source projects used across industries and governments, has approved the Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications Version 1.4 as an official OASIS Standard.
ODF is an open, XML-based, vendor-neutral, royalty-free file format for office documents, such as text, spreadsheets, and presentations, that ensures documents remain readable and editable across different software, platforms, and devices.
It is widely used by governments and public-sector institutions worldwide, including NATO and the European Commission, and serves as the native format for many open-source office suites, including LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice.
The new ODF 1.4 maintains full backward compatibility while improving developer clarity and expanding the capabilities of text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
The update focuses on accessibility, offering better support for assistive technologies, and refines professional document formatting through enhanced visual design options. Additional improvements address advanced functionality required for data analysis, technical documentation, and multimedia-rich workflows.
Patrick Durusau, co-chair of the OpenDocument Technical Committee, noted that the release builds directly on ODF 1.3 by clarifying existing definitions and extending the specification to support modern requirements. ODF is structured as a multi-part standard:
- Part 1 introduces the format’s purpose and conventions.
- Part 2 defines the ZIP-based package format, explaining how content, styles, metadata, images, and embedded media are stored within ODF documents.
- Part 3 outlines the XML schema that describes the structure of documents across text, spreadsheet, presentation, and graphics applications.
- Part 4 defines OpenFormula, the standardized syntax and behavior for spreadsheet formulas, ensuring consistent interpretation across different implementations.
For more information, see the announcement.
