Convert Word 97–2003 (DOC) to OpenDocument Text
Free online converter for Word 97–2003 (DOC) files. ISO-standard open document format. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
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Upload a Word 97–2003 (DOC) file to convert it to OpenDocument Text. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About DOC and ODT
Word 97–2003 (DOC) .doc
Word's pre-2007 binary format. Still common in long-lived archives, and still readable, but superseded by DOCX for nearly twenty years.
Good for
- Readable by very old Office installations
- Common throughout older document archives
Trade-offs
- Opaque binary format with a difficult history
- Larger than the equivalent DOCX
- Newer features simply do not exist in it
application/msword
OpenDocument Text .odt
The OpenDocument text format — an ISO-standardised, vendor-neutral alternative to DOCX, and the native format of LibreOffice.
Good for
- An open standard, not tied to one vendor
- Native to LibreOffice and OpenOffice
- Preferred or mandated by many public bodies
Trade-offs
- Word opens it but does not always round-trip it cleanly
- Less common in commercial workflows
application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text
DOC and ODT side by side
| DOC | ODT | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Binary, uncompressed | Zipped XML |
| Animation | No | No |
| Typically used for | Legacy archives and older Office files | LibreOffice documents, public-sector exchange |
What changes when you convert DOC to ODT
Rendered by LibreOffice
The conversion runs through headless LibreOffice — the same engine behind the desktop suite, not a lookalike parser. It handles ordinary documents faithfully. Where it can drift is on the elaborate: a document leaning on fonts the server does not have will have them substituted, and the substitute rarely occupies exactly the same width, so line and page breaks can move. Heavily designed layouts are worth checking against the original.
DOC is the pre-2007 binary format
Microsoft replaced DOC with its XML-based successor in Office 2007, and support has been quietly eroding since — recent versions of Office block these files by default on security grounds, because the old binary format can carry macros in ways that are hard to inspect. Converting is usually the right move for anything you intend to keep. Macros are not carried across.
Two suites, two ideas of the same document
DOC and ODT are the native formats of different office suites, and they do not model documents identically. The text, structure and ordinary formatting come across cleanly. The margins are where care is needed: macros do not transfer, tracked changes and comments can be flattened, and features with no counterpart on the other side are approximated. Read the result before sending it on.
Comments and tracked changes
Editorial metadata is the first thing to go in a format conversion: comments, tracked changes and revision history rarely have an equivalent in ODT and are generally dropped or flattened into the text. Treat the output as a clean copy of the current state of the document. If the review history matters, keep the DOC alongside it.