How to Extract Plain Text From an ODT Document

Sometimes you only need the words from a document: to paste into an email, a form or a content management system, or to run a word count. Formatting just gets in the way.

Quick answer

Add an ODT file and copy the plain text or save it as a .txt file. Your file is not uploaded.

Use cases

• Pasting content into an online form that does not accept formatting.
• Moving text into a blog or CMS without style clutter.
• Word counts and reading-time estimates.
• Archiving text in a format that will always open.
• Feeding text into other tools such as translators and text-to-speech.

Steps

1. Open the tool.
2. Choose the ODT file.
3. Copy the text or download a TXT.

What is lost

• Fonts, colours, sizes and styles.
• Images and drawings.
• Page layout, headers and footers.
• Table borders (cell contents appear as text).

Tips

• To keep headings and structure, convert to Word or PDF instead.
• Check line breaks if the text is destined for a plain-text system.
• Bangla and other Unicode text is preserved.