wordcraft/docs/odt-element-audit.md

ODT element audit

Last reviewed: 2026-11-04 · Last updated: 2026-11-04 · Change: trivial (paragraphs tied together kept as read as groups); previously trivial (paragraphs with charts kept as read); previously trivial (sections in table cells and at empty paragraphs kept); previously trivial (password, number, time and grid form controls kept); previously minor (first version: every element of the ODF 1.3 schema against two corpora and a generated sample of each element never seen)

Every element the ODF 1.3 schema (OASIS, Part 3, RELAX NG) defines, checked against what WordCraft's ODT reader and writer do with it. The question for each: does a file holding it open, and does a save without edits keep it? (See file-format-parity.md for what WordCraft models; markup it doesn't model is written back as read while unedited: odf-interpretation.md.)

Method

1. The schema: its 596 element names, by namespace.
2. Two corpora (kept locally, not in the repository): 133 documents (LibreOffice's templates, bug-tracker and converter files, documents made for the checks) and 232 from the ODF Toolkit's and Calligra's test data, made by Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, LibreOffice, Calligra/KOffice, Lotus Symphony and others. Each is opened and saved by WordCraft, both copies are rendered by LibreOffice and compared page by page and by text, and a loss check lists every element, attribute and value the saved file has fewer of.
3. Elements no file held: a small document of our own for each one a text document can hold, opened and saved by WordCraft without edits and with an edit, each saved copy checked well-formed and opened in LibreOffice.

Namespaces

Namespace	Elements	Seen in a file	Note
text:	174	124
table:	98	11	most are a spreadsheet's (ranges, pivot tables, database ranges); a text document's tables use few
draw:	44	27
style:	43	42
office:	28	23
form:	30	13
number:	27	18
svg:	10	2
dc:	6	6
meta:	15	14
config:	5	5	settings.xml, kept as read
script:	1	1
math:	1	1	MathML, in formula objects
xforms:	1	0
chart:	25	18	charts, read from their own objects
dr3d:	6	0	3D scenes, kept as read with their paragraph
presentation:	20	6	presentations (a text document holds none)
anim:	12	0	presentations
db:	50	0	databases only

Elements no file held, a text document can

Each in a document of our own: it opens, saves without edits keeping it, and saves with an edit; every saved copy is well-formed and LibreOffice opens it.

Element	Unedited save
draw:contour-path	kept
draw:glue-point	kept
draw:image-map	kept
draw:plugin	kept
form:connection-resource	kept
form:grid	kept (as read, with its columns; LibreOffice opens the saved file, though its PDF export of a grid control fails whenever a document has automatic styles, ours or its own)
form:list-value	kept (the sample held none; a list box's values are kept with the form)
form:password	kept (as read)
number:boolean-style	kept
number:embedded-text	kept
number:era	kept
number:fill-character	kept
number:fraction	kept
number:percentage-style	kept
number:quarter	kept
number:week-of-year	kept
style:region-center	kept
text:alphabetical-index-auto-mark-file	kept with its index (as read)
text:author-initials	kept
text:creation-time	kept
text:drop-down	kept
text:editing-cycles	kept
text:editing-duration	kept
text:expression	kept
text:hidden-paragraph	kept
text:linenumbering-separator	kept
text:meta-field	kept
text:modification-time	kept
text:note-continuation-notice-forward	kept
text:object-index	kept
text:page-variable-get	kept
text:page-variable-set	kept
text:print-time	kept
text:printed-by	kept
text:sender-country	kept
text:sender-initials	kept
text:sender-phone-private	kept
text:sender-title	kept
text:sort-key	kept
text:table-formula	kept
text:table-index	kept
text:toc-mark-start	kept
text:toc-mark	kept
text:user-field-input	kept
text:user-index-mark-start	kept
text:user-index-mark	kept
text:user-index	kept

Found, fixed

The check found these, each fixed with a test (see file-format-parity.md, 2026-11-03 and 2026-11-04):

• A file the package held without a media type (another application's, LibreOffice's empty accelerator configuration) was written without its manifest entry, and LibreOffice refused the saved file.
• A section hidden with text:display="none" showed its text once written without the section.
• A reference mark was written as a bookmark only, so references to it found nothing.
• Lists lost what a paragraph's markup can't say (a label followed by a space, picture bullets, an unnumbered header): unedited lists are now kept as read.
• Styles of different families, and list styles, sharing a name overwrote each other among the definitions kept.
• A form's data source (form:connection-resource) was taken for a control; index marks over text, plugins and floating frames weren't kept.
• Password, number, time and grid form controls (ODF 1.3 §13.5), of kinds WordCraft doesn't model, were dropped; they are kept as read, in their place in the text, as buttons and image controls were.

Left

• A paragraph showing a form control: written from the model, which keeps what WordCraft models of it.
• Calligra's page sequence (text:page-sequence, a layout of fixed pages) and numbered paragraphs (text:numbered-paragraph): read as text, written from the model.
• Soft page breaks between paragraphs (a layout hint LibreOffice recomputes) and unused automatic styles: not written.

Revision history

Date	Change	What
2026-11-04	minor	First version
2026-11-04	trivial	Password, number, time and grid form controls kept
2026-11-04	trivial	Sections in table cells and at empty paragraphs kept
2026-11-04	trivial	Paragraphs with charts kept as read
2026-11-04	trivial	Paragraphs tied together (a comment, a change or a mark reaching into another, linked text boxes) kept as read as groups