wordcraft/docs/odf-interpretation.md

How WordCraft interprets OpenDocument files

Last reviewed: 2026-11-02 · Last updated: 2026-11-03 · Change: major (new: the ODF interpretation profile and the list of every case)

OpenDocument (ODF 1.3, OASIS) leaves some of a document's look to the application. Part 3 §16.2 says that when no style sets a property and the standard gives no default, "an implementation-dependent value is used". So a file can look different in WordCraft, LibreOffice, Google Docs and ONLYOFFICE without anyone being wrong. This page lists every such case WordCraft knows of, so none gets lost.

The rule

1. What the standard defines is law. WordCraft follows it whatever the settings say. That includes fo: properties, which the standard defines by referring to XSL 1.0, for their meaning. Whether such a reference also brings XSL's initial value as the default the standard doesn't say; where an application's choice differs from XSL's (page margins), the case is a setting, with XSL's value as WordCraft's.
2. What the standard leaves open is a setting. Each such case is one value of the ODF interpretation profile (OdfProfile, crates/doc/src/odf_profile.rs):
   • WordCraft, the default: what WordCraft does for its own and Word documents.
   • LibreOffice: what LibreOffice (and Collabora, which shares its engine) does. Measured black-box in LibreOffice 24 where it isn't documented.
   • Custom: the user's own value for each case. It starts from the preset that was in use.
3. A value the file states is the file's. A preset never replaces it: the profile only fills in what the file (its styles, defaults and settings.xml) leaves unsaid. Three cases are not missing values but stated ones whose meaning the standard leaves open: how a header's stated height and spacing combine, what a stated width of 0 draws at, and a frame position stated against something the standard doesn't define for its anchor. They are marked (meaning) below. formats::odt::tests_more::profile checks that stated values survive every preset.
4. The profile applies to ODF files (.odt, .ott, .fodt) as they are opened. A document keeps what it was opened with. Changing the setting affects the next file opened.

Where to set it:

Interface	How
App	File › Options › Advanced › OpenDocument files
Command	file.options {"odf": {"preset": "libreoffice"}}, or one case's value: {"odf": {"columnGap": 18}} (this makes the profile custom)
MCP	the same command
CLI	WORDCRAFT_ODF=wordcraft|libreoffice

Cases the standard leaves open (the profile)

Case	Standard	Setting (file.options odf.*)	WordCraft	LibreOffice
Page margins a page layout doesn't state	§20.206–20.209 refer to XSL §7.10 (initial value 0); whether that default comes with the reference is not said	pageMargin	0 (XSL's initial value)	2 cm (its own files always state theirs; some of its templates don't)
Height of a header or footer whose style states none	§20.212.2 fo:min-height: no default	headerMinHeight	0 (as tall as its text)	0.5 cm
(meaning) Whether a header's stated minimum height includes its stated spacing from the body	§20.212.2, §20.207: not said	headerHeightIncludesSpacing	no: spacing comes after the height	yes
A header taller than its height with style:dynamic-spacing unstated	§20.264: no default	dynamicSpacing	off: the spacing is kept (on, with no height stated, would always drop the spacing the file states)	off
Where paragraph tab stops, default ones too, are measured from when settings.xml doesn't say	§19.512.3 style:position doesn't say; §19.861 covers only indexes	tabsFromIndent	the margin (as Word; ONLYOFFICE's files mean this too)	the paragraph's left indent (its TabsRelativeToIndent default): explicit stops, the default stops every interval and the hanging indent's stop all move with the indent (measured)
Gap between columns when style:columns states none	§19.233 fo:column-gap: no default (and explicitly not XSL's)	columnGap	0.5 in (Word's)	0
A drawing shape's fill colour when no style gives one	§20.119 draw:fill-color: no default	shapeFill	#156082 (WordCraft's shape blue)	#729FCF
A drawing shape's line colour when no style gives one	§20.408 svg:stroke-color: no default	shapeLine	#0E405A	#3465A4
A shape's line width when unstated, and (meaning) what a stated width of 0 (a hairline) draws at	§20.410 svg:stroke-width: no default	hairline	0.25 pt	0.5 pt
(meaning) A page-anchored frame positioned against a paragraph or character	§20.299, §20.398 Table 23: combination not defined	pageFrameParagraphIsPage	the page's text area	the page's edge
(meaning) An in-line frame positioned against a paragraph or page	§20.398 Table 23: combination not defined	inlineInvalidRelationIsBaseline	stands on the baseline	positioned against the baseline (raised by its offset)
Height of a line holding only in-line pictures	no line-height algorithm in the standard	pictureLinesFitPictures	as tall as its text would be too	as tall as the pictures
How the space between two paragraphs adds up when the document doesn't say	not defined (fo:margin-top/-bottom refer to XSL's margins; whether XSL's space resolution, which keeps the larger, comes with them is not said); LibreOffice's AddParaTableSpacing setting says when present (false: the larger)	sumParagraphSpacing	the larger of the two (as Word)	their sum
Widow and orphan control when neither the default paragraph style, Standard nor the paragraph's style states fo:widows/fo:orphans	§20.312, §20.244 refer to XSL's widows and orphans (initial value 2); whether that default comes with the reference is not said	widowControl	on: 2 lines (XSL's initial value, and Word's)	off (a first or last line can stand alone at a page's edge)
(meaning) Whether a columned section's columns end balanced when nothing follows it on the page, and when it doesn't say	§20.428 text:dont-balance-text-columns: no default, and its value descriptions contradict its name (WordCraft reads the name; so does LibreOffice)	balanceSectionColumns	as Word: only when text follows on the same page	balanced

Law: what the standard defines and WordCraft follows whatever the profile

Case	Rule	Note
Paragraph padding on a side without a border	fo:padding (§20.217) is XSL's box model: padding takes room whether or not there is a border	Word ignores padding without a border. ODF documents don't.
A frame's style:run-through when unstated	§20.351: foreground
style:dynamic-spacing="true"/"false" when stated	§20.264	WordCraft writes false when a header or footer has spacing, so every reader keeps it.

Open in the standard, and the same in every preset

These are documented so they aren't mistaken for law:

Case	Standard	What WordCraft does
Paper size when no page layout states one	not defined	the region's paper (Letter in the US, A4 elsewhere), as for new documents
style:wrap unstated on a frame	§20.400: no default	text wraps on both sides (LibreOffice too)
A drawing shape's draw:fill / draw:stroke unstated	§20.118, §20.167: no default	solid (LibreOffice too); a text frame's are none; the colours are in the profile
A document's default font and size when no default style gives them	not defined	WordCraft's defaults

How WordCraft writes ODF

WordCraft writes files that every reader takes the same way. It states what the standard leaves open instead of relying on any application's default:

• header and footer heights, with style:dynamic-spacing="false" when there is spacing;
• a frame's placement as an explicit position against the page or paragraph;
• in-line pictures standing on the baseline;
• tab stops measured as the file it was opened from measured them (TabsRelativeToIndent in settings.xml), from the margin for WordCraft's own documents;
• widow and orphan control, on or off, in the default paragraph style.

Known differences between WordCraft's and LibreOffice's layout of the same file

Found by saving WordCraft's own documents as ODT and opening them in LibreOffice. These aren't choices the file can state, so the presets don't cover them:

• Footers. Word, and WordCraft for its own documents, places a footer's text so it ends at the footer's distance from the bottom of the page. ODF places it at the top of the footer area. A one-line footer in a 1 inch bottom margin sits about 20 pt higher in LibreOffice. Matching it would need the footer's text height when writing, and would depend on how a footer's height and spacing combine, which is one of the cases above.
• Proportional line spacing. Both draw the same distance from line to line. Word puts the extra space of a multiple (say 1.15) above the text, LibreOffice below it. Where the font size changes (a heading after body text) the two differ by a few points.
• Leader dots in a table of contents start right after the text in LibreOffice and after a small gap in WordCraft.
• Line breaks after a slash. LibreOffice breaks a long path after a /; WordCraft, as Word, keeps the text after a slash with it and breaks such a word where it must. The standard doesn't define line breaking; this could become a setting.
• Objects that may not overlap text (style:wrap="none" with several on one paragraph): LibreOffice moves them down by its own rules (draw:wrap-influence-on-position).

Not implemented

LibreOffice refreshes fixed dates and fills in the user's sender fields when it opens a template (.ott) to make a new document. That is application behaviour, not something the file defines. WordCraft opens a template as it is.

Other applications

Google Docs and ONLYOFFICE files were checked for cases they rely on (November 2026, nine files from public bug reports and ONLYOFFICE's converter test snapshots):

• Google Docs exports through a LibreOffice build (its generator reads LibreOfficeDev/6.0). It states its page size and margins, writes TabsRelativeToIndent=false, and its default graphic style states LibreOffice's colours. Its headers are empty styles with no content. Nothing in these files depends on the profile beyond what the LibreOffice preset covers.
• ONLYOFFICE states page size and margins only. It has no header styles and no default graphic style. It writes tab stops with no TabsRelativeToIndent and means "from the margin" (its documents come from Word's model), which is WordCraft's default.

So neither needs a preset of its own yet. If later files show cases where they differ, a preset is one more OdfPreset with its values, and the cases above stay the same.

Revision history

Date	Change
2026-11-03	Tabs measured from the indent: default stops count from the indent too (measured in LibreOffice), in WordCraft's layout, and a file measuring tabs so is written back so (it was written from the margin, moving LibreOffice's default stops).
2026-11-03	Widow and orphan control a file doesn't state (widowControl): WordCraft as XSL's initial value, LibreOffice off. WordCraft writes it on its default style either way.
2026-11-03	Known layout differences listed.
2026-11-03	Paragraph spacing (sumParagraphSpacing); a file's AddParaTableSpacing is followed, and WordCraft writes it. WordCraft's settings.xml now declares the ooo namespace, without which LibreOffice ignored all of its settings.
2026-11-03	Section column balancing (balanceSectionColumns); §20.428's contradiction recorded. WordCraft writes text:dont-balance-text-columns on every columned section.
2026-11-02	Unstated page margins are a setting (pageMargin: WordCraft 0, XSL's initial value; LibreOffice 2 cm), not law: the standard refers to XSL's margins without saying whether XSL's default comes too.
2026-11-02	First version: the profile, the open cases, law cases, writer choices, Google Docs and ONLYOFFICE findings. Stated values are never replaced by a preset; the cases about the meaning of stated values are marked.