XML2ODF(1)

✨ NAME ✨

bestie, this is xml2odf — a lil user command that creates an ODF package from an OpenDocument file that's in XML form 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xml2odf [-o outputfile] [-s] [inputfile]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so picture this: an OpenDocument can be a whole entire office document sitting in one single XML file. no cap. This script takes a document like that and turns it into a package. It's mainly useful as a postprocesser of a program that produces XML — like a stylesheet, bestie, think of it as the glow-up step at the end of the pipeline ✨

Inputfile is assumed to be an OpenDocument file in XML form. If there's, like, no inputfile at all? Chill, the program just reads from standard input 🫶

The flag -s adds the correct suffix to the filename according to what mime type is found in the XML file — this is for when you don't already know what document type you're packaging. we love a mystery-solving flag 👑

If the output file isn't specified, output goes to standard out. simple as that 💅

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🎀 the whole content.xml / styles.xml situation 🎀

Section 2.1.1 of Open Document Format for Office Applications says that the [content.xml] file contains the document content, plus the automatic styles needed for the document content. Meanwhile the [styles.xml] file contains all the named styles of a document, along with the automatic styles needed for those named styles. The application genuinely doesn't know which automatic style is needed for what, so it just puts the same set of automatic styles into both files. it's giving "idk so here's everything" 😭

You'd think the inverse operation would be easier, right? like, obviously?? but no — OpenOffice.org is lowkey quite happy to use the same names for two different automatic styles. For instance, a style used inside <style:footer> can have the same name as one used inside <office:text> but be a totally different paragraph style. iconic behaviour, honestly. This is reported as bug #90494 (http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=90494) 💀

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🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

xml2odf -o testdocument -s xml-file

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• odftools(1)
• odf2xml(1)

go read those too, bestie, iykyk 📚

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💀 BUGS 💀

• Doesn't handle external data — images and such. so like, no pics, sorry babes 🖼️❌
• The library used for the parsing of XML expands empty elements from <element/> to <element></element>. It should not have an effect on the document parsing. (should not!! we're manifesting it's fine 🙈)

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Søren Roug

• Original author 👑

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lowkey that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this one comes from odfpy, dated 02/11/2025 — stay slaying, and may all your packages be valid 🌈✨🎀

XML2ODF(1) — periodt 👑