Converting files
What changes when an ODT, ODS or ODP file becomes a PDF?
Exporting an OpenDocument file to PDF fixes its layout permanently: text and images are preserved, formulas become their results, styles become appearance, and anything that depended on a font your machine has must be embedded or substituted.
An OpenDocument file is still editable, and a PDF is finished. Everything that changes on the way comes from that.
What is kept
The text, as real text you can select, so it can still be searched and copied.
Images, at the resolution they were placed at.
The layout, exactly as it looked on the computer that did the export. That is the reason to make a PDF: the person you send it to sees what you saw.
What is flattened
Styles become appearance. "Heading 1" in an ODT is a style: change its definition and every heading in the document changes. In the PDF it is 16pt bold text at a fixed spot. It looks the same, but it is no longer linked to the style.
Spreadsheet formulas become their results. An ODS cell containing =SUM(B2:B40) exports as the number it currently shows. The formula is gone and the number stays. That is usually what you want when you share a file, but it is a surprise if you planned to keep working in it.
Presenter notes and animations, in ODP. A PDF can't play anything over time. Slides become pages, transitions vanish, and notes are either omitted or exported as a separate layout depending on the option chosen.
Tracked changes and comments. Depending on the export setting, these are either printed onto the page as visible marks or dropped. Check before sending anything sensitive. If tracked changes are visible in the PDF, anyone who gets it can see your edit history.
What can go wrong: fonts
This is the problem people run into most. If the document uses a font, the PDF can either include the font or only name it and hope the reader's computer has it. When the computer doesn't have it, the viewer uses a different font, and a different font has different widths. Lines break in new places and a carefully fitted table stops fitting.
Exporting with the fonts included avoids this, and the file is only a little larger. It is almost always worth it. See why fonts change for what that looks like when it goes wrong.
What to check after exporting
- Page count. A spreadsheet that was one screen can be nine pages. See content that does not fit the page width.
- The last page. Trailing empty rows in a spreadsheet often produce blank sheets.
- Select some text. If nothing highlights, the text was turned into an image.
- The fonts, if the layout matters. Open it on a different computer.
Converting the other way, from PDF back to an editable format, is much harder, because the structure was dropped at this step. That one is covered in why converting back is never perfect.
Common questions
Do my spreadsheet formulas survive?
No. Cells export as the values they currently display. Keep the ODS if you need to keep calculating.
Are presenter notes included from an ODP?
Only if you export a layout that includes them. The default is slides alone.
Why did the layout shift on someone else's computer?
A font was named but not included in the file, so their viewer used a different one with different widths. Including the fonts when you export prevents it.