ODT File Manager

Local ODT document creation and editing powered by odfdo.

Library: odfdo v3.20+ — actively maintained, single dep (lxml), full ODF support.

Required Setup

pip install odfdo

Skill Boundaries

This skill is purely local — it has no network access and knows nothing about NextCloud.

For NextCloud workflows, pair with nextcloud-aio-oc:

Step	Skill
Find file on NextCloud	`nextcloud-aio-oc` → `node scripts/nextcloud.js files search`
Download binary ODT	`nextcloud-aio-oc` → `python3 scripts/files_binary.py download`
Edit / create ODT	`odt-filemgr-oc` → `python3 scripts/odt_tool.py ...`
Upload binary ODT	`nextcloud-aio-oc` → `python3 scripts/files_binary.py upload`

Scripts live at: ~/.openclaw/skills/odt-filemgr-oc/scripts/

Workflows

Edit an existing ODT (NextCloud)

NC=~/.openclaw/skills/nextcloud-aio-oc/scripts
ODT=~/.openclaw/skills/odt-filemgr-oc/scripts

# 1. Download
python3 $NC/files_binary.py download "/Documents/MyDoc.odt" /tmp/MyDoc.odt

# 2. Inspect
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py inspect /tmp/MyDoc.odt

# 3. Edit
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py append /tmp/MyDoc.odt --text "New Section" --heading 2
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py append /tmp/MyDoc.odt --text "Section content here."

# 4. Upload back
python3 $NC/files_binary.py upload /tmp/MyDoc.odt "/Documents/MyDoc.odt"

Create a new ODT and push to NextCloud

# 1. Create locally
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py create /tmp/NewDoc.odt --title "Q1 Report"

# 2. Add content
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py append /tmp/NewDoc.odt --text "Summary" --heading 2
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py append /tmp/NewDoc.odt --text "Results were positive across all metrics."

# 3. Push to NextCloud
python3 $NC/files_binary.py upload /tmp/NewDoc.odt "/Documents/Q1 Report.odt"

Edit a local ODT (no NextCloud)

python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py inspect   myfile.odt
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py to-text   myfile.odt
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py append    myfile.odt --text "Added paragraph."
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py replace   myfile.odt --find "draft" --sub "final"
python3 $ODT/odt_tool.py set-meta  myfile.odt --title "Final Report"

odt_tool.py Commands

Command	Description
`inspect <file>`	Show metadata + paragraph/heading/table structure
`to-text <file>`	Extract all text content in document order
`create <file> [--title T]`	Create blank ODT (optional H1 title)
`append <file> --text T [--heading N] [--style S]`	Append heading (N=1–6) or paragraph
`replace <file> --find F --sub S [--regex]`	Find and replace text
`set-meta <file> [--title T] [--subject S] [--description D]`	Update metadata
`set-font <file> --font F [--size N] [--no-preserve-mono]`	Set font across all style layers (default + all named/inline overrides)
`set-outline <file> --numbered \| --plain`	Toggle heading numbering (1.1.1 or none)
`merge-styles <file> --template T`	Apply all styles from a template ODT

Custom Python Edits

For table edits, style changes, or multi-step operations, write inline Python:

from odfdo import Document, Header, Paragraph

doc = Document("/tmp/file.odt")
body = doc.body

# Read all content in order
for child in body.children:
    if isinstance(child, Header):
        print(f"H{child.level}: {child.inner_text}")
    elif isinstance(child, Paragraph) and child.inner_text.strip():
        print(f"[{child.style}]: {child.inner_text}")

# Add content
body.append(Header(2, "New Section"))
body.append(Paragraph("Content here."))

# Table edit
table = body.get_table_by_name("MyTable")
table.set_value(0, 0, "Updated cell")

doc.save("/tmp/file.odt", pretty=True)

For the full odfdo API (tables, lists, spans, styles, metadata), see REFERENCE.md.

Key Rules

Always inspect before editing a file you haven't seen.
Temp files: use /tmp/ for working files; clean up after upload.
Styles: for complex style systems (colors, spacing, borders), use merge-styles with a template rather than generating styles from scratch. set-font and set-outline work safely on any document without a template.

Troubleshooting

Error	Fix
`ModuleNotFoundError: odfdo`	`pip install odfdo`
`zipfile.BadZipFile`	File corrupted or not a real ODT — re-download
Heading doesn't appear as H1	Use `Header(1, "text")`, not `Paragraph("text", style="Heading 1")`
Font still shows as Liberation in Collabora	ODT has 6 font attributes per style rule. Old approach only set 3 (`style:font-name-*`). Collabora renders from `fo:font-family` — now all 6 are set. Re-run `set-font`.
Font name must match exactly	LibreOffice/Collabora font names are case-sensitive: `"Noto Sans"` not `"noto sans"`
`set-outline` changes not visible	Some documents override numbering via paragraph styles — use `merge-styles` with a clean template instead

ODT File Manager & Editor