Files with the ODS file extension are primarily linked to Sun Microsystems Inc’s Open Office or Star Office Calc applications. This file format is part of Office applications and stands for “open Document Specification” or “Open Document Spreadsheet”.
An ODS file in this format contains data which are stored in the XML-based Open Document format. This allows seamless interchange of files among various applications. Just like similar file extensions such as WKS or XLS, ODS files contain information that are stored in columns and rows. And like XLS files, individual data items located in ODS file cells can be referenced using the column letter and the row number like A1 or B3. Aside from this, ODS files can also contain charts, graphs and images like XLS files.
Another possibility, though not that common, is that ODS could also indicate a Microsoft Outlooki Express mailbox that stores saved or archived emails. In this possibility, the ODS file extension becomes closely similar to the more typical mailbox DBX file as used by several versions of Microsoft Outlook Express.
ODS files can be accessed using any Open Document compatible program but these files are native to both Star Office Calc and Open Office Calc and can be opened and edited using MS Excel as long as it was pre-installed with the OpenXML/ODF Translator add-in. Below is the list of all other applications that can open an ODS file:
| Mac OS | OpenOffice
Planamesa NeoOffice LibreOffice |
| Windows | OpenOffice
LibreOffice Microsoft Excel Microsoft Outlook Express |
