How to open a .SXW file online
Three steps, a few seconds, no Office licence.
Choose your .SXW file
Drag your .SXW file onto the box, or click Choose file.
Supported
Your .SXW file is checked and laid out as a clean page right.
Read, search, save
Jump between headings, find any word, print it, or save the text as HTML or TXT.
What is a .SXW file?
Everything worth knowing about StarOffice / OpenOffice.org 1.x Writer document files.
An SXW file is a word-processing document from StarOffice or OpenOffice.org 1.x Writer (2002 to 2005), the direct predecessor of the .odt format. Open it for free in LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice; Microsoft Word cannot open .sxw directly. The standard next step is to save it as .odt or .docx to move it into a current format.
Programs that open .SXW files
| Full name | StarOffice / OpenOffice.org 1.x Writer document |
|---|---|
| Developer | Sun Microsystems (StarOffice / OpenOffice.org); the OpenOffice.org 1.0 XML format |
| First released | 2002 (OpenOffice.org 1.0 / StarOffice 6.0) |
| Category | Documents |
| MIME type | application/vnd.sun.xml.writer |
| Signature | 50 4B 03 04 ("PK" - standard ZIP local file header) |
Related viewers
Free, no sign-up.
Is my .SXW file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your .SXW file is read and converted for you. The first time, a small open-source conversion component is downloaded and then cached.
Why does my older .SXW file look plain?
Some older word-processor files keep their formatting in a complex binary layout. The viewer shows all the text and tables reliably; richer formatting for those files is coming with server-side conversion.
Are macros in a .SXW file safe here?
Yes. The viewer never runs macros. It only reads the document text, styles and images, and tells you when a file contains macros.
Can I edit my .SXW file?
This is a viewer. You can copy the text or save it as HTML/TXT and edit it elsewhere. An online editor is on our roadmap.
It says my .SXW file is something else. Why?
We check the file's signature, not just its name. If a file was renamed, the viewer tells you what it really is and which tool opens it.
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