What is an SXW file?
An .SXW file is a legacy word processing document format. It is best known as a StarOffice Writer Document. Originally developed by StarDivision, the format was later acquired and maintained by Oracle and Sun Microsystems. It served as the default document format for early versions of OpenOffice.org. Under the surface, an .SXW file uses ZIP compression to bundle XML text data, images, and page formatting into a single archive.
How to open SXW files
Because .SXW is an older format, many modern word processors do not support it natively. You can open these files using open-source suites like Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Since the file is fundamentally a compressed archive, technical users can also rename the .SXW extension to .ZIP and extract the contents using tools like 7-Zip to inspect the raw XML files.
Best practices and conversions
If you need to share a StarOffice Writer Document with other people, you should convert it to a more widely supported format. We recommend using convert.guru to convert your .SXW files into modern targets like .DOCX, .ODT, or .PDF.
Summary
While most .SXW files are legacy text documents, viewer.online/sxw analyzes .SXW files to identify their exact format and creator software, shows which programs can open the file, and usually previews it. This ensures you always know the actual format of your file. Ultimately, viewer.online/sxw directly opens and previews .SXW files in the browser, eliminating the need to install legacy software or troubleshoot compatibility issues.