Is there a way to edit open document format files (.odt, .ods, etc.) directly in Google Drive without converting them to Google Docs format? I would like to keep the documents in the open document format but still be able to edit them in Google Drive in the Browser (e.g. Chrome). If not, a LibreOffice Drive App would be a cool idea - just saying…
Your question does not make much sense. All documents edited by Google Docs (Google Drive is just a storage) are converted to its working format (whatever it is) and you can’t avoid it. However, you can download any text document (even when it was a Microsoft Office document originally) exported to ODT, just select the respective option. In my experience, ODT files have been quite good, i. e. no significant loss of formatting. Not sure about other formats.
No, once you start editing the document, GoogleDrive will create a duplicate Drive Doc with the same name as the document you uploaded. The original file can still be converted using third party services and the GoogleDrive Doc can be downloaded in Open Document format, but there is no way to keep it in Open Document format the entire time.
I just saw a “LibreOffice Editor” in the Chrome store (LibreOffice Editor - Chrome Web Store). Has anyone experience with this? Is it any good?