Is there a system to generate ODT documents from a markup-like language?

Question

I would like (well, am forced by my work environment) to create ODT documents (really MS Word docs, but we can get there from ODT). However, I don't like the WYSIWYG document creation paradigm. I like proper control over my styles and document structure. I am a LaTeX user, but while LaTeX→ODT is possible, it is difficult and fragile, and I don't expect the tools to do this to mature any time soon.

Therefore, I would like to know, is there a script-like environment for generating ODT documents, that is similar in principle to the LaTeX workflow, and lets you easily control the style and formatting of documents (for example, to match a company document template)?

Ideally the system will have support for:

• Writing nicely formatted equations
• Firmly controlling the document structure
• Control of the style of the document, such as fonts, formatting of headings at different levels, header and footers sections of pages etc. i.e. everything that makes up a normal word-processed document
• Inserting figures and images

Answer 1

pandoc has already been mentioned... it is also my favorite tool for this kind of task.

But missing in the previous answer was the following important fact about Pandoc:

• command line parameter: --reference-odt=...
  for example: --reference-odt=myref.odt

Pandoc will read the styles defined in myref.odt and apply them to the ODT output document it generates.

It may not work perfectly, or not work well for very-very-very weird custom company styles. But helps a lot when it comes to easily get styles which are different from the defaults into your output ODT documents.

The OP wrote in a comment: "I'm aware of Pandoc, but does it do what I'm asking? "

Yes it does:

• "Writing nicely formatted equations?"
  Yes, just insert the LaTeX equation into the Markdown sources in between $ characters without any spaces, like this:
  $\cos (2\theta) = \cos^2 \theta - \sin^2 \theta$.

• "Firmly controlling the document structure?"
  Yes, it does. (Well, I didn't really fully understand what exactly you mean by this, but I'm going to confirm it anyway! :)

• "Control of the style of the document...?"
  Yes, see above --reference-odt=myref.odt parameter explained above.

• "Inserting figures and images?"
  Yes! -- Insert an image like this (on a line of its own, separated by blank lines):

  ![image description](./path/to/image.png)
  

Answer 2

I think that it would be a good idea to take a look at using Markdown or ReStructuredText + Pandoc - You can use markdown/rst just like you do on SO and then convert it to any of a number of document formats, including ODT and MS .docx while the extended markdown is very flexible and powerful.

Pandoc input and output formats:

Input formats:  docbook, haddock, html, json, latex, markdown, markdown_github,
                markdown_mmd, markdown_phpextra, markdown_strict, mediawiki,
                native, opml, org, rst, textile
Output formats: asciidoc, beamer, context, docbook, docx, dzslides, epub,
                epub3, fb2, html, html5, icml, json, latex, man, markdown,
                markdown_github, markdown_mmd, markdown_phpextra,
                markdown_strict, mediawiki, native, odt, opendocument, 
                opml,org, pdf*, plain, revealjs, rst, rtf, s5, slideous, 
                slidy, texinfo, textile