Anthropic skill

docx

Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.

| Task | Approach | |------|----------| | Read/analyze content | `pandoc` or unpack for raw XML | | Create new document | Use `docx-js` - see Creating New Documents below | | Edit existing document | Unpack → edit XML → repack - see Editing Existing Documents below |
#pdf
#documents
#data
#analysis
#docx
Last updated

4 months ago

Repository path

skills/docx

Source files

3

Use cases

| Task | Approach | |------|----------| | Read/analyze content | `pandoc` or unpack for raw XML | | Create new document | Use `docx-js` - see Creating New Documents below | | Edit existing document | Unpack → edit XML → repack - see Editing Existing Documents below |
**Landscape orientation:** docx-js swaps width/height internally, so pass portrait dimensions and let it handle the swap: ```javascript size: { width: 12240, // Pass SHORT edge as width height: 15840, // Pass LONG edge as height orientation: PageOrientation.LANDSCAPE // docx-js swaps them in the XML }, // Content width = 15840 - left margin - right margin (uses the long edge) ```
Use Arial as the default font (universally supported). Keep titles black for readability.
```javascript const doc = new Document({ styles: { default: { document: { run: { font: "Arial", size: 24 } } }, // 12pt default paragraphStyles: [ // IMPORTANT: Use exact IDs to override built-in styles { id: "Heading1", name: "Heading 1", basedOn: "Normal", next: "Normal", quickFormat: true, run: { size: 32, bold: true, font: "Arial" }, paragraph: { spacing: { before: 240, after: 240 }, outlineLevel: 0 } }, // outlineLevel required for TOC { id: "Heading2", name: "Heading 2", basedOn: "Normal", next: "Normal", quickFormat: true, run: { size: 28, bold: true, font: "Arial" }, paragraph: { spacing: { before: 180, after: 180 }, outlineLevel: 1 } }, ] }, sections: [{ children: [ new Paragraph({ heading: HeadingLevel.HEADING_1, children: [new TextRun("Title")] }), ] }] }); ```
### Lists (NEVER use unicode bullets)

Install / setup

```javascript const { Document, Packer, Paragraph, TextRun, Table, TableRow, TableCell, ImageRun, Header, Footer, AlignmentType, PageOrientation, LevelFormat, ExternalHyperlink, InternalHyperlink, Bookmark, FootnoteReferenceRun, PositionalTab, PositionalTabAlignment, PositionalTabRelativeTo, PositionalTabLeader, TabStopType, TabStopPosition, Column, SectionType, TableOfContents, HeadingLevel, BorderStyle, WidthType, ShadingType, VerticalAlign, PageNumber, PageBreak } = require('docx'); const doc = new Document({ sections: [{ children: [/* content */] }] }); Packer.toBuffer(doc).then(buffer => fs.writeFileSync("doc.docx", buffer)); ```

Overview

A .docx file is a ZIP archive containing XML files.

Quick Reference

| Task | Approach | |------|----------| | Read/analyze content | `pandoc` or unpack for raw XML | | Create new document | Use `docx-js` - see Creating New Documents below | | Edit existing document | Unpack → edit XML → repack - see Editing Existing Documents below |

Converting .doc to .docx

Legacy `.doc` files must be converted before editing: ```bash python scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to docx document.doc ```

Reading Content

```bash

Text extraction with tracked changes

pandoc --track-changes=all document.docx -o output.md

Repository files