DOCX creation, editing, and analysis
A .docx is a ZIP archive of XML files. Choose your approach by task:
| Task | Approach |
|---|---|
| Create a new document | Write a docx (npm) script — see gotchas below |
| Edit an existing document | unzip → edit word/document.xml → zip (docx-js cannot open existing files) |
| Read content | pandoc -t markdown file.docx |
Script paths below are relative to this skill's directory.
Creating with docx-js — gotchas
docx is preinstalled — do not run npm install first; write the script and require('docx') directly. Only if that require fails: npm install docx. The model knows the API; these are the footguns:
- Page size defaults to A4. For US Letter set
page: { size: { width: 12240, height: 15840 } }(DXA; 1440 = 1″). - Landscape: pass portrait dimensions and
orientation: PageOrientation.LANDSCAPE— docx-js swaps width/height internally. - Tables need dual widths: set
columnWidthson the table ANDwidthon every cell, both inWidthType.DXA(PERCENTAGE breaks in Google Docs). Column widths must sum to the table width. - Table shading: use
ShadingType.CLEAR, neverSOLID(rende…