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.
A .docx file is a ZIP archive containing XML files.
| 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 |
Legacy .doc files must be converted before editing:
python <Skill directory>/scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to docx document.doc
# Text extraction with tracked changes
pandoc --track-changes=all document.docx -o output.md
# Raw XML access
python <Skill directory>/scripts/office/unpack.py document.docx unpacked/
python <Skill directory>/scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to pdf document.docx
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 document.pdf page
To produce a clean document with all tracked changes accepted (requires LibreOffice):
python <Skill directory>/scripts/accept_changes.py input.docx output.docx
Generate .docx files with JavaScript, then validate. Install: npm install -g docx
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));
After creating the file, validate it. If validation fails, unpack, fix the XML, and repack.
python <Skill directory>/scripts/office/validate.py doc.docx
// CRITICAL: docx-js defaults to A4, not US Letter
// Always set page size explicitly for consistent results