docx4j

README

What is docx4j?

docx4j is an open source (Apache v2) library for creating, editing, and saving OpenXML "packages", including docx, pptx, and xslx.

It uses JAXB to create the Java representation.

• Open existing docx/pptx/xlsx
• Create new docx/pptx/xlsx
• Programmatically manipulate docx/pptx/xlsx (anything the file format allows)
• Document generation via variable, content control data binding, or MERGEFIELD
• CustomXML binding (with support for pictures, rich text, checkboxes, and OpenDoPE extensions for repeats & conditionals, and importing XHTML)
• Export as HTML
• Export as PDF, choice of 3 strategies, see https://www.docx4java.org/blog/2020/09/office-pptxxlsxdocx-to-pdf-to-in-docx4j-8-2-3/
• Produce/consume Word 2007's xmlPackage (pkg) format
• Apply transforms, including common filters
• Font support (font substitution, and use of any fonts embedded in the document)

Choosing a library

Evaluating your options for working with Word documents?

• docx4j vs POI vs Aspose.Words — a practical comparison of the three main ways to do it from Java
• Why Source Access Matters for LLM-Assisted Programming — an AI coding assistant is only as good as what it can read (Markdown mirror)
• docx4j from Python — when bridging to docx4j beats python-docx or docxtpl (setup: docs/Docx4j_from_Python.md)

docx4j for JAXB 4.0 and Java 11 and later

docx4j 17.0.0 targets Java 11. It is compatible with Java 11, 17, 21, and we expect Java 25.

It uses Jakarta XML Binding API 4.0 (as did docx4j v11.5.x)

Version numbering jumped from 11.5.14 to 17.0.0 to flag three significant changes:

1. the code previously contained in modules docx4j-openxml-objects, docx4j-openxml-objects-pml and docx4j-openxml-objects-sml is now generated from the xsds at build time. It is in new module docx4j-generated-objects
2. a new deepCopyFast method which is used unless configured otherwise to copy objects (ie instead of marshal/unmarshal)
3. old methods getEGBlockLevelElts, getParagraphContent, getRunContent have been replaced with getContent; ArrayListWml, ArrayListDml, ArrayListVml, and ArrayListMce have been replaced by a single ArrayListDocx4j class; org.jvnet.jaxb2_commons.ppp.Child is now org.jvnet.jaxb.lang.Child

To use it, add the dep corresponding to the JAXB implementation you wish to use

• https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/org.docx4j/docx4j-JAXB-ReferenceImpl
• https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/org.docx4j/docx4j-JAXB-MOXy

docx4j for JAXB 3.0 and Java 11+

docx4j v11.4.5 uses Jakarta XML Binding API 3.0, as opposed to JAXB 2.x used in earlier versions (which import javax.xml.bind.*). Since this release uses jakarta.xml.bind, rather than javax.xml.bind, if you have existing code which imports javax.xml.bind, you'll need to search/replace across your code base, replacing javax.xml.bind with jakarta.xml.bind. You'll also need to replace your JAXB jars (which Maven will do for you automatically; otherwise get them from the relevant zip file).

Being a JPMS modularised release, the jars also contain module-info.class entries.

docx4j-8 (legacy, not supported)

This is docx4j for Java 8. Although in principle it would compile and run under Java 6, some of its dependencies are Java 8 only. So to run it under Java 6, you'd need to use the same version of the deps which docx4j 6.x uses.

docx4j v8 is a multi-module Maven project.

To use docx4j v8, add the dep corresponding to the JAXB implementation you wish to use. You should use one and only one of docx4j-JAXB-*

How do I build docx4j?

Get it from GitHub, at https://github.com/plutext/docx4j

mvn clean
mvn install -Dgpg.skip=true

For more details, see http://www.docx4java.org/blog/2015/06/docx4j-from-github-in-eclipse-5-years-on/

Where do I get a binary?

http://www.docx4java.org/downloads.html

How do I get started?

See the Getting Started guide: docs/Docx4j_GettingStarted.md (also there as docx, HTML and PDF — the docx is canonical; other formats are generated from it by docx4j itself)

and the Cheat Sheet: http://www.docx4java.org/blog/2013/05/docx4j-in-a-single-page/

And see the sample code in the docx4j-samples-* modules, eg docx4j-samples-docx4j

You'll probably want the Helper AddIn to generate code: http://www.docx4java.org/blog/2016/05/docx4j-helper-word-addin-new-version-v3-3-0/

Using an LLM with docx4j

LLMs and coding agents are good at writing docx4j code, and you should feel free to use them — we recommend Claude. Two things help: docx4j's documentation is available in LLM-friendly form at https://www.docx4java.org/llms.txt, and the docx4j-samples-* modules give an agent working code to pattern-match against. The classic failure modes to watch for: javax.xml.bind imports (current docx4j uses jakarta.xml.bind), and invented APIs for merging documents (merging is a commercial extension — see https://www.plutext.com).

The source tree is set up for AI-assisted development too: CLAUDE.md orients a coding agent (build commands, module map, architecture), and docs/developer/change-requests/ records the design history behind non-trivial changes. Much of docx4j 17.x was built this way.

Contributions — including AI-assisted ones — are welcome. Please do raise issues (a small docx reproducing the problem is worth a thousand words) and pull requests; see CONTRIBUTING.md for the ground rules.

To talk to a human, use GitHub discussions.

Where to get help?

Your LLM is a good first resort (see "Using an LLM with docx4j" above).

To talk to a human, use GitHub discussions; there is also the forum at http://www.docx4java.org/forums and StackOverflow (tag 'docx4j'). Please post to one, not several.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome; please see CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. In short: base your PR on the current VERSION_x_y_z development branch, sign off each commit (DCO, git commit -s), and disclose any AI assistance with a commit trailer.

Legal Information

docx4j is published under the Apache License version 2.0. For the license text, please see the following files in the legals directory:

• LICENSE
• NOTICE Legal information on libraries used by docx4j can be found in the "legals/NOTICE" file.