Office Document Generation

Status: Production Ready Last Updated: 2026-01-12 Dependencies: None (pure JavaScript libraries) Latest Versions: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Overview

Generate Microsoft Office documents and PDFs programmatically with TypeScript. All libraries are pure JavaScript with zero native dependencies, enabling universal runtime support:

*PPTX in Workers: Works for local images/data. Remote image fetching needs workaround (uses https module).

Quick Start

Installation

# Install all four (or pick what you need)
npm install docx xlsx pdf-lib pptxgenjs

Create a Word Document (30 seconds)

import { Document, Packer, Paragraph, TextRun } from 'docx';
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs';

const doc = new Document({
  sections: [{
    children: [
      new Paragraph({
        children: [
          new TextRun({ text: 'Hello World', bold: true, size: 48 }),
        ],
      }),
    ],
  }],
});

// Node.js: Save to file
const buffer = await Packer.toBuffer(doc);
writeFileSync('hello.docx', buffer);

// Browser/Workers: Get as blob
const blob = await Packer.toBlob(doc);

Create an Excel Spreadsheet (30 seconds)

import * as XLSX from 'xlsx';

// Create workbook with data
const data = [
  ['Name', 'Amount', 'Date'],
  ['Invoice #1', 1500, '2026-01-12'],
  ['Invoice #2', 2300, '2026-01-13'],
];

const worksheet = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(data);
const workbook = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(workbook, worksheet, 'Invoices');

// Node.js: Save to file
XLSX.writeFile(workbook, 'invoices.xlsx');

// Browser/Workers: Get as buffer
const buffer = XLSX.write(workbook, { type: 'buffer', bookType: 'xlsx' });

Create a PDF (30 seconds)

import { PDFDocument, StandardFonts, rgb } from 'pdf-lib';

const pdfDoc = await PDFDocument.create();
const page = pdfDoc.addPage([612, 792]); // Letter size
const font = await pdfDoc.embedFont(StandardFonts.Helvetica);

page.drawText('Hello World', {
  x: 50,
  y: 700,
  size: 24,
  font,
  color: rgb(0, 0, 0),
});

// Get as bytes (works everywhere)
const pdfBytes = await pdfDoc.save();

// Node.js: Save to file
writeFileSync('hello.pdf', pdfBytes);

Create a PowerPoint (30 seconds)

import pptxgen from 'pptxgenjs';

const pptx = new pptxgen();
pptx.author = 'Your Name';
pptx.title = 'Sample Presentation';

// Add a slide
const slide = pptx.addSlide();
slide.addText('Hello World', {
  x: 1, y: 1, w: 8, h: 1.5,
  fontSize: 36, bold: true, color: '363636',
});

// Node.js: Save to file
await pptx.writeFile({ fileName: 'hello.pptx' });

// Browser: Trigger download
await pptx.writeFile({ fileName: 'hello.pptx' });

DOCX: Word Documents

Key Concepts

The docx package uses a builder pattern:

• Document - The root container
• Section - Contains pages (most docs have 1 section)
• Paragraph - A line/block of text
• TextRun - Formatted text within a paragraph
• Table - Grid of TableRow → TableCell → Paragraph

Document with Headings and Paragraphs

import { Document, Packer, Paragraph, TextRun, HeadingLevel } from 'docx';

const doc = new Document({
  sections: [{
    children: [
      new Paragraph({
        text: 'Monthly Report',
        heading: HeadingLevel.HEADING_1,
      }),
      new Paragraph({
        children: [
          new TextRun('This is a '),
          new TextRun({ text: 'bold', bold: true }),
          new TextRun(' and '),
          new TextRun({ text: 'italic', italics: true }),
          new TextRun(' text example.'),
        ],
      }),
    ]