Microsoft Word’s DOCX format stands out as one of the most popular choices for creating rich and dynamic documents. While manual document creation through Word’s graphical interface is convenient, it might not always be feasible or efficient, especially when dealing with large-scale or repetitive tasks. This is where programmatic document generation comes into play. By leveraging the power of Java and the DOCX4J library, developers can automate the process of creating Word DOCX files, allowing for seamless integration into their applications and systems.

In this article, we will explore how you can harness the capabilities of DOCX4J API to create, modify, and export Word DOCX files effortlessly. So, let’s get started and have a. look at how to use the DOCX4J API to create DOCX files.

How to Create DOCX File using DOCX4J API?

Before you start writing code for creating a DOCX file using the DOCX4J API, you must have DOCX4J API configured in your development environment. If you haven’t already installed and configured DOCX4J API, you can have a look at our article on how to install DOCX4J API.

Create Word Document in Java

Now that you have your development environment ready for working with DOCX4J API, let’s get started with creating a Word DOCX document using Java. The following service code can be used for this purpose.

// Create word package
WordprocessingMLPackage wordPackage = WordprocessingMLPackage.createPackage();
// Create main document part
MainDocumentPart mainDocumentPart = wordPackage.getMainDocumentPart();
// Add Paragraph
mainDocumentPart.addParagraphOfText("Open Source Java API for Word DOCX Documents");
// Save file
wordPackage.save(new File("FileFormat.docx"));

Detailed Explanation of Java Code for DOCX File Generation

Let’s have a look at the main classes and methods used in this code sample to know more about creating a Word document using DOCX4J API.

  1. WordprocessingMLPackage is the central class of DOCX4J, representing the main package for a DOCX document. It acts as a container that holds all the parts of a Word document, such as the main document content, headers, footers, styles, settings, and more. You can use it to create, load, and manipulate Word documents programmatically.
  2. MainDocumentPart represents the main document part of a Word document. It is responsible for holding the main content of the document, including paragraphs, tables, images, and other elements. By accessing the MainDocumentPart, you can add, modify, or remove content from the main body of the Word document.
  3. addParagraphOfText is a method provided by DOCX4J that simplifies adding a paragraph of text to the main document part. It allows you to add a new paragraph containing the specified text to the document with minimal code. Under the hood, this method creates the necessary XML elements and structures to represent the paragraph and its content in the Word document.

Conclusion

DOCX4J API makes it easy for you to work with DOCX files from within your Java application. You can use this API to enrich your Java application for document processing functionality such as Word document creation, updating an existing Word document, and adding different contents such as images, tables, etc. In our follow-up blogs, we’ll show how to add different elements to a Word document using docx4j. So, stay tuned.