officeParser: Universal Office Document Parser & Generator

A robust, strictly-typed Node.js and Browser library for parsing office files into a rich Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) and generating high-fidelity output in multiple formats.

Parses: docx · pptx · xlsx · odt · odp · ods · pdf · rtf · csv · md · html · epub

Generates: Markdown · HTML · CSV · RTF · PDF · EPUB · Plain Text · RAG Chunks

🌟 Live Interactive AST Visualizer & Documentation 🌟

Upload any office file in your browser: inspect the AST, tweak config, and preview generated output in real-time.

• AST Visualizer: Inspect the hierarchical node tree, metadata, and raw content
• Config Configurator: Tweak options (ignoreNotes, ocr, newlineDelimiter) and see results instantly
• Debugging: Identify exactly how nodes are interpreted
• Format Specs: Read detailed specs for the AST structure and all config options

📝 Changelog

Table of Contents

• Install
• Command Line Usage
• Quick Decision Guide
• Library Usage: Parsing
  • Async/Await
  • Callback (Backward Compat)
  • File Buffers & ArrayBuffers
  • ast.to(): Generate from AST
  • ast.toText(): Quick Text Extraction
• OfficeGenerator
• OfficeConverter: One-Step API
• Native RAG Chunking
• The AST Structure
• Deep Dive: Document Components
• Markdown Dialect Support
• EPUB Support
• Performance Highlights
• Advanced AST Usage
• Configuration Reference
  • OfficeParserConfig
  • GeneratorConfig (Common)
  • onNode Callback
  • styleMap: Semantic Style Mapping
  • HtmlGeneratorConfig
  • MdGeneratorConfig
  • PdfGeneratorConfig
  • CsvGeneratorConfig
  • TextGeneratorConfig
  • OfficeConverterConfig
  • ChunkingConfig
• OCR Scheduler & Resource Management
• Browser Usage
• Troubleshooting & Common Issues
• Known Limitations
• Contributing

Install via npm

npm i officeparser

Command Line Usage

# Full AST as JSON (default)
npx officeparser /path/to/file.docx

# Plain text output
npx officeparser /path/to/file.docx --to=text

# Convert DOCX to Markdown and save
npx officeparser report.docx --to=md --output=report.md

# Convert PPTX to HTML (using a bare flag for ocr)
npx officeparser presentation.pptx --to=html --output=preview.html --ocr

# Convert XLSX to CSV with a custom delimiter
npx officeparser data.xlsx --to=csv --csvDelimiter=";"

# Generate RAG chunks
npx officeparser document.pdf --to=chunks

# Convert DOCX to EPUB (--extractAttachments is required to embed images)
npx officeparser book.docx --extractAttachments --to=epub --output=book.epub

# Overriding file extension mapping
npx officeparser my_document --fileType=docx --to=json

CLI Syntax

• Values: Flags can be passed as --flag=value or --flag value.
• Booleans: Bare flags imply true (e.g. --ocr is equivalent to --ocr=true). Negation flags start with no- (e.g. --no-ocr is equivalent to --ocr=false).
• Nested Objects: You can pass nested properties directly using JSON dot-notation (e.g. --ocrConfig.language=fra or --htmlConfig.containerWidth=900px).

CLI Options

| Flag | Values | Default | Description | |------|--------|---------|-------------| | --to | json\|text\|md\|html\|csv\|rtf\|pdf\|epub\|chunks | json | Output format | | --output | path | — | Write output to a file | | --fileType | docx\|xlsx\|pptx\|odt\|odp\|ods\|pdf\|rtf\|csv\|md\|html\|epub | — | Explicitly override input file type detection | | --ocr | boolean | false | Enable OCR for images | | --extractAttachments | boolean | false | Extract images/charts as Base64 | | --ignoreNotes | boolean | false | Ignore footnotes/endnotes/speaker notes | | --ignoreComments | boolean | false | Ignore inline comments | | --ignoreHeadersAndFooters | boolean | false | Ignore headers and footers | | --ignoreSlideMasters | boolean | false | Ignore slide masters | | --ignoreInternalLinks | boolean | false | Ignore internal links | | --newlineDelimiter | string | \n | Delimiter between lines/blocks in plaintext outputs | | --csvDelimiter | string | , | Custom delimiter for CSV files | | --includeRawContent | boolean | false | Include raw XML/RTF in nodes | | --serializeRawContent | boolean | true | Include stringified XML in metadata | | --preserveXmlWhitespace | boolean | false | Keep raw formatting space | | --includeBreakNodes | boolean | false | Include break nodes (DOCX only) | | --verbose | boolean | false | Show full error stack traces and warning logs | | --includeFormatting | boolean | true | Include formatting style map matching | | --renderMetadata | boolean | false | Render metadata as visible content in the generated output | | --htmlConfig.containerWidth | string | number | auto | HTML output container width (e.g. 900px, 100%) | | ~~--format~~ | json\|text\|md\|html\|csv\|rtf\|pdf\|epub\|chunks | json | Deprecated. Use --to | | ~~--toText~~ | true\|false | false | Deprecated. Use --to=text | | ~~--ocrLanguage~~ | string | eng | Deprecated. Use --ocrConfig.language | | ~~--putNotesAtLast~~ | true\|false | false | Deprecated and ignored. Notes are attached structurally to their nodes. | | ~~--outputErrorToConsole~~ | true\|false | false | Deprecated. Use --verbose |

Quick Decision Guide

| Goal | API to use | |------|-----------| | Extract text / AST from a file | OfficeParser.parseOffice(file) | | Convert directly to another format | OfficeConverter.convert(file, 'md') | | Parse first, then generate | parseOffice() → OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, 'html') | | Convert on the AST itself (shorthand) | ast.to('md') | | RAG pipeline chunking | OfficeConverter.convert(file, 'chunks', {...}) |

Library Usage: Parsing

Async/Await

const officeParser = require('officeparser');

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('/path/to/file.docx');

console.log(ast.type);       // 'docx'
console.log(ast.metadata);   // { author, title, created, ... }
console.log(ast.content);    // Array of hierarchical nodes
console.log(ast.attachments);// Images/charts (if extractAttachments: true)
console.log(ast.warnings);   // Non-fatal issues from parsing phase

TypeScript (named import):

import { OfficeParser } from 'officeparser';

const ast = await OfficeParser.parseOffice('report.docx', {
    extractAttachments: true,
    ocr: true,
});

Callback (Backward Compat)

officeParser.parseOffice('/path/to/file.docx', function(ast, err) {
    if (err) { console.error(err); return; }
    console.log(ast.toText());
});

File Buffers & ArrayBuffers

Pass a Buffer, ArrayBuffer, or Uint8Array instead of a file path:

const fs = require('fs');
const buffer = fs.readFileSync('/path/to/file.pdf');
const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice(buffer);

[!IMPORTANT] Text-based formats from buffers need a fileType hint. Formats like md, html, and csv have no magic bytes, so the parser cannot auto-detect them from a buffer. You must provide fileType in that case:

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice(markdownBuffer, { fileType: 'md' });

Cancellation with AbortSignal

You can pass a standard AbortSignal (e.g. from an AbortController) to cancel an active parse operation. This is especially useful for setting request-level timeouts or canceling long-running parses (like large PDFs with OCR).

const controller = new AbortController();

// Cancel parsing if it takes longer than 5 seconds
setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);

try {
    const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('large_scanned_file.pdf', {
        abortSignal: controller.signal,
        ocr: true
    });
} catch (err) {
    if (err.name === 'AbortError') {
        console.log('Parsing was cancelled.');
    } else {
        console.error('Parsing failed:', err);
    }
}

[!IMPORTANT] AbortError Propagation When parsing is cancelled via AbortSignal, the parser rejects with a standard AbortError (a DOMException or an Error with name: 'AbortError'). This error is not wrapped in standard OfficeParser error types so that you can reliably detect cancellation using error.name === 'AbortError'.

[!NOTE] Worker Cleanup on Abort If an OCR job is actively running in the background when the signal is aborted, officeParser automatically terminates the Tesseract worker process immediately and removes it from the pool to prevent thread/memory leaks.

Custom OCR Timeouts

To prevent the parser from hanging indefinitely due to slow network connections (when downloading Tesseract language datasets) or complex image processing, you can configure granular timeouts under ocrConfig.timeout.

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('scanned_document.pdf', {
    ocr: true,
    ocrConfig: {
        timeout: {
            workerLoad: 30000,    // 30s max to load worker & download language training files
            recognition: 15000,   // 15s max per image text recognition
            autoTerminate: 10000  // 10s of inactivity before terminating idle workers
        }
    }
});

[!TIP] Non-Fatal Timeout Recovery If workerLoad or recognition timeouts are exceeded, the parser will log a warning in ast.warnings and continue parsing the rest of the document. The overall promise resolves successfully with the text extracted from the document layers (rather than failing the entire parse).

ast.to(): Generate from AST

The preferred way to convert a parsed AST to another format. Returns a ConversionResult.

// ConversionResult shape:
// { value: string | Uint8Array | OfficeChunk[], messages: OfficeIssue[] }

const { value: markdown, messages } = await ast.to('md');
const { value: html }               = await ast.to('html', { includeFormatting: false });
const { value: chunks }             = await ast.to('chunks', { strategy: 'fixed-size', chunkSize: 800 });
const { value: pdfBytes }           = await ast.to('pdf'); // Uint8Array

ast.toText(): Quick Text Extraction

[!NOTE] toText() is synchronous and deprecated in favour of the async ast.to('text'). It remains available for backward compatibility.

const text = ast.toText(); // synchronous, returns plain string

OfficeGenerator

Use OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, format, config?) when you need to produce output from an already-parsed AST:

import { OfficeParser, OfficeGenerator } from 'officeparser';

const ast = await OfficeParser.parseOffice('report.docx');

// Convert to Markdown
const { value: md } = await OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, 'md');

// Convert to HTML with style mapping
const { value: html } = await OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, 'html', {
    includeFormatting: true,
    styleMap: [
        {
            selector: { nodeType: 'paragraph', attributes: { style: 'Heading 1' } },
            output: { tag: 'h1', classes: ['main-title'] }
        }
    ]
});

// Convert to CSV (spreadsheets)
const { value: csv } = await OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, 'csv');

Supported destinations: 'text' · 'md' · 'html' · 'csv' · 'rtf' · 'pdf' · 'epub' · 'chunks'

[!NOTE] PDF generation requires the optional puppeteer peer dependency:

npm install puppeteer

EPUB generation with images requires extractAttachments: true on the parse step that produced the AST — see EPUB Support.

OfficeConverter: One-Step API

OfficeConverter.convert() combines parsing and generation in a single call. It automatically syncs parser options from generator config (e.g., enables extractAttachments when images are requested).

import { OfficeConverter } from 'officeparser';

// Minimal usage
const { value: markdown } = await OfficeConverter.convert('report.docx', 'md');

// With config
const { value: html, messages } = await OfficeConverter.convert('data.xlsx', 'html', {
    parseConfig: {
        ignoreNotes: true,
        newlineDelimiter: '\n\n',
    },
    generatorConfig: {
        includeFormatting: true,
        styleMap: [
            {
                selector: { attributes: { style: { value: 'Header', operator: '~=' } } },
                output: { tag: 'h2', classes: ['data-header'] }
            }
        ]
    },
    onWarning: (issue) => console.warn(`[${issue.code}] ${issue.message}`)
});

[!IMPORTANT] The OfficeConverterConfig shape uses nested parseConfig and generatorConfig sub-objects. Do not put parser or generator options at the top level; only onWarning lives there.

Native RAG Chunking

officeParser provides native document chunking for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines with three strategies:

Strategy 1: Document Structure (Default)

Splits at natural AST boundaries (paragraphs, headings, pages, slides, sheets). Preserves logical flow.

const { value: chunks } = await OfficeConverter.convert('report.docx', 'chunks', {
    generatorConfig: {
        chunksConfig: {
            strategy: 'document-structure',
            splitBy: 'heading',    // 'paragraph' | 'heading' | 'page' | 'slide' | 'sheet'
            maxChunkSize: 1500,
            tableSplitStrategy: 'row', // repeats header row in every chunk, ideal for RAG
        }
    }
});

Strategy 2: Fixed-Size (Recursive)

Splits by character count with overlap. Equivalent to LangChain's RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter.

const { value: chunks } = await OfficeConverter.convert('report.docx', 'chunks', {
    generatorConfig: {
        chunksConfig: {
            strategy: 'fixed-size',
            chunkSize: 1000,
            chunkOverlap: 200,
        }
    }
});
console.log(`Generated ${chunks.length} chunks`);

Strategy 3: Semantic

Uses cosine similarity between sentence embeddings to find topic boundaries. Requires you to provide an embeddingFunction.

import OpenAI from 'openai';
const openai = new OpenAI();

const { value: chunks } = await OfficeConverter.convert('report.docx', 'chunks', {
    generatorConfig: {
        chunksConfig: {
            strategy: 'semantic',
            embeddingFunction: async (text) => {
                const res = await openai.embeddings.create({
                    input: text, model: 'text-embedding-3-small'
                });
                return res.data[0].embedding;
            },
            similarityThreshold: 0.8,
            maxChunkSize: 2000,
        }
    }
});

The OfficeChunk Object

Every chunk contains text and rich metadata for citations and filtered retrieval:

interface OfficeChunk {
    text: string;
    /** Rich metadata for filtered retrieval */
    metadata: {
        sourceType: string;       // e.g., 'docx', 'pdf'
        pageNumber?: number;      // (PDF only)
        slideNumber?: number;     // (PPTX only)
        sheetName?: string;       // (XLSX only)
        closestHeading?: string;  // Nearest heading above this chunk
        isTableChunk?: boolean;   // True if part of a split table
    };
    startIndex?: number;          // Character offset (if addStartIndex: true)
    endIndex?: number;            // End character offset (if addStartIndex: true)
}

The AST Structure

OfficeParserAST is a format-agnostic document representation:

OfficeParserAST
├── type: 'docx' | 'pdf' | 'xlsx' | 'csv' | 'md' | 'epub' | ...  (12 formats)
├── metadata: { author, title, created, modified, keywords, customProperties, nativeProperties, styleMap, ... }
├── content: [ OfficeContentNode ]
│   ├── type: 'paragraph' | 'heading' | 'table' | 'list' | 'image' | 'chart' | 'comment' | 'admonition' | 'embed' | 'definitionList' | ...
│   ├── text: string  (concatenated text of node + all descendants)
│   ├── children: [ OfficeContentNode ]  (recursive structural children)
│   ├── notes: [ OfficeContentNode ]     (footnotes/endnotes/slide notes attached to this node)
│   ├── comments: [ OfficeContentNode ] (inline comments attached to this node)
│   ├── formatting: { bold, italic, underline, color, size, font, alignment, ... }
│   └── metadata: { level, listId, row, col, rowSpan, colSpan, backgroundColor, style, ... }
├── auxiliary?: OfficeAuxiliaryContent   (out-of-band layout elements)
│   ├── headers?: OfficeContentNode[]   (DOCX headers)
│   ├── footers?: OfficeContentNode[]   (DOCX footers)
│   └── slideMasters?: OfficeContentNode[] (PPTX slide masters)
├── attachments: [ OfficeAttachment ]  (populated when extractAttachments: true)
│   ├── type: 'image' | 'chart'
│   ├── name: string
│   ├── mimeType: string
│   ├── data: string  (Base64)
│   ├── ocrText?: string  (if ocr: true)
│   └── chartData?: { title, dataSets, labels }
├── warnings: OfficeIssue[]  (non-fatal issues from the parsing phase)
├── to(format, config?)  (format: 'html'|'md'|'text'|'csv'|'rtf'|'pdf'|'chunks', returns { value, messages })
└── ~~toText()~~             (Deprecated: use .to('text') instead)

OfficeIssue: Warning / Error Object

All warnings and errors (from both parsing and generation) use this shape:

interface OfficeIssue {
    type: 'warning' | 'info' | 'error';
    code: OfficeWarningType | OfficeErrorType;  // typed enum, e.g. 'OCR_FAILED'
    message: string;
    node?: OfficeContentNode;  // the node that triggered the issue, if any
    details?: any;             // original error or extra context
}

Deep Dive: Document Components

1. Lists

List Node
├── type: 'list'
├── metadata: {
│       listId: '1',          // items with the same listId belong to one logical list
│       listType: 'ordered' | 'unordered',
│       indentation: 0,       // nesting level (0-based)
│       itemIndex: 0,         // sequential position within the list level
│       paragraphIndentation: { left, hanging, right, firstLine }
│   }
└── children: [ Text content ]

[!TIP] Even if a list is interrupted by a regular paragraph, itemIndex keeps incrementing for the same listId, so numbering stays correct.

2. Tables

Tables follow a strict table → row → cell hierarchy:

Table Node (type: 'table')
└── children: Row Nodes (type: 'row')
    └── children: Cell Nodes (type: 'cell')
        ├── metadata: { row, col, rowSpan?, colSpan? }
        └── children: [ Paragraph | List | Table | ... ]

• row / col: zero-based grid position
• rowSpan / colSpan: merged cells (primarily ODF formats)
• Cells can contain nested tables

3. Images & OCR

Image Node (type: 'image')
├── metadata: { attachmentName: 'img1.png', altText: '...' }
└── → Attachment: { data: 'base64...', ocrText: '...' }

• Set extractAttachments: true to populate attachment.data
• Set ocr: true (requires extractAttachments: true) to populate ocrText

4. Charts

Chart Node (type: 'chart')
├── metadata: { attachmentName: 'chart1.xml' }
└── → Attachment: { chartData: { title, dataSets, labels } }

5. Text Formatting

formatting: {
    bold?: boolean
    italic?: boolean
    underline?: boolean
    strikethrough?: boolean
    color?: string          // '#RRGGBB'
    backgroundColor?: string
    size?: string           // e.g. '12pt'
    font?: string
    subscript?: boolean
    superscript?: boolean
    alignment?: 'left' | 'center' | 'right' | 'justify'
}

6. Break Nodes (DOCX only)

When includeBreakNodes: true, break elements appear as nodes:

Break Node (type: 'break')
└── metadata: {
        breakType: 'textWrapping' | 'page' | 'column' | 'lastRenderedPage' | 'carriageReturn',
        clear?: 'all' | 'left' | 'none' | 'right'
    }

[!NOTE] Break nodes have no text property, but ast.toText() and ast.to('text') automatically convert them to the configured newline delimiter.

7. Document Metadata

ast.metadata = {
    author?: string
    title?: string
    created?: Date
    modified?: Date
    description?: string
    keywords?: string                            // NEW: Keywords from document properties
    customProperties?: Record<string, any>       // User-defined metadata from the document
    nativeProperties?: Record<string, any>       // NEW: All format-specific raw metadata
    styleMap?: Record<string, TextFormatting>    // Named styles → formatting definitions
    formatting?: TextFormatting                  // Document-wide defaults
}

Accessing native properties (format-specific metadata):

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('contract.docx');
console.log(ast.metadata.nativeProperties);
// DOCX: { Pages: 5, Application: 'Microsoft Word' }
// HTML: { description: 'My page', 'og:title': 'Title' }
// PDF:  { Title: 'Report', XMP: { ... } }

8. Admonitions, Embeds & Definition Lists

Admonition Node (type: 'admonition')
├── metadata: { admonitionType: 'note' | 'tip' | 'important' | 'warning' | 'caution', title?: string }
└── children: [ Paragraph | List | ... ]   (block content)

Embed Node (type: 'embed')
└── metadata: { embedType: 'youtube', videoId: string, url?: string, width?: string, align?: string }

Definition List Node (type: 'definitionList')
└── children:
    ├── Definition Term (type: 'definitionTerm')
    └── Definition Description (type: 'definitionDescription')

• admonition round-trips through both Markdown (> [!NOTE] / :::note ... :::) and HTML (<div class="admonition admonition-note" data-type="note">)
• embed currently models YouTube videos; HTML round-trips via <div data-youtube-video="ID">, Markdown falls back to a raw HTML block or a plain link
• Abbreviations (*[HTML]: Hypertext Markup Language) are stored as TextMetadata.abbreviationTitle on the abbreviated text node rather than as a separate node type

Markdown Dialect Support

Beyond CommonMark/GFM basics, MarkdownParser/MarkdownGenerator support an extended dialect aimed at full-fidelity round-tripping with rich Markdown editors. Every construct below parses to a first-class AST node/metadata field and regenerates back to the canonical syntax shown, so .md → AST → .md is idempotent and .md → AST → HTML → AST → .md survives unchanged.

| Feature | Markdown syntax | AST representation | |---|---|---| | Task lists (GFM) | - [x] Done / - [ ] Todo | ListMetadata.isTask / .checked | | Admonitions | > [!NOTE] (also accepts GLFM :::note ... ::: on import) | type: 'admonition', AdmonitionMetadata | | Footnotes | Text[^1] + [^1]: Definition | type: 'note', keyed by footnote id | | Definition lists | Term\n: Definition | type: 'definitionList' / 'definitionTerm' / 'definitionDescription' | | Abbreviations | *[HTML]: Hypertext Markup Language | TextMetadata.abbreviationTitle | | Attribute lists | ![alt](img.png){width=50% .centered} | ImageMetadata.width / .align, TableMetadata.align | | Citations | [@smith2024] | TextMetadata.citationKey | | Wikilinks | [[Page]] / [[Page\|Alias]] | TextMetadata.wikilink, .link, .linkType | | Inline/block math | $E=mc^2$ / $$...$$ | TextMetadata.math ('inline' \| 'block') | | Frontmatter arrays | tags: [a, b] or tags: ["a","b"] | Real array in metadata.customProperties/nativeProperties | | MDX components (import-only) | <Component prop="x">...</Component> | Stripped; inner Markdown is kept. Never generated back. |

[!NOTE] MDX/JSX stripping is one-directional (parse-only) — officeParser never authors JSX back into Markdown. Wikilink enable/disable and citekey→bibliography resolution are application-level concerns; officeParser always parses/generates the syntax itself.

The same round-trip fidelity extends to HTML, so content saved from a rich-text editor survives a save→reload cycle:

| HTML attribute | AST field | Notes | |---|---|---| | data-width / data-align / inline style="width:…" on <img> | ImageMetadata.width / .align | | | data-align on <table> | TableMetadata.align | | | colspan / rowspan on <td>/<th> | CellMetadata.colSpan / .rowSpan | Previously dropped on HTML import — merged cells now survive a save→reload cycle | | <div data-youtube-video="ID"> / <iframe src="...youtube.com..."> | type: 'embed' | | | <ul data-type="taskList"> / <li data-checked> | ListMetadata.isTask / .checked | |

EPUB Support

EPUB files are ZIP archives of XHTML content plus an OPF manifest — EpubParser unzips the archive, resolves the spine's reading order from content.opf, and parses each XHTML document through the existing HtmlParser, so EPUB content shares the same AST shape (and the same Markdown-dialect fidelity above) as every other format. Dublin Core metadata (dc:title, dc:creator, dc:description, dc:subject, dc:date, dc:publisher, dc:language, dc:identifier) maps into ast.metadata / ast.metadata.nativeProperties, and cover art is exposed via metadata.customProperties.coverImageName.

EpubGenerator renders the AST through HtmlGenerator and packages the result as a minimal, valid EPUB 3 (mimetype, META-INF/container.xml, an OPF manifest, a nav document, and one XHTML chapter).

[!IMPORTANT] Pass extractAttachments: true when converting to or from EPUB if the document has images. Without it, the parser never pulls embedded image bytes out of the source document, so there is nothing for the EPUB generator to package — images silently disappear even though everything else converts correctly. Images are packaged as real zip entries (OEBPS/images/...) declared in the OPF manifest, not data: URIs — most EPUB reading systems do not render data: URIs in image src.

This only matters for the two-step OfficeParser.parseOffice() → OfficeGenerator.generate() API and the CLI. OfficeConverter.convert() enables extractAttachments automatically unless you explicitly set generatorConfig.includeImages: false.

npx officeparser book.docx --extractAttachments --to=epub --output=book.epub

Performance Highlights

Key internal optimizations shipped in recent versions:

• OpenOffice (ODP): Up to 23× faster parsing via optimized XML pre-parsing and style caching
• Excel Memory: Resolved O(n) memory overhead on large sparse spreadsheets using iterative stream-based parsing
• RTF Parser: Rewrote string accumulation loop to eliminate O(n²) bottleneck in large files
• Table Fidelity (DOCX): Native support for vertical cell merging (vMerge) and horizontal spanning (gridSpan)

Advanced AST Usage

Extract all headings

const headings = ast.content.filter(n => n.type === 'heading' && n.metadata?.level === 1);
console.log(headings.map(h => h.text));

Extract comments

// Comments can be attached to any nested node, so we must traverse recursively
const printComments = (nodes: OfficeContentNode[]) => {
    nodes.forEach(node => {
        if (node.comments) {
            node.comments.forEach(c => {
                console.log(`Comment by ${c.metadata?.author}: ${c.text}`);
            });
        }
        if (node.children) {
            printComments(node.children);
        }
    });
};

printComments(ast.content);

Set ignoreComments: true to skip extraction.

Extract footnotes, endnotes & slide notes

// Slide speaker notes (PPTX) live on the slide node itself
const slide = ast.content.find(n => n.type === 'slide');
console.log(slide?.notes?.map(n => n.text));

// Footnotes and endnotes (DOCX/RTF) can be deeply nested, so we traverse recursively:
const printNotes = (nodes: OfficeContentNode[]) => {
    nodes.forEach(node => {
        if (node.notes) {
            node.notes.forEach(note => console.log(note.text));
        }
        if (node.children) {
            printNotes(node.children);
        }
    });
};

printNotes(ast.content);

[!IMPORTANT] putNotesAtLast is deprecated. Notes are always attached via node.notes; this flag has no effect and will be removed in a future major version.

Access headers, footers & slide masters

// These are NOT in ast.content; use ast.auxiliary
console.log(ast.auxiliary?.headers?.map(h => h.text));   // DOCX headers
console.log(ast.auxiliary?.footers?.map(f => f.text));   // DOCX footers
console.log(ast.auxiliary?.slideMasters?.length);         // PPTX slide masters

Set ignoreHeadersAndFooters: true or ignoreSlideMasters: true to skip extraction.

Extract images with OCR text

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('report.docx', { extractAttachments: true, ocr: true });
ast.attachments.filter(a => a.mimeType?.startsWith('image/')).forEach(img => {
    console.log(`${img.name}: ${img.ocrText ?? 'no OCR'}`);
});

Extract tables to CSV manually

ast.content.filter(n => n.type === 'table').forEach((table, i) => {
    const csv = table.children
        .filter(r => r.type === 'row')
        .map(r => r.children.filter(c => c.type === 'cell')
            .map(c => `"${c.text.replace(/"/g, '""')}"`)
            .join(','))
        .join('\n');
    console.log(`Table ${i + 1}:\n${csv}`);
});

Find all bold text runs

function findBold(nodes) {
    return nodes.flatMap(n => [
        ...(n.type === 'text' && n.formatting?.bold ? [n.text] : []),
        ...(n.children ? findBold(n.children) : [])
    ]);
}
console.log(findBold(ast.content));

Extract footnotes / endnotes

function extractNotes(nodes) {
    return nodes.flatMap(n => [
        ...(n.type === 'note' ? [{ id: n.metadata.noteId, text: n.text, type: n.metadata.noteType }] : []),
        ...(n.children ? extractNotes(n.children) : [])
    ]);
}
console.log(extractNotes(ast.content));

Search for a term (TypeScript)

import { OfficeParser } from 'officeparser';

async function contains(filePath: string, term: string): Promise<boolean> {
    const ast = await OfficeParser.parseOffice(filePath);
    return (await ast.to('text')).value.includes(term);
}

Configuration Reference

OfficeParserConfig

Pass as the second argument to parseOffice(file, config).

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | newlineDelimiter | string | '\n' | Delimiter inserted between lines in text output | | ignoreNotes | boolean | false | Ignore footnotes/endnotes (DOCX, RTF) and speaker notes (PPTX/ODP) | | ignoreComments | boolean | false | New: Ignore inline comments/annotations (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX), attached by default via node.comments[] | | ignoreHeadersAndFooters | boolean | false | New: Skip DOCX headers & footers (populated in ast.auxiliary.headers/footers by default) | | ignoreSlideMasters | boolean | false | New: Skip PPTX slide masters (populated in ast.auxiliary.slideMasters by default) | | ~~putNotesAtLast~~ | boolean | false | Deprecated: Notes are now attached via node.notes[]. This flag has no effect | | extractAttachments | boolean | false | Populate ast.attachments with Base64 images/charts | | ocr | boolean | false | Run Tesseract OCR on images (requires extractAttachments: true) | | ocrConfig | OcrConfig | {} | OCR worker pool settings (see OCR section) | | includeRawContent | boolean | false | Attach raw XML/RTF source to each node | | serializeRawContent | boolean | true | Re-serialize XML to clean strings (only if includeRawContent: true) | | preserveXmlWhitespace | boolean | false | Preserve original XML whitespace during serialization | | includeBreakNodes | boolean | false | Include w:br / w:cr as typed break nodes (DOCX only) | | ignoreInternalLinks | boolean | false | Strip bookmarks and internal cross-references from AST | | fileType | SupportedFileType \| null | null | Required for text-based binary data ('md', 'html', 'csv') as these lack magic bytes. | | csvDelimiter | string | ',' | Input delimiter when parsing CSV files | | decompressionLimits | DecompressionLimits | { maxUncompressedBytes: 512MB, maxZipEntries: 10000 } | New: Limits applied during ZIP extraction to protect against excessive memory and resource usage | | pdfWorkerSrc | string | CDN (jsDelivr) | Path/URL to pdf.worker.min.mjs (required in browser) | | onWarning | (issue: OfficeIssue) => void | — | Callback for non-fatal parsing issues | | abortSignal | AbortSignal \| null | null | Optional signal to cancel parsing (rejects with AbortError) | | ~~outputErrorToConsole~~ | boolean | false | Deprecated. Use onWarning instead |

GeneratorConfig (Common)

Options shared by all generator formats. Pass to OfficeGenerator.generate(ast, format, config) or ast.to(format, config).

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | includeFormatting | boolean | true | Include bold/italic/colors/sizes in output | | generateIds | boolean | true | Add slug-based id attributes to headings | | renderMetadata | boolean | false | Render title/author as visible header block | | includeImages | boolean | true | Include image nodes in output | | includeCharts | boolean | true | Include interactive charts (HTML only) | | ignoreInternalLinks | boolean | false | Strip bookmarks and internal anchors from output | | ignoreDefaultStyleMap | boolean | false | Disable built-in style mappings (e.g., "Heading 1" → h1) | | styleMap | string[] \| StructuredStyleMapping[] | [] | Custom semantic style mappings | | onNode | (node) => string \| false \| void | — | Per-node callback for filtering, overriding, or mutating | | onWarning | (issue: OfficeIssue) => void | — | Callback for non-fatal generation issues | | abortSignal | AbortSignal \| null | null | Optional signal to cancel the generation operation (rejects with AbortError) |

onNode Callback: Advanced Node Manipulation

Called for every node in the AST during generation. Can be async.

| Return value | Effect | |---|---| | false | Skip this node and all its children | | string | Use this string as the output for this node, skip default logic | | void | Proceed with default rendering (mutations to node are applied) |

const { value: md } = await ast.to('md', {
    onNode: async (node) => {
        // Skip all images
        if (node.type === 'image') return false;

        // Redact secrets (mutate then proceed)
        if (node.text?.includes('SECRET_KEY')) {
            node.text = node.text.replace(/SECRET_KEY: \w+/, 'SECRET_KEY: [REDACTED]');
        }

        // Custom rendering for a specific style
        if (node.metadata?.style === 'Callout') {
            return `> [!INFO]\n> ${node.text}`;
        }
    }
});

styleMap: Semantic Style Mapping

Maps document style names to semantic output elements. Two formats supported:

Structured Objects (Recommended)

styleMap: [
    {
        selector: { nodeType: 'paragraph', attributes: { style: 'Heading 1' } },
        output: { tag: 'h1', classes: ['main-title'], attributes: { id: 'top' } }
    },
    {
        // '~=' operator matches if the word 'Quote' appears anywhere in the style name
        selector: { attributes: { style: { value: 'Quote', operator: '~=' } } },
        output: { tag: 'blockquote', fresh: true }
    }
]

fresh: true prevents the generator from merging adjacent nodes of the same tag into one block.

Legacy String DSL

Compatible with mammoth.js style maps:

styleMap: [
    "p[style-name='Heading 1'] => h1",
    "p[style~='Title'] => h2",
    "p[style-name='Quote'][lang='en'] => blockquote"
]

HtmlGeneratorConfig

Pass as htmlConfig inside GeneratorConfig.

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | standalone | boolean \| StandaloneConfig | true | Controls the HTML "document envelope" — see below | | chartJsSrc | string | jsDelivr CDN | URL for the Chart.js library | | containerWidth | string \| number | 'auto' | Max width of the content container. Positive number (px), CSS length string ('900px', '100%', '60vw'), or 'auto'. Invalid values fall back to 'auto' with an INVALID_CONTAINER_WIDTH warning | | customCss | string | '' | Raw CSS injected into the <style> block; use this to override built-in styles | | injections.headStart | string | '' | Raw HTML injected after <head> | | injections.headEnd | string | '' | Raw HTML injected before </head> | | injections.bodyStart | string | '' | Raw HTML injected after <body> | | injections.bodyEnd | string | '' | Raw HTML injected before </body> |

standalone: granular envelope control

standalone conflates several independent decisions: whether to emit the `///

| StandaloneConfig field | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | document | boolean | true | Wrap in <!DOCTYPE html><html><head>…</head><body>…</body></html> | | metaTags | boolean | true | Emit <title>/<meta> tags. Only meaningful when document is true | | styles | 'full' \| 'scoped' \| 'none' | 'full' | See below | | scripts | boolean | true | Emit the Chart.js CDN loader and spreadsheet-interactivity <script> tags | | headInjections | boolean | true | Apply injections.headStart/headEnd. Only meaningful when document is true | | bodyInjections | boolean | true | Apply injections.bodyStart/bodyEnd — applies even to a bare fragment |

styles controls how the built-in stylesheet is delivered:

• 'full' — the complete stylesheet using global selectors (body, h1, table, …). This is what standalone: true has always emitted.
• 'scoped' — the same styling, scoped under the fragment's own wrapper via CSS @scope so it cannot leak onto a host page's elements. Requires a modern engine (Chrome 118+, Safari 17.4+, Firefox 128+); for universal support use 'none' (bring your own CSS) or 'full'.
• 'none' — no stylesheet at all; the host page (or rich-text editor, or EPUB reader) supplies its own styling.

// A styled fragment to embed in your own page, without a document shell:
await ast.to('html', { htmlConfig: { standalone: { document: false } } });

// The same, but with styles scoped so they can't leak onto your page's own elements:
await ast.to('html', { htmlConfig: { standalone: { document: false, styles: 'scoped' } } });

// A completely bare fragment (no shell, no styles, no scripts) — e.g. for a rich-text editor:
await ast.to('html', { htmlConfig: { standalone: false } });

[!NOTE] Behavior change from standalone: false: previously this emitted a fragment with a global, unscoped <style> block. It now emits a genuinely bare fragment (no <style> at all), matching "every part off." If you relied on the old styled-fragment behavior, pass { document: false } (or { document: false, styles: 'full' }) instead.

MdGeneratorConfig

Pass as mdConfig inside GeneratorConfig.

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | fallbackToHtml | boolean | true | Use HTML tags for features Markdown cannot represent (underlines, merged table cells, etc.) |

PdfGeneratorConfig

Pass as pdfConfig inside GeneratorConfig. Requires the optional puppeteer peer dependency.

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | format | string | 'A4' | Paper format ('A4', 'Letter', 'Legal', etc.) | | width | string \| number | '' | Paper width (e.g., '5in', '3cm') or pixels | | height | string \| number | '' | Paper height (e.g., '5in', '3cm') or pixels | | landscape | boolean | false | Landscape page orientation | | printBackground | boolean | true | Print background graphics | | margin | object | {0,0,0,0} | Page margins (top, right, bottom, left) | | displayHeaderFooter | boolean | false | Show print header/footer | | headerTemplate | string | '' | HTML template for the print header | | footerTemplate | string | '' | HTML template for the print footer | | scale | number | 1 | Rendering scale factor | | launchOptions | object | headless defaults | Puppeteer launch options (e.g., executablePath) | | timeout | number | 30000 | PDF rendering timeout in milliseconds. Set to 0 to disable. |

CsvGeneratorConfig

Pass as csvConfig inside GeneratorConfig.

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | sheets | string | '' | Sheet range to export: '1', '1-3', '1,3' (1-based). Empty = all sheets | | mergeSheets | boolean | true | Merge all sheets into one CSV. If false, returns a ZIP archive | | columnDelimiter | string | ',' | Output column delimiter |

TextGeneratorConfig

Pass as textConfig inside GeneratorConfig.

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | newlineDelimiter | string | '\n' | String inserted between structural blocks | | preserveLayout | boolean | true | Render tables with aligned columns using whitespace |

OfficeConverterConfig

Configuration for OfficeConverter.convert(file, format, config).

| Option | Type | Description | |--------|------|-------------| | parseConfig | OfficeParserConfig | Settings for the parsing phase | | generatorConfig | GeneratorConfig | Settings for the generation phase | | onWarning | (issue: OfficeIssue) => void | Global warning callback (overrides phase-specific ones) |

ChunkingConfig

ChunkingConfig is a discriminated union: the available options depend on the strategy field.

Common Options (all strategies)

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | strategy | string | 'document-structure' | Chunking strategy | | stripWhitespace | boolean | true | Trim leading/trailing whitespace from each chunk | | includeMetadata | boolean | true | Include page/slide/heading metadata in each chunk | | addStartIndex | boolean | false | Add startIndex character offset to chunk metadata | | lengthFunction | (text) => number | text.length | Custom size measurer (e.g., token counter) | | sentenceBoundaryRegex | string \| RegExp | /[.!?。！？]/ | Custom regex for sentence boundary detection | | abbreviations | string[] | common list | Abbreviations to skip when splitting on . |

strategy: 'fixed-size'

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | chunkSize | number | 1000 | Maximum characters per chunk | | chunkOverlap | number | 200 | Character overlap between consecutive chunks | | separators | string[] | ['\n\n','\n',' ',''] | Ordered list of separators to try |

strategy: 'document-structure'

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | splitBy | string | 'paragraph' | 'paragraph' · 'heading' · 'page' · 'slide' · 'sheet' | | maxChunkSize | number | 1000 | Max characters per chunk (oversized units are split recursively) | | tableSplitStrategy | string | 'row' | 'row' (repeats header in each chunk) or 'flatten' |

strategy: 'semantic'

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | embeddingFunction | (text) => Promise<number[]> | required | Async embedding function | | similarityThreshold | number | 0.8 | Cosine similarity threshold; lower = fewer boundaries | | maxChunkSize | number | 2000 | Max characters even if similarity stays high | | bufferSize | number | 1 | Surrounding sentences used when computing similarity | | embeddingBatchSize | number | 50 | Sentences per embedding API batch | | timeout | number | 10000 | Timeout in milliseconds for individual embedding API calls. Set to 0 to disable. |

OCR Scheduler & Resource Management

When ocr: true is set, officeParser maintains an intelligent Smart Worker Pool backed by Tesseract.js:

• Dynamic Affinity: Workers persist with their last-used language, avoiding re-initialization overhead.
• LRU Re-allocation: When a new language is requested and the pool is full, the Least Recently Used idle worker is re-initialized.
• Auto-Termination: Workers shut down after 10 seconds of inactivity (configurable via ocrConfig.autoTerminateTimeout).

OCR Config (ocrConfig)

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | language | string | 'eng' | Tesseract language code(s), e.g. 'eng+fra' | | workerPath | string | '' | Custom path to Tesseract worker script | | corePath | string | '' | Custom path to Tesseract core script | | langPath | string | '' | Custom path for language data files | | timeout | OcrTimeoutConfig | {} | Consolidated timeouts: autoTerminate, workerLoad, recognition | | ~~autoTerminateTimeout~~ | number | 10000 | Deprecated. Use timeout.autoTerminate instead |

See all language codes at tesseract-ocr.github.io.

OfficeParser.terminateOcr()

In short-lived scripts (CLI tools, one-off automation), call terminateOcr() after processing to bypass the idle timer and exit immediately:

const officeParser = require('officeparser');

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('file.pdf', { ocr: true });
// ... process results ...
await officeParser.terminateOcr(); // immediate exit

[!TIP] The built-in CLI (npx officeparser ...) handles this automatically. Only call it manually in your own scripts.

Browser Usage

Four bundles are available in the dist/ directory:

| Bundle | Type | Description | |--------|------|-------------| | officeparser.browser.mjs | ESM | Standard ESM bundle for modern bundlers (Vite, Webpack, Next.js). | | officeparser.browser.iife.js | IIFE | Standard UMD bundle for direct <script> inclusion (exposes global officeParser). | | officeparser.browser.slim.mjs | ESM | Slim ESM bundle with Tesseract.js (OCR) stubbed out and remote CDN URLs removed. | | officeparser.browser.slim.iife.js | IIFE | Slim UMD bundle with Tesseract.js (OCR) stubbed out and remote CDN URLs removed. |

Manifest V3 & Extension Compliance (Slim Bundles)

For strict browser environments like Chrome/Edge Manifest V3 extensions, remotely hosted code is forbidden. Use the slim bundles (officeparser.browser.slim.mjs or officeparser.browser.slim.iife.js) as they do not include default remote CDN urls or the Tesseract OCR engine.

ESM (Vite / Webpack / Next.js)

import { OfficeParser } from 'officeparser';

const handleFile = async (event) => {
    const file = event.target.files[0];
    const buffer = await file.arrayBuffer();
    const ast = await OfficeParser.parseOffice(new Uint8Array(buffer));
    console.log(ast.toText());
};

Script Tag

<script src="dist/officeparser.browser.iife.js"></script>
<script>
    async function handleFile(event) {
        const file = event.target.files[0];
        const buffer = await file.arrayBuffer();
        const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice(new Uint8Array(buffer));
        console.log(ast.toText());
    }
</script>

[!NOTE] File paths don't work in the browser. Always pass a Buffer, ArrayBuffer, or Uint8Array. Passing a path string will throw a descriptive FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED_IN_BROWSER error.

PDF Worker Configuration

When parsing PDFs in the browser, a Web Worker is required. If pdfWorkerSrc is omitted, a jsDelivr CDN link is used automatically:

// Uses default CDN worker:
const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice(pdfArrayBuffer);

// Or specify your own:
const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice(pdfArrayBuffer, {
    pdfWorkerSrc: 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/build/pdf.worker.min.mjs'
});

[!NOTE] The pdfjs-dist worker version must match the version bundled with officeparser (currently 6.1.200).

Troubleshooting & Common Issues

| Symptom | Fix | |---------|-----| | Node.js process stays alive after finishing | Call await officeParser.terminateOcr() at end of script when OCR was used | | "Worker not found" in browser for PDF | Verify pdfWorkerSrc points to pdf.worker.min.mjs matching version 6.1.200 | | Low OCR accuracy | Verify ocrConfig.language matches the document language; quality depends on image resolution | | Out of memory on large Excel files | Call ast.toText() early and discard the AST object to allow garbage collection | | md/html/csv buffer not detected | Add fileType: 'md' (or 'html', 'csv') to config (these formats have no magic bytes) | | IMPROPER_BUFFERS error | Usually means no file extension and no fileType hint was provided for a buffer input | | PDF generation fails | Install the optional peer dependency: npm install puppeteer |

For a full debugging guide, visit the Live Documentation.

Known Limitations

1. ODT/ODS Charts: May show inaccurate data when the chart references external cell ranges or uses complex layout-based data.
2. PDF Images (Browser): Extracted as BMP files for cross-platform compatibility. Conversion is automatic.

npm: https://npmjs.com/package/officeparser

github: https://github.com/harshankur/officeParser

Support the Project

If officeParser has helped you save time, consider supporting its continued development. Your sponsorship helps maintain the project, add new features, and keep it robust for everyone.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License; see the LICENSE file for details.