DOCX Word Document Processing
Claude creates, edits, and analyzes Word documents — handling the fiddly stuff like TOCs, headers/footers, and tracked changes
What it does & when to use it
Anthropic's official Word-document skill, one of the implementations behind Claude.ai's file capabilities. The core approach treats .docx as what it actually is — a ZIP of XML files: new documents are generated directly with docx-js, existing ones are edited via unpack → modify XML → repack, and the skill documents a long list of real Word-format gotchas it has already hit (default paper size is A4 not Letter, tables need both column and cell widths set, bullets must never be typed as literal Unicode characters).
Generates new Word documents (titles, table of contents, headers/footers, page numbers, tables, hyperlinks, footnotes, columns, bookmarks, and other common layout elements); edits existing documents (unpack raw XML, modify, repack); analyzes existing content (pandoc-based text extraction, including tracked changes); handles Word's track-changes mode (accept all changes to produce a clean copy); inserts or replaces images inside a document; converts legacy .doc to .docx; and renders documents to images for visual layout checks.
- Turn meeting notes into a formal report with company letterhead, page numbers, and a table of contents
- Batch-convert a folder of legacy .doc files to .docx
- Export a heavily tracked-changes contract as a clean copy with all revisions accepted
- Replace specific paragraph content in an existing Word template while preserving all formatting
- Extract plain text from a long document for other downstream uses (e.g. summarization)
Pros & cons
- Documents a long list of real Word-format traps: "docx-js defaults to A4 not US Letter, must be set explicitly," "tables need both columnWidths on the table AND width on each cell, or rendering breaks on some platforms," "never type Unicode bullet characters, use a numbering config instead" — the exact mistakes you'd likely hit writing this from scratch
- Covers both generation and editing — build from nothing, or make targeted edits to an existing template
- Officially maintained and shares the same underlying implementation as Claude.ai's "generate a Word doc" feature
- Licensed as Proprietary (source-available) — no free redistribution or commercial repackaging
- Editing existing documents relies on manual XML manipulation; with complex nested styles this still requires careful verification
- From-scratch generation depends on docx-js (an npm package), so a Node.js environment is required
How to install
Three options:
- Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills, then/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills(bundled with pdf, pptx, xlsx) - Claude.ai: enabled by default on paid plans
- Claude API: upload via the Skills API per Anthropic's docs
How to use
Just describe the task — mentioning "Word document," ".docx," or asking for a report/memo/letter triggers it automatically. E.g. "Turn these meeting notes into a Word report with a table of contents," or "Accept all the tracked changes in this contract and give me a clean copy."
Compared to similar skills
Compared to using python-docx or a raw docx-js script directly, the main value is that common rendering bugs (page setup, table widths, bullet characters, cross-platform quirks) have already been hit and turned into rules, sparing you the layout-debugging loop. Compared to the sibling pdf/pptx/xlsx skills, docx leans more toward "document editing correctness" and doesn't have a dedicated visual-design chapter the way pptx does.