docxlisted

# DOCX creation, editing, and analysis ## Overview A user may ask you to create, edit, or analyze the contents of a .docx file. A .docx file is essentially a ZIP archive containing XML files and other resources that you can read or edit. You have different tools and workflows available for different tasks. ## Workflow Decision Tree ### Reading/Analyzing Content Use "Text extraction" or "Raw XML access" sections below ### Creating New Document Use "Creating a new Word document" workflow ### Editing Existing Document - **Your own document + simple changes** Use "Basic OOXML editing" workflow - **Someone else's document** Use **"Redlining workflow"** (recommended default) - **Legal, academic, business, or government docs** Use **"Redlining workflow"** (required) ## Reading and analyzing content ### Text extraction If you just need to read the text contents of a document, you should convert the document to markdown using pandoc. Pandoc provides excellent support for preserving document structure and can show tracked changes: ```bash # Convert document to markdown with tracked changes pandoc --track-changes=all path-to-file.docx -o output.md # Options: --track-changes=accept/reject/all ``` **Large document safeguard:** For documents > 5MB or > 50 pages, convert to markdown first, then read only needed sections with `grep` or `head` rather than loading entire output. ### Raw XML access You need raw XML access for: comments, complex formatting, document structure,