Article #000001017
Question
Why can I not retain the formatting of a Microsoft Word document when I copy/paste it into the AdvoDoc editor?
Resolution
When you save a Microsoft document into HTML, Microsoft injects its own HTML tags into the saved HTML file. Not only does this not work in AdvoDoc, Microsoft HTML will not work in most HTML applications or authoring tools. You could use one of the following free options:
The AdvoDoc document generation suffers significantly due to a lack of support from the platform in generating Microsoft Word documents natively within the platform. Due to this, there is a very limited scope of how things get previewed or generated by AdvoDoc. The MS Word document preview within the AdvoDoc designer or from the Create Document screen is only generated using a PDF engine, which means we cannot be certain that the preview the user sees will be the same in the AdvoDoc output. Users should not depend on the AdvoDoc preview for documents with the output type of MS Word (DOCX).
With limited capabilities from the platform in allowing the generation of MS Word documents, we have found a working formula for putting headers and footers in MS Word document outputs. The formula is documented in our help articles, and the structure cannot be deviated from if the expectation is to get the page numbers in the footers generated in output. The formula structure we documented needs to be the first thing in the AdvoDoc designer source, and the rest of the AdvoDoc template content needs to go after that. We know this makes the AdvoDoc editor show the extra header/footer content significantly displaced in the editor user interface, but that is ONLY visible like that in the editor. In the actual document output, if our documentation structure for this advanced feature is followed to the point, the footer will be placed at the bottom of the pages and on every page of the Word output document.
We know and understand that it requires an advanced level of effort from customers/partners in preparing and consuming AdvoDoc templates, but given the limited support from the platform on this technology, we presently do not have any better way to accomplish the document assembly.