officeparser

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

Generates: Markdown · HTML · CSV · RTF · PDF · 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
• 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 --format=text

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

# Convert PPTX to HTML
npx officeparser presentation.pptx --format=html --output=preview.html

# Convert XLSX to CSV
npx officeparser data.xlsx --format=csv

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

CLI Options

Flag	Values	Default	Description
--format	json|text|md|html|csv|rtf|pdf|chunks	json	Output format
--output	path	—	Write output to a file
--toText	true|false	false	Deprecated. Use --format=text
--ignoreNotes	true|false	false	Ignore speaker notes (PPTX/ODP)
--putNotesAtLast	true|false	false	Collect notes at end of output
--newlineDelimiter	string	\n	Delimiter between lines
--extractAttachments	true|false	false	Extract images/charts as Base64
--ocr	true|false	false	Enable OCR for images
--includeRawContent	true|false	false	Include raw XML/RTF in nodes
--includeBreakNodes	true|false	false	Include break nodes (DOCX only)
--outputErrorToConsole	true|false	false	Deprecated. Use onWarning callback
--verbose	true|false	false	Show full error stack traces

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' });

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' · 'chunks'

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

npm install puppeteer

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' | ...  (11 formats)
├── metadata: { author, title, created, modified, customProperties, styleMap, ... }
├── content: [ OfficeContentNode ]
│   ├── type: 'paragraph' | 'heading' | 'table' | 'list' | 'image' | 'chart' | ...
│   ├── text: string  (concatenated text of node + all descendants)
│   ├── children: [ OfficeContentNode ]  (recursive)
│   ├── formatting: { bold, italic, underline, color, size, font, alignment, ... }
│   └── metadata: { level, listId, row, col, rowSpan, colSpan, style, ... }
├── 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
    customProperties?: Record<string, any>  // user-defined metadata from the document
    styleMap?: Record<string, TextFormatting>  // named styles → formatting definitions
    formatting?: TextFormatting              // document-wide defaults
}

Accessing custom properties:

const ast = await officeParser.parseOffice('contract.docx');
console.log(ast.metadata.customProperties);
// { "ProjectID": "ABC-123", "InternalReview": true }

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 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 speaker notes (PPTX/ODP)
putNotesAtLast	boolean	false	Collect all notes at the end instead of inline
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
pdfWorkerSrc	string	CDN (jsDelivr)	Path/URL to pdf.worker.min.mjs (required in browser)
onWarning	(issue: OfficeIssue) => void	—	Callback for non-fatal parsing issues
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

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	true	Wrap output in a full <html> document with CSS
chartJsSrc	string	jsDelivr CDN	URL for the Chart.js library

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.)
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)

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	false	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

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
autoTerminateTimeout	number	10000	Inactivity timeout in ms before auto-teardown (0 = disabled)

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

Two bundles are available in the dist/ directory:

Bundle	Usage
officeparser.browser.mjs	ESM — use with import statements or modern bundlers (Vite, Webpack, Next.js)
officeparser.browser.iife.js	IIFE — use with a <script> tag; exposes the global officeParser object

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/pdfjs-dist@5.6.205/build/pdf.worker.min.mjs'
});

[!NOTE] The pdfjs-dist worker version must match the version bundled with officeparser (currently 5.6.205).

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 5.6.205
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

• ODT/ODS Charts: May show inaccurate data when the chart references external cell ranges or uses complex layout-based data.
• PDF Images (Browser): Extracted as BMP files for cross-platform compatibility. Conversion is automatic.
• RTF Notes: putNotesAtLast has no effect for RTF files; footnotes and endnotes are always appended at the end.

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.