DOCX Creator
Thin incremental layer over minimax-skills:minimax-docx. Not a document engine.
Read this first. The OpenXML SDK capability lives in minimax-docx. This skill contains
zero engine code. What it contains is the part that took a full debugging session to learn:
where that engine's CLI stops being usable, how to drive its SDK correctly for Chinese formal
documents, and how to verify the output so you don't ship a file that looks fine to you and
broken in Word.
Division of labor
| Layer | Owner | What lives there |
|---|
OpenXML SDK (DocumentFormat.OpenXml), WordprocessingDocument API, XSD validator, style templates, OpenXML encyclopedia | minimax-skills:minimax-docx | Engine + reference docs. Never duplicated here. |
| Where the CLI's expressiveness ceiling is, and when to abandon it for C# | this skill | ISSUE-001, ISSUE-002 |
| A verified markdown-to-docx generator for Chinese formal documents | this skill | scripts/Program.cs |
| Chinese formal-document typography rules that OpenXML lets you get wrong | this skill | Hard rules below + ISSUE-004…007 |
| Real end-to-end visual verification chain | this skill | references/verification_protocol.md |
Locate the engine at the marketplace install path, typically
~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/minimax-skills/skills/minimax-docx/.
Go read minimax-docx directly for anything structural this skill does not cover — images,
track changes, comments, TOC, multi-section layouts, template application. Its
minimax-docx/references/ folder (cjk_typography.md, openxml_element_order.md,
openxml_units.md, troubleshooting.md) and its Samples/*.cs are the authority for SDK
patterns. Do not reinvent them here.
Routing: which path for this document?
| Situation | Path |
|---|
| Chinese contract / agreement / 公文 / any doc with 甲乙方 info blocks, numbered clauses, signature block, tables | C# OpenXML via scripts/Program.cs (this skill) |
| Plain prose, headings and paragraphs only, no bold / lists / tables | minimax-docx CLI create --content-json is enough |
| Fill or edit an existing .docx | minimax-docx pipeline B (edit-content), plus this skill's layout and verification guidance |
| Match an existing .docx's formatting | minimax-docx pipeline C (apply-template) |
| Existing Word/WPS → repaired layout / selected excerpt → PDF | Keep the Word source; follow references/word-to-pdf.md and references/verification_protocol.md |
| Markdown → PDF | daymade-docs:pdf-creator |
Rule of thumb: the CLI's --content-json understands exactly three block types
(heading, paragraph, pagebreak). Bold, lists, tables, borders, footers, fonts,
alignment — none of it is expressible. A Chinese contract needs all of them. See ISSUE-001.
Quick start
The generator reads markdown and writes a formatted .docx. Copy it next to your document so
build artifacts stay out of the skill directory:
# 1. Stage the generator beside your markdown
mkdir -p _docxgen && cp <skill-dir>/scripts/Program.cs <skill-dir>/scripts/mmdocx-gen.csproj \
<skill-dir>/scripts/.gitignore _docxgen/
# 2. Generate (first run restores DocumentFormat.OpenXml + Markdig, ~20s)
dotnet run --project _docxgen -- your-doc.md your-doc.docx
# 3. Structural validation via the engine's XSD validator (note the roll-forward env — ISSUE-003)
DOTNET_ROLL_FORWARD=Major dotnet run \
--project ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/minimax-skills/skills/minimax-docx/scripts/dotnet/MiniMaxAIDocx.Cli \
-- validate --input your-doc.docx
# 4. MANDATORY visual verification — never skip, never substitute qlmanage
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir /tmp/docxcheck your-doc.docx
pdftoppm -png -r 100 /tmp/docxcheck/your-doc.pdf /tmp/docxcheck/page
# then Read every /tmp/docxcheck/page-NN.png
# 5. MANDATORY if Microsoft Word.app is installed — LibreOffice cannot see ISSUE-012
open -a "Microsoft Word" your-doc.docx # check the title bar for "兼容性模式", check every page
Full command details and troubleshooting: scripts/README.md.
Full verification steps and pass/fail criteria: references/verification_protocol.md.
Hard rules (violating these means rework)
1. Alignment is layered — this is the expensive one
Never justify the whole document. Three layers, three alignments:
| Content | Alignment | Why |
|---|
| Document title (H1) | Center | Convention |
| Clause headings (H2+) | Left | Convention |
| Info blocks and signature blocks — 甲方/乙方/统一社会信用代码/法定代表人/日期, i.e. any paragraph whose lines are joined by markdown soft or hard line breaks | Left | Justification stretches every line except the paragraph's last. A multi-line info block is one paragraph, so all but its final line get blown out into huge inter-character gaps. |
| Ordinary body prose | Justified (Both) | Clean right edge |
The rule is machine-checkable, so do not eyeball it: if the markdown paragraph's inline tree
contains a LineBreakInline, left-align that paragraph; otherwise justify it. Implemented in
the case ParagraphBlock p: arm of Main's block-dispatch switch, with the break detection in
InlineRuns. (Line numbers are deliberately not given here — they drift every time the file
grows; see scripts/README.md's function-name lookup table instead.) Full write-up: ISSUE-004.
2. Independent lists restart; continuations retain numbering
Each independent markdown list must get its own NumId plus a LevelOverride carrying
StartOverrideNumberingValue = 1. Reuse one NumId across clauses and clause 3's list
silently continues from 4. Implemented across the case ListBlock lb: arm and the
NumberingDefinitionsPart setup — see scripts/README.md's lookup table for both.
Two SDK traps come with it (wrong class name, wrong element order) — ISSUE-005, ISSUE-006.
For existing Word lists, preserve intentional continuations. Resolve numId and its level
before changing geometry; numId=0 disables numbering. Typed ordinals are text, not an
automatic list. See ISSUE-016.
3. CJK fonts need both slots
A run must set RunFonts { Ascii, HighAnsi, EastAsia }. Setting only the Latin slots leaves
Chinese characters to Word's fallback, and the document renders in whatever the reader's
machine picks. Shipped defaults: Latin Times New Roman; East Asian 宋体 for body, 黑体 for
headings. Chinese bold runs switch family to 黑体 — 宋体 has no true bold weight and
renderer-synthesized bold smears multi-stroke characters (ISSUE-014). Sizes are OpenXML
half-points — body 21 (10.5pt, the common Chinese manuscript size), H1 36 (18pt), clause
heading 28 (14pt). Body paragraphs also get a 2-character first-line indent (420 twips at
10.5pt — change it in lockstep with the body size). ISSUE-007.
4. Page and table basics
A4 is 11906 × 16838 twips with 1440 twip margins; page number goes in a centered footer
PAGE field. Tables need all six borders (top/bottom/left/right/insideH/insideV,
in that ECMA-376 order — ISSUE-013) and a tblGrid (ISSUE-012) — set fewer borders and cells
look unruled in print; omit tblGrid and the file fails strict validation even though
LibreOffice hides it. Implemented in BuildTable and the SectionProperties/FooterPart
setup in Main — see scripts/README.md's lookup table.
Verification is not optional
Banned: qlmanage thumbnails as visual proof. macOS Quick Look renders with a different
engine than Word and will happily show a clean-looking page for a document whose info blocks
are stretched apart. A document was declared "verified perfect" on qlmanage evidence and
opened broken in Word — that is the origin of this rule. ISSUE-008.
Required chain: generate → XSD validate → soffice --headless --convert-to pdf →
pdftoppm -png → Read every page image → check the five failure modes
(info blocks not stretched / each list restarting at 1 / table borders present / signature
block intact / no orphaned pagination) → if Microsoft Word.app is installed, open the actual
file in it and check the title bar for "兼容性模式" plus every page. Details, prerequisites
and the "what counts as failure" list: references/verification_protocol.md.
LibreOffice rendering clean is not the same claim as "Word renders this correctly."
ISSUE-012 is a real, reproduced case where a file passed every LibreOffice-based check in this
chain — clean info blocks, correct numbering, intact tables — and still opened in real Word
with "兼容性模式" in the title bar and phantom bullet markers on paragraphs that were never
given any numbering. LibreOffice has no equivalent fallback path and is structurally unable to
surface that class of defect. This is ISSUE-008's own lesson (a lenient renderer hides what
Word does) recurring one layer up; treat LibreOffice-only verification as incomplete whenever
Word is available to check against directly.
Before overwriting a delivered .docx, check for a sibling ~$<name>.docx — that is Word's
owner lock, meaning the recipient has the old version open. Overwriting works, but they will
keep seeing the stale document until they close and reopen it. Tell them. ISSUE-011.
Customizing
scripts/Program.cs is ~260 lines of straightforward OpenXML. Edit it directly for fonts,
sizes, spacing, borders, or new block types — that is the intended workflow. Before adding a
structural feature (images, TOC, headers, track changes), read the corresponding
Samples/*.cs in minimax-docx first; those patterns are SDK-version-verified and will save
you a compile-error loop.
If you append a new property to RunProperties, ParagraphProperties, TableProperties,
TableCellProperties, or TableBorders: it must go in ECMA-376's child-element order for
that parent, not wherever .Append() reads naturally in the C#. This is not a style
preference — get it wrong and you reproduce ISSUE-012/ISSUE-013: minimax-docx validate still
reports PASSED, LibreOffice still renders the file cleanly, and real Word still opens it in
Compatibility Mode with unrequested formatting scattered across the document. The current code
already carries a schema-order comment at each construction site (RunProps, Para,
BuildTable) — extend the existing property list in place rather than appending after it, and
if you add a genuinely new element, look up its position in openxml_element_order.md
(minimax-docx) before deciding where the .Append() call goes. Re-run Step 3a of the
verification protocol (real Word, not just LibreOffice) after any such change — that is the
only check in the whole chain that would have caught this class of bug.
References
references/word-to-pdf.md — existing Word source, excerpt selection, accepted revisions,
layout repair and PDF delivery; no Markdown round-trip.references/known_issues.md — symptom / root cause / fix / verification for
every trap hit while building this pipeline. Read before debugging anything.references/verification_protocol.md — the full end-to-end verification chain, its
prerequisites, its pass criteria, and the substitutions that are forbidden.scripts/README.md — how to run the generator, what markdown it supports, environment
requirements.