Docx File Download

[Portiss]

I am reaching out to inquire about the capabilities of Affinity Design in creating customized business document templates, specifically invoices, quotes, and purchase orders, that can be exported in DOCX format.

Here is a summary of my requirements:

    1.    Dynamic Placeholders: My templates require dynamic placeholders for fields like <InvoiceAmount>, <ClientName>, <DueDate>, etc., which are compatible with accounting and invoicing software platforms. These platforms need to recognize the placeholders within the DOCX file as fields, rather than flat text.
    
    2.    Export to DOCX: A key requirement is to export these designs to DOCX format while preserving layout, design elements, and placeholders. Especially Table design, Many design tools offer DOCX export, but the placeholders and formatting are often lost or flattened, which limits compatibility with business software platforms.
    
    3.    Post-Export Editing: If your software does not natively support dynamic placeholders for DOCX export, would you recommend any plugins, add-ons, or third-party solutions that can help integrate dynamic content? Alternatively, any guidance on editing the exported DOCX file to retain compatibility with placeholders recognized by invoicing platforms would be appreciated.

Thanks,
James

[Komatös]

Hello @Portiss and welcome to the forums.

Affinity Designer is not suitable for this task. It is better to use Affinity Publisher and the data merge function. The variable data should then be available in a table format such as .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv or .json.

But none of the Affinity programmes are able to export or save files in DOCX format

[GarryP]

To add a little to what was said above, none of the Affinity applications can export to DOCX files.

You can export to a PDF and then might be able to use some other software to convert that output to DOCX but I would advise using software which does what you need it to do rather than rely on multiple exporting/conversion processes which could cause problems ‘down the line’.

I would suggest looking at something like LibreOffice which has templating, form design, database, and mail merge facilities built-in, and it’s totally free.

[Portiss]

So then would Affinity Publisher work not Affinity design? Still with the capabilities to export to docx with dynamics

[PaulEC]

You cannot export to .docx from any Affinity software.