Word template generation and processing

Template generation revolutionizes how organizations handle document creation. Instead of manually creating each document or maintaining multiple versions of similar files, template generation enables you to:

  • Separate content from design — Designers can perfect the document layout while developers focus on data integration.
  • Ensure consistency — Every generated document follows the exact same format and styling.
  • Scale effortlessly — Generate thousands of personalized documents in minutes rather than hours or days.
  • Reduce errors — Eliminate copy-paste mistakes and ensure data accuracy through automation.
  • Enable dynamic content — Automatically adjust document structure based on data (for example, show/hide sections, repeat rows).

How Nutrient helps you achieve this

Nutrient Java SDK transforms complex template processing into a straightforward task. With our SDK, you don’t need to worry about:

  • Parsing Word document internals
  • Managing XML structures
  • Handling style preservation
  • Complex placeholder replacement logic

Instead, Nutrient provides a clean, intuitive API that handles all the complexity behind the scenes, letting you focus on your business logic.

Complete implementation

What follows is a complete working example that demonstrates the power of Nutrient’s template processing:

package io.nutrient.Sample;
import io.nutrient.sdk.Document;
import io.nutrient.sdk.License;
import io.nutrient.sdk.exceptions.NutrientException;
import io.nutrient.sdk.editors.WordEditor;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;


public class WordTemplate {


    public static void main(String[] args) throws NutrientException {

These lines set up our Java application:

  • package io.nutrient.Sample; — Declares the package for our class.
  • The import statements bring in all necessary classes from Nutrient SDK and Java standard library.
  • public class WordTemplate — Defines our main class.
  • public static void main(String[] args) throws NutrientException — The entry point that declares it may throw Nutrient-specific exceptions.
        License.registerKey("");

This line initializes Nutrient Java SDK with your license key. The empty string is a placeholder — you’ll need to insert your actual license key here.

        try (Document document = Document.open("input_template.docx")) {

This line opens the Word template file. The try-with-resources(opens in a new tab) syntax ensures the document is automatically closed when you’re done, preventing resource leaks.

            WordEditor editor = WordEditor.edit(document);

Here, you create a WordEditor instance that will enable you to manipulate the document. This editor provides all the methods needed for template processing.

            String model = null;
            try {
                model = Files.readString(Path.of("input_template_model.json"));
            } catch (IOException e) {
                System.out.println("Failed to read template model file");
            }

This block reads the JSON data model:

  • String model = null; — Initialize the model variable.
  • model = Files.readString(Path.of("input_template_model.json")); — Read the entire JSON file content into a string.
  • The try-catch block handles potential file reading errors gracefully.
            editor.applyTemplateModel(model);

This single line is where the magic happens. It takes the JSON model and applies it to the template, replacing all placeholders with actual data while preserving all formatting.

            editor.saveWithModelAs("output.docx");

This saves the processed document with all template replacements completed to a new file.

        }
    }
}

These closing braces complete the try-with-resources block, the main method, and the class definition.

Conclusion

With just 35 lines of code (including imports and proper structure), you’ve implemented a complete template processing solution. The actual template processing logic is essentially just four lines:

  1. Open the document.
  2. Create an editor.
  3. Apply the template model.
  4. Save the result.

This is the power of Nutrient: complex document processing made remarkably straightforward. No need to understand Word’s internal structure, no XML manipulation, no style management headaches. Just clean, straightforward code that gets the job done.

You can download this ready-to-use sample package, fully configured to help you dive into the Java SDK right away.