Word template processing-to-PDF/UA conversion

Document template processing is essential for organizations that need to generate consistent, professional documents at scale while maintaining accessibility standards. This sample demonstrates how to process Word document templates with dynamic data and convert the results to PDF/UA format, ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements.

Modern businesses often require automated document generation for contracts, reports, invoices, and other standardized documents. By combining template processing with PDF/UA conversion, organizations can maintain brand consistency while ensuring their documents meet accessibility standards required by many regulations and organizational policies.

The Portable Document Format/Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA) format is particularly important for organizations that must comply with accessibility standards such as Section 508, ADA, or EN 301 549. This format ensures generated documents are fully accessible to users with disabilities through screen readers and other assistive technologies.

Streamlining accessible document generation with our Java SDK

What makes this combined approach particularly powerful is the ability to maintain a single source template while producing accessible PDF documents at scale. Our SDK handles both the template processing complexity and the accessibility requirements seamlessly.

With template generation, you can:

  • Separate content from design, enabling designers to perfect layouts while developers focus on data integration
  • Ensure consistency across thousands of generated documents
  • Eliminate manual copy-paste errors through automation
  • Generate personalized documents in minutes rather than hours

By adding PDF/UA conversion to the workflow, you also ensure:

  • Full compliance with accessibility standards
  • Documents are readable by screen readers and assistive technologies
  • Preservation of semantic structure for navigation
  • Future-proof document archiving that meets regulatory requirements

Preparing the project

Start by specifying a package name and importing the required classes for both template processing and PDF/UA conversion:

package io.nutrient.Sample;


import io.nutrient.sdk.*;
import io.nutrient.sdk.exceptions.NutrientException;
import io.nutrient.sdk.editors.WordEditor;
import io.nutrient.sdk.enums.PdfConformance;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;


public class WordTemplateToPDFUA
{

Then create the main function and specify that it can throw exceptions. This enables for proper error handling in production environments:

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

Once the inherent setup from a Java application is done, focus on what’s specific to our SDK.

The first step is to initialize the SDK by registering the license. This needs to be done only once during the application’s lifetime and must occur before executing any additional logic:

        License.registerKey("");

Processing the Word template

With the SDK successfully initialized, you can begin the template processing workflow. Use a try-with-resources statement(opens in a new tab) to ensure proper resource management throughout the entire process.

First, open the Word template document:

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

Create a WordEditor instance to manipulate the document:

            WordEditor editor = WordEditor.edit(document);

Loading and applying the template data

Now you need to load the JSON data that will populate your template. The JSON file contains the dynamic content that will replace placeholders in the Word template:

            String model = Files.readString(Path.of("input_template_model.json"));

Apply the template model to replace all placeholders with actual data:

            editor.applyTemplateModel(model);

This single method call handles all the complexity of template processing, including:

  • Parsing template placeholders and merge fields
  • Replacing content while preserving formatting
  • Handling repeating sections and conditional content
  • Maintaining document structure and styles

Save the processed document as an intermediate Word file:

            editor.saveWithModelAs("output.docx");
            editor.close();
        }

At this point, you have a fully processed Word document with all template placeholders replaced by actual data.

Converting to accessible PDF/UA format

Now you’ll convert the generated Word document to PDF/UA format to ensure accessibility compliance. Open the processed document for conversion:

        try (Document processedDoc = Document.open("output.docx"))
        {

Configure PDF settings for PDF/UA conformance:

            PdfSettings pdfSettings = processedDoc.getPdfSettings();
            pdfSettings.setConformance(PdfConformance.PDF_UA_1);

Export the document as an accessible PDF:

            processedDoc.exportAsPdf("output.pdf");
        }
    }
}

That’s it! You now have both an intermediate Word document (output.docx) and a final accessible PDF (output.pdf) that meets PDF/UA standards.

Understanding the complete workflow

This sample demonstrates a powerful document generation pipeline:

  1. Template design — Create Word templates with placeholders for dynamic content
  2. Data preparation — Structure your data in JSON format matching template requirements
  3. Template processing — Apply data to generate personalized Word documents
  4. Accessibility conversion — Transform documents to PDF/UA for universal access
  5. Compliance assurance — Output meets international accessibility standards

The beauty of this approach is that template designers can work in familiar Word environments while developers ensure consistent, accessible output through automation.

Error handling

Nutrient Java SDK handles errors with exception handling. The methods in this guide can throw:

  • NutrientException for SDK-related errors during template processing or PDF conversion
  • IOException for file-reading operations when loading the JSON model

This helps with troubleshooting and implementing robust error handling logic in production systems.

Conclusion

By combining Word template processing with PDF/UA conversion, you create a complete solution for generating accessible documents at scale. In just a few lines of code, you can:

  • Process complex Word templates with dynamic data
  • Generate intermediate Word documents for review if needed
  • Produce fully accessible PDF/UA documents for distribution
  • Ensure compliance with accessibility regulations
  • Maintain consistency across all generated documents

This approach provides the flexibility of template-based generation with the assurance of accessibility compliance, making it ideal for organizations that need to produce professional, inclusive documents efficiently.

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