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Troubleshoot Word add-ins

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This article discusses troubleshooting issues that are unique to Word. Use the feedback tool at the end of the page to suggest other issues that can be added to the article.

It's by design that the Body.insertFileFromBase64 method excludes any header or footer that was in the source file.

To include any headers or footers from the source file, use Document.insertFileFromBase64 instead.

Layout breaks when using insertHtml while cursor is in content control in header

This issue may occur when the following three conditions are met.

  1. Have at least one content control in the header and at least one in the footer of the Word document.
  2. Ensure the cursor is inside a content control in the header.
  3. Call insertHtml to set a content control in the footer.

The footer is then unexpectedly mixed with the header. To avoid this, clear the content control in the footer before setting it, as shown in the following code sample.

await Word.run(async (context) => {
    // Credit to https://github.com/barisbikmaz for this version of the workaround.
    // For more information, see https://github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/issues/129.

    // Let's say there are 2 content controls in the header and 1 in the footer.
    const contentControls = context.document.contentControls;
    contentControls.load();

    await context.sync().then(function () {
        // Clear the 2 content controls in the header.
        contentControls.items[0].clear(); 
        contentControls.items[1].clear();

        // Clear the control control in the footer then update it.
        contentControls.items[2].clear();
        contentControls.items[2].insertHtml('<p>New Footer</p>', 'Replace');
    });
});

Meaning of null property values in the response

null has special implications in the Word JavaScript APIs. It's used to represent default values or no formatting.

Formatting properties such as color will contain null values in the response when different values exist in the specified range. For example, if you retrieve a range and load its range.font.color property:

  • If all text in the range has the same font color, range.font.color specifies that color.
  • If multiple font colors are present within the range, range.font.color is null.

See also