What’s New in CKEditor 5's Converters: Introducing Support for Multi-level Lists and More
Over the last 6 months, CKEditor has made improvements to the Import from Word and Export to Word document converters, including functional improvements and bug fixes.
In the most recent on-premise release 1.20.0, support has been introduced for the new Multi-Level List feature, Document Lists, and improvements were made to image spacing. In release 1.19.0, watermarks and Bookmarks support was introduced.
What are Word Document Converters?
Converters in CKEditor 5 are tools that transform HTML into Word documents and vice versa. They support features such as content styles, lists, and complex elements like tables and images, preserve styles, and offer automation via REST API.
Converters are indispensable for users who need to work seamlessly between their web-based content and traditional document formats. The converters are available for both cloud and on-premises deployment, ensuring a cohesive workflow for content creation, editing, and distribution for a wide range of applications.
What’s new in Word Document Converters?
The features mentioned in this section are introduced for both Export to Word and Import from Word.
NEW Multi-level Lists
The converters now support legal-style numbering, commonly used in legal documents with the fully integrated new CKEditor 5’s Multi-level lists feature. This enables preserving hierarchical numbering (e.g., 1, 1.1, 1.1.1) for clarity and organization of the documents. Both Import from Word and Export to Word support this feature to ensure consistency across workflows.
Document Lists
In Import from Word, paragraphs following list items with equal or greater indentation are now recognized as part of the list item, preserving complex list structures from Word documents.
In Export to Word, block elements nested within list items are flattened, and their content is converted into indented paragraphs for consistent formatting.
NEW Text Part Language
Starting with the 1.19.0 release for on-premises, both converters are now fully compatible with the Text Part Language feature for better adherence to localization standards. Import from Word outputs the appropriate lang attribute for text fragments in the converted content, while Export to Word retains these language settings in the resulting document to ensure consistent localization.
Improvements for Export to Word
Watermark support
Users can now add semi-transparent image watermarks to every page of an exported Word document for branding, copyright protection, or decorative purposes. Images can be added either through a URL or as Base64 data, and their dimensions can be customized.
Bookmarks Support
Transform elements with the id attribute into Word document bookmarks, enabling quick navigation within the document.
Improved Image Spacing
Recognizes image margins for floating elements, maintaining proper spacing between images and text.
Image Merge Fields
Supports merge fields within image source attributes, enabling dynamic image references during export.
Other Improvements for Export
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Selected dependencies have been updated to the latest versions, improving performance and security.
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Improved table handling including table spacing, rendering across multiple pages, and pagination
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Empty documents now retain the specified content language in the exported Word document, ensuring a better editing experience even when no initial content is present.
Improvements for Import from Word
Improvements for Import from Word mainly include bug fixes and performance improvements. A detailed list of improvements for both converters can be found in the changelog.
