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⚡ DocFill

Fill Word documents automatically from your data.

Desktop app (macOS and Windows) that generates .docx —and optionally .pdf— documents from templates with {{...}} variables, using data from Excel or entered by hand.

Built with Electron + React + Vite. All processing is local: your data never leaves your machine.

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📸 Screenshots

Home	Generate (wizard)
Templates	Settings

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✨ What it does

You save Word templates that contain variables ({{name}}, {{taxid}}, {{date}}…) and DocFill generates the filled documents: one per row of an Excel file, combining several Excel files, or from a manual form.

• 📄 Templates — upload a .docx, it automatically detects the {{…}} variables and lets you edit them (readable label, type: text/date/number/amount, and default value). Live document preview.
• ⚡ Generate (step-by-step wizard) — template → data source → data → confirm → result.
• 📊 From Excel (one or more files):
  • One document per row of the main list.
  • If you load several Excel files, the rest provide shared data (identical across all) — handy to combine, e.g., a list of employees with the fixed company and project details.
  • Automatic column → variable mapping (by name, tolerant to case/accents/spaces), with a fixed-value option per variable.
  • Row selection: all, a range or a list (1-5, 8, 12-20).
• ✍️ Manual — dynamic form with validation and a live preview.
• 🧩 Fixed-value profiles — save reusable sets (company details, etc.) and apply them in one click.
• ✅ Pre-flight check — flags empty fields, invalid numbers and duplicate filenames before generating.
• 🛡️ Failure tolerance — if a row fails, the rest carry on and you're told which ones failed.
• 🔢 Automatic formatting — amounts 4,200.00, dates dd/mm/yyyy based on each variable's type.
• 🗂️ Configurable filename — pattern with variables + separators (also editable on the confirm step).
• 🧾 PDF — export a .pdf copy of each document (via headless LibreOffice).
• 📦 When finished — open the folder, export everything as a .zip or merge the PDFs into one.
• 🕘 History — recent activity with the option to repeat a generation.
• 🎨 Appearance — accent color, density; native window frame (macOS / Windows); ES/EN language.
• 🖱️ Drag and drop .docx / .xlsx files.

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🚀 Development

Requirements: Node.js 20 and pnpm (via Corepack).

Note: this project uses pnpm 10 (pnpm 11 isn't compatible with Node 20). Activate it with: corepack prepare pnpm@10.34.1 --activate

pnpm install          # install dependencies (node-linker=hoisted, see .npmrc)
pnpm dev              # Vite + Electron together (desktop app, hot reload)
pnpm dev:web          # UI only in the browser (simulated backend, no native engine)
node scripts/smoke-engine.cjs   # document engine test (detect/fill/zip/batches)

To open DevTools in dev: DOCFILL_DEVTOOLS=1 pnpm dev.

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📦 Packaging (installers)

pnpm build:mac            # macOS, current architecture (arm64) → release/*.dmg + *.zip
pnpm build:mac:universal  # macOS Intel + Apple Silicon (universal)
pnpm build:win            # Windows x64 → "release/DocFill Setup 0.1.0.exe"

Output lands in release/. Builds are unsigned (CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY=false), so on other people's machines:

• macOS: right-click → Open (Gatekeeper).
• Windows: More info → Run anyway (SmartScreen).

Distribution without warnings requires signing/notarization (Apple Developer ID on Mac, a code-signing certificate on Windows) — they're independent systems.

PDF / LibreOffice

.docx → .pdf conversion uses headless LibreOffice. Binary lookup order (electron/engine/pdf.cjs): LIBREOFFICE_PATH → bundled copy → system install. If none is found, PDF export disables itself and only .docx files are generated.

To bundle LibreOffice so PDF works with no prior install:

# macOS — downloads LibreOffice and copies it to resources/libreoffice/ (~1 GB)
bash scripts/fetch-libreoffice-mac.sh

# Windows (run ON Windows) — see scripts/BUNDLING-WINDOWS.md
pnpm fetch:lo:win

Bundling LibreOffice adds ~700 MB–1 GB to the installer. If resources/libreoffice/ is empty, the build stays small and PDF uses the system LibreOffice.

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🧱 Architecture

electron/
  main.cjs            main process: window, dialogs, IPC
  preload.cjs         secure bridge (contextBridge) → window.docfill
  engine/
    docx.cjs          detect variables + fill (docxtemplater) + preview (mammoth)
    xlsx.cjs          read Excel (exceljs)
    pdf.cjs           docx → pdf (headless LibreOffice)
    generate.cjs      orchestration: names, formatting, writing, progress, per-row failures
    export.cjs        zip results + merge PDFs (pdf-lib)
    store.cjs         persistent state (electron-store): templates, settings, history, profiles
src/
  App.jsx             routing, state, appearance
  api.js              unified backend access (native or simulated in the browser)
  i18n.js             ES/EN strings + translation helper
  components/         Icon, TitleBar, Sidebar, Toolbar, DocPreview, TemplatePreview, Switch, FilenameBuilder
  screens/            Home, Templates, Generate, Settings
  styles.css          design tokens + styles
resources/libreoffice bundled copy of LibreOffice (mac; not versioned)
scripts/              make-icon, fetch-libreoffice-*, smoke-engine

src/api.js unifies backend access: in Electron it uses window.docfill (preload); in a plain browser (pnpm dev:web) it falls back to a simulated mode so you can explore the UI without the native engine.

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🛠️ Stack

• Electron 31 · React 18 · Vite 5
• docxtemplater + pizzip (fill .docx)
• exceljs (read Excel) · mammoth (preview) · pdf-lib (merge PDF)
• electron-store (persistence) · electron-builder (installers)
• LibreOffice headless (PDF conversion)

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🔒 Privacy

Everything is processed locally. Templates and settings are stored in the app's data folder for the user; nothing is sent to any server.

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📋 Notes

• It's a real desktop tool; uploaded templates are copied into the app's data folder.
• macOS universal does not bundle LibreOffice (the bundled copy is arm64); for offline PDF on Apple Silicon use the arm64 build.

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📄 License

MIT © 2026 Benjamín Acosta Salinas