You can render your MyST documents as Microsoft Word documents.

Export to a Microsoft Word document to easily share with your colleagues.

Figure 1:Export to a Microsoft Word document to easily share with your colleagues.

Exporting to Word

To create a new docx export type for your MyST document, in your document frontmatter, add an exports list:

---
title: My Document
exports:
  - format: docx
    output: exports/my-document.docx
---

To build the exports, use the myst build command, which will work with your project structure if it exists and create a document in the output path that you specify.

myst build my-document.md --docx

Based on the output field in the export list in the frontmatter, the PDF and a log file will be written to exports/my-document.docx.

When opening, click Yes to "Accept Links"

The default export creates links for cross references and citations, and the first time this is opened Microsoft Word asks you if you would like to link these. Click Yes.

Math and Equations

Currently MyST export does not fully create math in Word's format, instead, LaTeX\LaTeX is used, which can easily be converted inside of Word.

  1. Select any equation and open the equation toolbar
  2. Click LaTeX
  3. In the convert dropdown, select "All - Professional"
  4. Click convert
To fix equations in Word, use the equation toolbar to select LaTeX and from the dropdown select, all professional, then click convert.

Figure 3:To fix equations in Word, use the equation toolbar to select LaTeX and from the dropdown select, all professional, then click convert.

Rendering Word with myst-to-docx

The rendering process for word documents uses the myst-to-docx package. The library works together with mystjs for sharing information about frontmatter (e.g. title, keywords, authors, and affiliations).

Word Templates

We are looking for contributions in this area to improve Microsoft Word export, please reach out if you want to help!

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