WordprocessingDocument.CreateFromTemplate method creates corrupted MS Word files - ms-word

Question

I have proper .dotm template.
When I create a new file based on a template by double clicking in explorer it creates the correct file (based on this template). Created file size after save is 16Kb (without any content).
But if I want to use .CreateFromTemplate method in my code I cannot open a newly created .docx file in MS Word.
New file size is 207Kb (just like .dotm file). MS Word display "run-time error 5398" and not open the file.
I'm using nuget package DocumentFormat.OpenXml 2.19.0, Word 365 version 16.0.14931.20648 - 32bit and code like this:
using (WordprocessingDocument doc = WordprocessingDocument.CreateFromTemplate(templatePath))
{
doc.SaveAs(newFileName);
}
Google is silent about this error, ChatGPT says that:
The "Run-time Error 5398" error means that the file you are trying to open is corrupted or not a valid docx file. Possible reasons for this error may be the following:
The file was not saved correctly after making changes. Verify that the Save() method was called after making changes to the file.
The file was saved with the wrong extension, e.g. as DOTM instead of DOCX
The file was saved in an invalid format.
There may have been some unhandled exceptions in your code.
When I manually change the extension of a new file from docx to dotm, there is no error when opening, but the file does not open.
What am I doing wrong with CreateFromTemplate method?

Answer 1

I tried to reproduce the behavior you described, using the following unit tests:
public sealed class CreateFromTemplateTests
{
private readonly ITestOutputHelper _output;
public CreateFromTemplateTests(ITestOutputHelper output)
{
_output = output;
}
[Theory]
[InlineData("c:\\temp\\MacroEnabledTemplate.dotm", "c:\\temp\\MacroEnabledDocument.docm")]
[InlineData("c:\\temp\\Template.dotx", "c:\\temp\\Document.docx")]
public void CanCreateDocmFromDotm(string templatePath, string documentPath)
{
// Let's not attach the template, which is done by default. If a template is attached, the validator complains as follows:
// The element has unexpected child element 'http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main:attachedTemplate'.
using (var wordDocument = WordprocessingDocument.CreateFromTemplate(templatePath, false))
{
// Validate the document as created with CreateFromTemplate.
ValidateOpenXmlPackage(wordDocument);
// Save that document to disk so we can open it with Word, for example.
wordDocument.SaveAs(documentPath).Dispose();
}
using (WordprocessingDocument wordDocument = WordprocessingDocument.Open(documentPath, true))
{
// Validate the document that was opened from disk, just to see what Word would open.
ValidateOpenXmlPackage(wordDocument);
}
}
private void ValidateOpenXmlPackage(OpenXmlPackage openXmlPackage)
{
OpenXmlValidator validator = new(FileFormatVersions.Office2019);
List<ValidationErrorInfo> validationErrors = validator.Validate(openXmlPackage).ToList();
foreach (ValidationErrorInfo validationError in validationErrors)
{
_output.WriteLine(validationError.Description);
}
if (validationErrors.Any())
{
// Note that Word will most often be able to open the document even if there are validation errors.
throw new Exception("The validator found validation errors.");
}
}
}
In both tests, the documents are created without an issue. Looking at the Open XML markup, both documents look fine. However, while I don't get any runtime error, Word also does not open the macro-enabled document.
I am not sure why that happens. It might be related to your security settings.
Depending on whether or not you really need to use CreateFromTemplate(), you could create a .docm (rather than a .dotm) and create new macro-enabled documents by copying that .docm.
I opened an issue in the Open XML SDK project on GitHub.