How to control OOXML compliance for WordProcessing documents Leave feedback

Some downstream OOXML tooling supports only specific compliance levels. For example, Docx4j does not read ISO/IEC 29500:2008 Strict output, so consumers that rely on such libraries need the signed document produced in Transitional (or ECMA-376) form instead.

Starting with GroupDocs.Signature for Java 26.10, the Signature class preserves the OOXML compliance level of the source WordProcessing document on save, and lets you override it through WordProcessingSaveOptions.

• The source OOXML compliance is detected when the document is loaded and preserved on save by default.
• WordProcessingSaveOptions has the getOoxmlCompliance and setOoxmlCompliance methods. The value is an Integer:
  • null (default) — keep the loaded document’s compliance.
  • set — override the source value with the specified compliance level.
• Only honoured for OOXML output formats: Docx, Docm, Dotx, Dotm and their FlatOpc variants.
• It can be combined with a password set on the save options.

The OoxmlCompliance class of the com.groupdocs.signature.domain.enums package defines the levels you can request on save as int constants:

• Create a new instance of Signature class and pass source document path or stream as a constructor parameter.
• Instantiate required signature options (for example TextSignOptions).
• Instantiate WordProcessingSaveOptions and call its setOoxmlCompliance method with the required level (OoxmlCompliance.Ecma, OoxmlCompliance.Transitional, or OoxmlCompliance.Strict).
• Call the sign method of Signature class instance and pass signature options and WordProcessingSaveOptions object to it.

Signature signature = new Signature(filePath);
try
{
    TextSignOptions signOptions = new TextSignOptions("John Smith");
    signOptions.setLeft(100);
    signOptions.setTop(100);
    signOptions.setWidth(200);
    signOptions.setHeight(60);

    // Force ISO 29500:2008 Strict on save regardless of the source's compliance.
    // Other allowed values: OoxmlCompliance.Ecma, OoxmlCompliance.Transitional.
    WordProcessingSaveOptions saveOptions = new WordProcessingSaveOptions(WordProcessingSaveFileFormat.Docx);
    saveOptions.setOoxmlCompliance(OoxmlCompliance.Strict);

    SignResult result = signature.sign(outputFilePath, signOptions, saveOptions);
}
finally
{
    signature.dispose();
}

Use OoxmlCompliance.Transitional when the consumer of the signed document only reads ISO/IEC 29500:2008 Transitional (or ECMA-376) DOCX — for example when the file will be post-processed by a library that does not support Strict.

Signature signature = new Signature(filePath);
try
{
    TextSignOptions signOptions = new TextSignOptions("John Smith");
    signOptions.setLeft(100);
    signOptions.setTop(100);
    signOptions.setWidth(200);
    signOptions.setHeight(60);

    WordProcessingSaveOptions saveOptions = new WordProcessingSaveOptions(WordProcessingSaveFileFormat.Docx);
    saveOptions.setOoxmlCompliance(OoxmlCompliance.Transitional);

    signature.sign(outputFilePath, signOptions, saveOptions);
}
finally
{
    signature.dispose();
}

Do not call setOoxmlCompliance (or call it with null) to preserve whatever compliance level the loaded document was authored in.

Signature signature = new Signature(filePath);
try
{
    TextSignOptions signOptions = new TextSignOptions("John Smith");
    signOptions.setLeft(100);
    signOptions.setTop(100);
    signOptions.setWidth(200);
    signOptions.setHeight(60);

    // OoxmlCompliance not set => source compliance is preserved on save.
    WordProcessingSaveOptions saveOptions = new WordProcessingSaveOptions(WordProcessingSaveFileFormat.Docx);

    signature.sign(outputFilePath, signOptions, saveOptions);
}
finally
{
    signature.dispose();
}

The SaveWordProcessingWithOoxmlCompliance class of the Java examples runs the first example.

You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:

• GroupDocs.Signature for Java examples, plugins, and showcase
• GroupDocs.Signature for .NET examples, plugins, and showcase
• Document Signature for Java App Dropwizard UI Example
• Document Signature for Java Spring UI Example
• Document Signature for .NET MVC UI Example
• Document Signature for .NET App WebForms UI Example

Along with the full-featured Java library, we provide simple but powerful free online apps.

To sign PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other documents you can use the online apps from the GroupDocs.Signature App Product Family.