Create a Word document in Java using a free API

This article will demonstrate how to create a Word document in Java programmatically using a free API. It’s worth mentioning that the free API is called Free Spire.Doc for Java and it is a free and professional Java API that enables Java applications to create, manipulate, read, convert and print Word documents without using Microsoft Office.

Add Spire.Doc.jar as dependency

Before typing codes, please import Spire.Doc.jar as reference in your project. If you are creating a Maven project, you can easily add the jar dependency by writing the following configurations to the pom.xml.

<repositories>
<repository>
<id>com.e-iceblue</id>
<name>e-iceblue</name>
<url>http://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
</repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId> e-iceblue </groupId>
<artifactId>spire.doc.free</artifactId>
<version>3.9.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>

Using the code
Copy and paste the following code to generate the Word document.
import com.spire.doc.Document;
import com.spire.doc.FileFormat;
import com.spire.doc.Section;
import com.spire.doc.documents.BuiltinStyle;
import com.spire.doc.documents.Paragraph;
import com.spire.doc.documents.ParagraphStyle;

public class CreateAWordDocument {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //create a Word document
        Document document = new Document();

        //add a section
        Section section = document.addSection();

        //add a heading
        Paragraph heading = section.addParagraph();
        heading.appendText("Java");

        //add a subheading
        Paragraph subheading_1 = section.addParagraph();
        subheading_1.appendText("What's Java");

        //add two paragraph under the first subheading
        Paragraph para_1 = section.addParagraph();
        para_1.appendText("Java is a general purpose, high-level programming language developed by Sun Microsystems."+
                " The Java programming language was developed by a small team of engineers, " +
                "known as the Green Team, who initiated the language in 1991.");
        Paragraph para_2 = section.addParagraph();
        para_2.appendText("Originally called OAK, the Java language was designed for handheld devices and set-top boxes. "+
                "Oak was unsuccessful and in 1995 Sun changed the name to Java and modified the language to take "+
                "advantage of the burgeoning World Wide Web. ");

        //add another subheading
        Paragraph subheading_2 = section.addParagraph();
        subheading_2.appendText("Java Today");

        //add one paragraph under the second subheading
        Paragraph para_3 = section.addParagraph();
        para_3.appendText("Today the Java platform is a commonly used foundation for developing and delivering content "+
                "on the web. According to Oracle, there are more than 9 million Java developers worldwide and more "+
                "than 3 billion mobile phones run Java.");

        //apply built-in style to heading and subheadings
        heading.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Title);
        subheading_1.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading_3);
        subheading_2.applyStyle(BuiltinStyle.Heading_3);

        //customize a paragraph style
        ParagraphStyle style = new ParagraphStyle(document);
        style.setName("paraStyle");
        style.getCharacterFormat().setFontName("Arial");
        style.getCharacterFormat().setFontSize(11f);
        document.getStyles().add(style);

        //apply the style to other paragraphs
        para_1.applyStyle("paraStyle");
        para_2.applyStyle("paraStyle");
        para_3.applyStyle("paraStyle");

        //automatically add space after each paragraph
        for (int i = 0; i < section.getParagraphs().getCount(); i++) {

            section.getParagraphs().get(i).getFormat().setAfterAutoSpacing(true);
        }

        //save the document
        document.saveToFile("output/CreateAWordDocument.docx", FileFormat.Docx);
    }
}
Output