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PowerShell Meets Office: PSWriteOffice in 5 Minutes

Get started with PSWriteOffice, the PowerShell module that wraps OfficeIMO for quick Word and Excel document generation from the command line.

Not every document automation task warrants a full C# project. Sometimes you just need to generate an Excel summary from a CSV or spin up a Word letter from a template, and you want to do it in a short PowerShell script. PSWriteOffice is a good fit for that kind of workflow.

Installation

PSWriteOffice is published to the PowerShell Gallery:

Install-Module -Name PSWriteOffice -Scope CurrentUser

It ships as a PowerShell module with the OfficeIMO document engines underneath, so you do not need to manage Open XML assemblies yourself.

Creating a Word Document

Import-Module PSWriteOffice

New-OfficeWord -Path ".\Welcome.docx" {
    Add-OfficeWordSection {
        Add-OfficeWordParagraph -Style Heading1 -Text "Welcome to Contoso"
        Add-OfficeWordParagraph -Text "We are pleased to confirm your enrolment."
        Add-OfficeWordParagraph -Text "Your start date is January 6, 2025."
        Add-OfficeWordTable -InputObject @(
            [PSCustomObject]@{ Item = "Laptop";  Status = "Shipped" }
            [PSCustomObject]@{ Item = "Badge";   Status = "Ready" }
            [PSCustomObject]@{ Item = "Parking"; Status = "Assigned" }
        ) -Style GridTable4Accent1
    }
}

Run the script and open Welcome.docx . You get a heading, body text, and a generated table without Microsoft Word installed.

Creating an Excel Workbook

$sales = Import-Csv ".\sales.csv"

New-OfficeExcel -Path ".\SalesReport.xlsx" {
    Add-OfficeExcelSheet -Name "Q1 Sales" {
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "A1" -Value "Region"
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "B1" -Value "Revenue"
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "C1" -Value "Units"

        $rowIndex = 2
        foreach ($row in $sales) {
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 1 -Value $row.Region
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 2 -Value $row.Revenue
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 3 -Value $row.Units
            $rowIndex++
        }
    }

    Add-OfficeExcelSheet -Name "Summary" {
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "A1" -Value "Total Regions"
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "B1" -Value $sales.Count
    }
}

The DSL reads naturally: create a workbook, add sheets, and populate cells from script data.

Automating with Scheduled Tasks

Combine PSWriteOffice with a Windows Scheduled Task or a cron job on Linux to generate recurring reports:

# daily-report.ps1
$events = Get-EventLog -LogName Application -Newest 100

New-OfficeExcel -Path "C:\Reports\EventLog_$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd).xlsx" {
    Add-OfficeExcelSheet -Name "Events" {
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "A1" -Value "Time"
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "B1" -Value "Source"
        Set-OfficeExcelCell -Address "C1" -Value "Message"

        $rowIndex = 2
        foreach ($e in $events) {
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 1 -Value $e.TimeGenerated
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 2 -Value $e.Source
            Set-OfficeExcelCell -Row $rowIndex -Column 3 -Value $e.Message
            $rowIndex++
        }
    }
}

Schedule it with schtasks or Register-ScheduledTask and you have hands-free daily reporting.

Tips and Tricks

  • Tables and structured data. Use Add-OfficeWordTable -InputObject or Add-OfficePowerPointTable -Data when your source is already object-based.
  • Inline text formatting. Use Add-OfficeWordText inside Add-OfficeWordParagraph blocks when you need bold, italic, or underlined runs.
  • Multiple documents. Call New-OfficeWord and New-OfficeExcel in the same script to produce a matched pair of files from one data source.
  • Cross-platform. PSWriteOffice runs on PowerShell 7+ on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Why PSWriteOffice Over COM?

The legacy approach, New-Object -ComObject Word.Application , requires Office installed, leaks COM handles, and fails silently in non-interactive sessions. PSWriteOffice avoids all of that by using OfficeIMO's managed document engine. No Office installation, no COM headaches, no leaked WINWORD.EXE processes.

If you already automate with PowerShell, PSWriteOffice gives you a straightforward path into the same document workflows without COM automation.

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