Automating PHPWord with AI: How to Generate Complex Docs & Fix Formatting Nightmares

Every PHP developer knows this specific pain. You spend hours coding a script to generate a .docx report. You hit download, try to open it in MS Word, and boom:

"Word found unreadable content in document.xml. Do you want to recover the contents of this document?"

It is frustrating. PHPWord is a powerful library, but its documentation can be sparse, and debugging XML errors is a nightmare.

But here is the good news: You don't have to do it alone anymore.

PHPWord Automation with AI Robot Hand generating documents

In this guide, I will show you how to combine PHPWord with AI tools (like ChatGPT or Claude) to automate document generation, style complex tables without a headache, and fix those annoying corruption errors instantly.

Why Use AI for PHPWord?

Writing raw PHPWord code (especially addTable, addTextRun, addCellStyle) is tedious. One missing closure or a hidden special character can break the entire file.

By using AI, we can:

Generate Boilerplate Code: Create complex table structures in seconds.
Debug XML Errors: Paste your error logs to AI, and it finds the unescaped character.
Master TemplateProcessor: The smartest way to generate documents.

Step 1: The Setup (Prerequisites)

First, ensure you have the library installed via Composer. If you haven't, run this in your terminal:

composer require phpoffice/phpword

Step 2: Stop Coding from Scratch, Use TemplateProcessor

The biggest mistake beginners make is trying to build the entire document using code ($phpWord->addSection()). This is hard to maintain.

Instead, use the TemplateProcessor method.

Create a nice Word document manually (add your logos, headers, and fonts).
Put variables like ${fullname}, ${address}, or ${case_number} inside the Word file.
Use PHP to replace them.

The AI Prompt Strategy

If you have a complex array of data (e.g., a list of court cases or sales items) and need to clone rows, ask AI to write the loop for you.

Prompt to use:
"Act as a Senior PHP Developer. I am using PHPOffice/PHPWord TemplateProcessor. I have an array of data $cases. I need to clone a table row variable ${case_row} and fill it with data. Write the cloneRowAndSetValues code snippet for me."

Step 3: Handling Complex Tables & Styling

Styling tables in PHPWord is tricky. Widths, borders, and alignment often break. Let AI do the heavy lifting.

Example Prompt for AI:

"Create a PHPWord table style array. I need a table with 3 columns (20%, 60%, 20% width). The header row must be bold with a light gray background color (#cccccc). The cells should have vertical centering."

The Resulting Code:

<?php
// Define Table Style
$tableStyle = [
    'borderSize' => 6, 
    'borderColor' => '000000', 
    'cellMargin' => 50
];

// Define First Row Style
$firstRowStyle = ['bgColor' => 'cccccc'];

// Apply Style
$phpWord->addTableStyle('MyTable', $tableStyle, $firstRowStyle);

// Create Table
$table = $section->addTable('MyTable');

// ... AI will complete the rest
?>

Step 4: The "Unreadable Content" Fix (Crucial!)

Microsoft Word unreadable content error message document.xml

This is the most important part of this tutorial. 90% of PHPWord errors happen because your database data contains hidden control characters or unescaped symbols (like &, <, >) that break the XML structure.

Don't manually check your data. Use this sanitizer function.

The Magic Sanitizer Function

<?php
function cleanTextForDocx($text) {
    // 1. Convert special chars to HTML entities (fixes & " < >)
    // ENT_QUOTES ensures both single and double quotes are handled
    $text = htmlspecialchars($text, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
    
    // 2. Remove invisible control characters (ASCII 0-31) that break XML
    // This is often the culprit for "Unreadable Content" errors
    $text = preg_replace('/[\x00-\x1F\x7F]/', '', $text);
    
    return $text;
}

// Usage Example with TemplateProcessor
$description = $database_data['case_description'];
$templateProcessor->setValue('description', cleanTextForDocx($description));
?>

Conclusion

Generating documents doesn't have to be hard. By shifting your strategy to TemplateProcessor and using AI to handle the syntax complexities and data sanitization, you can reduce your development time from hours to minutes.

Have you ever encountered a weird PHPWord error? Paste the error message in the comments below, and let's solve it together!