Word Addin - How to open a file as a new document? - ms-office

Question

I am developing a Word add-in using Office JS in which a user can decide to open a document from a remote server API. In that case I need to receive a file from the server API and open it in Word.
Currently, I am making an HTTP request to get the document contents from the remote server encoded in Base64.
Then I am using:
var body = context.document.body;
body.insertFileFromBase64 (fileData, Word.InsertLocation.replace);
// (where fileData is the Base64 content)
This works (document is actually opened), but I don't like it so much because it replaces the current document's contents instead of opening a new document.
Is there a way to make Word open a document as a new document instead of replacing the existing document's contents?
I described my use case above in case you can also suggest a better solution.

Answer 1

there is an API, in preview, you can use for this. here is a code snippet:
(note that the createDocument takes an optional parameter, a base64-encoded docx) if that's provided the opened document will include it.
in order to test the API make sure to use the preview CDN for Office.js avilable here https://appsforoffice.microsoft.com/lib/beta/hosted/office.js
and that you have a fresh update of Office.
here is the code:
Word.run(function (context) {
context.application.createDocument().open(); // optionally on createDocument send a base-64 docx.
return context.sync();
})