export docx from pages - style table becomes corrupt

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Level 1

59 points

export docx from pages - style table becomes corrupt

I would like to ask the community about a problem when exporting docx files from Pages. In the docx the style table becomes corrupt. Here's the sequence of steps

1 create a Pages document from a well-used template

2 add test text

3 verify that the Pages file style table is as expected

4 save the Pages file

5 export a docx file

6 quit Pages

7 launch Pages

8 open the docx file using Pages

9 check the style table

Step 9 shows that the docx style table has become corrupt. The style table contains paragraph styles that are my own plus styles that come in via unrelated docx files from one of the editors I work with.

This behavior has been consistent for about a week, unaffected by shutdown, startup, and a Mac OS upgrade.

What I would ask is how to clear the style table in exported docx files, to be sure they go out as intended, without including the editor's style table.

Pages file style table

docx file style table

The iMac

About Pages

iMac 27″, macOS 15.4

Posted on May 1, 2025 11:46 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

57,873 points

May 2, 2025 01:06 PM in response to iGardener

I see what you're saying, but I don't know that 'corrupt' is the right term.

When you export as .docx, Pages does seem to insert additional styles that aren't in the original Pages document. It's not clear to me where these are coming from. I'm assuming there's some template document or some such that it's coming from, but your .docx list is not the same as I get, so it must be something local to each machine.

However, it doesn't appear these styles are actually in use in the document, and the Pages styles do seem to be honored (at least in my limited testing), hence my comment on 'corrupt' vs. just extraneous.

Either way, Feedback - Pages - Apple is probably the appropriate next step.

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Answer 2

iGardener Author

Level 1

59 points

May 2, 2025 05:48 PM in response to Camelot

Thank you Camelot. In this example the additional styles inserted are the styles used by one of my editors. I appreciate that Pages can read and write docx files, and agree that the Pages styles are honored. For the technical content I'm developing Pages works great because of its good feature set for images. I agree that my use of 'corrupt' can be questioned. I chose that term because I have sent docx files to other editors from which I cannot remove the extraneous styles. For the time being I'm sending txt files. Thank you for the pointer to Feedback.

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Answer 3

iGardener Author

Level 1

59 points

May 2, 2025 06:01 PM in response to Camelot

Here's About Pages.

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export docx from pages - style table becomes corrupt

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