---
title: "How to export a bibliography to DOCX"
source: https://dev.pageseeder.com/get_started/tutorials/how_to_export_a_bibliography_to_docx.html
last_updated: 2026-08-07T17:09:54+10:00
tokens: ~3156
---

# How to export a bibliography to DOCX

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Skills required | XML |
| Time required (minutes) | 30 |
| Intended audience | Developer |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Category | Document |

## Objective

This tutorial demonstrates the configuration of **citations** so they can be exported to a **bibliography** in DOCX.

- It includes the ability to create a library of sources which can be shared between different publications.

## Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial requires:

- PageSeeder administrator access to a server with PageSeeder version 6.2 or later installed.

All the files for this tutorial are on [Github](https://github.com/pageseeder/pageseeder-tutorials/tree/master/configuring_publications).

## Tutorial

### Project setup and installing configuration bundle

1. Login to PageSeeder as an administrator.
2. Go to the project where you would like to install these capabilities. Alternatively create a new project by clicking the tools **System administration **button at top right. Then click on **New project** under **Projects & Groups** and enter a project name, plus any description, then **Submit**.
3. Click the wrench **Project administration** button at the top.
4. Select **Template files** from the left menu and click the magic **Create** button at the bottom of the page to open the **Samples dialog**.
5. **Install a configuration bundle** – Click the filestack **Bundle** button, then in the **Bundle type** field, select **Document type** from the dropdown.


  1. Click the **Select** button to the right of a bundle – for this example, select **Intermediate auto-numbered publication**. *You can also select **Advanced** if you want glossary features.*
  2. Install the bundle under the root document type for your publication (e.g `references`, shown in the Document type field on the right of the dialog). **Click Install**.

#### Verify package content - project configuration files

In the **Template files** page check the files as follows.

##### Export process

The `psml/references/export` folder (or the document type you specified) contains the following files:

| Filename | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `build.xml` | Custom ANT script for exporting to `.docx`. |
| `docx-citation-transform.xsl` | XSLT to convert PSML properties to DOCX citations, see [Export citations to DOCX: Post-processing](../../guide/publishing/ant_api/extensions/export_citations_to_docx.md). |
| `psml-to-docx.xsl` | XSLT that adds the inline labels necessary for figure / table captions to auto-number in `.docx`. *Not required but is used for this tutorial.* |

##### Labels

The `label/` folder contains the following file:

| Filename | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `label-config.xml` | The `label-config.xml`, contains all the available labels for a project. |

You can select **Labels** from the left menu and the following should be displayed:

| Label | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `appendix` | document | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `figure-caption` | block | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `table-caption` | block | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `asciimath` | inline | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `tex` | inline | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `pages` | inline | Used directly after citation xref to indicate page no. or range (e.g. 10 - 20). |

##### Publication types

Select **Template configuration** from the left menu, then **Publication types** tab. In the first column, it should show the **report** publication type, which includes these files:

| Filename | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `publication-config.xml` | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `pdf-export-config.xml` | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `word-export-config.xml` | The configuration file that determines the formatting of PSML as DOCX, see [Export Microsoft Word DOCX config usage](../../guide/publishing/ant_api/extensions/microsoft_word_docx_export_config_usage.md). Contains the following line for this tutorial: \<citations documenttype="bibliography" pageslabel="pages" /\> |
| `word-export-template.docx` | The default DOCX template which you can customize. |

> **Tip:** If you prefer a different name to **report**, select **Template files** from the left menu, scroll down to the **report** folder and select **Rename** from the right drop-down menu. Change the name and click **Rename**. Remember to substitute the new name whenever this tutorial mentions **report**.

##### Document types

The **Template configuration** page should display these PSML document types:

| Document type | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `default` | The content of a publication. |
| `references` (or your type) | The root document of a publication. Includes the custom export configuration. |
| `bibliography` | A collection of sources used in a publication (contains xrefs to `source` documents). This document must be embedded in the publication, but only the `<section id="title">` content will be used. |
| `endnotes` | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `footnotes` | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `help` | *Not required for this tutorial.* |
| `source` | Documents in source library (`bibliography` document points to these). One source per document. |

##### XRef configuration

Select **Edit XRef configs** (top right).

| Filename | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `xref-config.xml` | The [Xref configuration](../../guide/configuration/psml/psml_xref_config.md) for the import of cross-references including footnotes, endnotes, citations, and more as listed below. |

The following xref configs should be listed (see [Xref config](../../guide/configuration/psml/psml_xref_config.md)):

- **footnote** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **endnote** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **para** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **internal-para** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **numbered-heading** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **caption** – *not required for this tutorial.*
- **citation** – to insert a citation.

### Creating a publication

> **Note:** As an alternative to this step use a preprepared example publication as follows: 1. In PageSeeder go to the project from Step 1 and create a new group by clicking the wrench **Project administration** button at the top. Then select **Create group** from the left menu and enter a group name, plus any description, then **Submit** and **Go to group**. 2. Click **Group documents** (folder icon) at the top, then click the **documents** folder. 3. Select **Upload document** from the (+) menu top right and drag the `documents-[date].zip` file (downloaded from Github - see link under **Prerequisites**) to the upload dialogue. 4. Click the **Unzip** icon next to this zip file. 5. Click the **Continue** button at the bottom of the dialogue. 6. Click the **Confirm and upload** button and wait for the “Successfully uploaded” message, then click **Close**. 7. Click the “System Report” folder, then click the “System Report” document. 8. Click the **Document information** icon on the right, click **Make this document a publication**, ensure there is a Publication ID and for this example, select Publication type "`report`". Click **Submit** then **Save** and refresh the page in your browser.

Create a publication root document and content as follows:

1. In PageSeeder go to a group under the project from Step 1. Alternatively create a new group by clicking the wrench **Project administration** button at the top. Then select **Create group** from the left menu and enter a group name, plus any description, then **Submit **and **Go to group**.
2. In this group create or open an existing document of the root type you selected previously (e.g. `references` ).
3. Click the **Document information** icon on the right, click **Make this document a publication**, ensure there is a Publication ID and for this example, select Publication type "`report`". Click **Submit** then **Save**.
4. If there is no existing content, double-click in the root document, click **Browse** and create a document (for example `default` type), select it and save. On the root document press **Ctrl-S** to save everything.
5. Click a content document, add some headings and paragraphs if required.

### Citations

The objective of this component is to create a bibliography from a library of references. The primary building blocks for this are a custom xref type from the publication to fragments in the bibliography document. These fragments link to “source” documents, that contain all the necessary fields for creating a full citation.

After saving a citation, the xref title to the fragment in the Bibliography document should appear in brackets as the citation. This document provides a quick way to add citations without interrupting the writer by forcing them to fully express the citation. This is done later when each citation fragment is xrefed to a document in the source library (a folder). These documents contain all the necessary information for Word to process as citations in any of the formats it supports, such as APA or Harvard.

To ensure that all the components are ready to use, do the following:

1. Go to the folder containing your content documents.
2. Create a document with document type **Bibliography** and add it to your publication root. You can add citation fragments now, or instructions are given at step 6. following.
3. Create a document with document type **Source** (creating the first Source document automatically creates a **sources** folder). Enter a Document title for the new source, then click **Create**.
4. Click to open the new source document and then click the pencil icon at top right to edit it to fill in the details. Click **Save**.  
![Source – Author fragment](/content/get_started/tutorials/../../../_local/source-author.png)  
  
![Source – details fragment](/content/get_started/tutorials/how_to_configure_publications_files/source-details.png)
5. View a content document and double-click on a paragraph to enter edit mode.
6. Place the cursor in the text, and select the insert XRef icon xref.
7. To add a new citation fragment to the Bibliography document:


  1. Under the **Configuration** dropdown, select “Citation”.  
![XRef type – Citation](/content/get_started/tutorials/how_to_configure_publications_files/xre-type-citation.png)
  2. After the Bibliography document appears:


    1. Click the pencil at the top right.
    2. Scroll down, mouse over the bottom of the Bibliography document, click the **(+) insert fragment** icon and click Citation under it.  
![XRef type - citation](/content/get_started/tutorials/how_to_configure_publications_files/XRef-type-citation.png)
    3. Enter Link text (for example *Smith, 2015*) and a Description for the source, then click **Create**.  
![Citation fragment - Link title](/content/get_started/tutorials/how_to_configure_publications_files/citation-fragment-link-title.png)
    4. Click the new fragment and then click **Save**.
8. Press **Ctrl-S** then click the edit mode icon pencil (top right) to turn edit mode off. In your document, you see the Link text you entered at step b.iii. above.
9. In your document, click the new citation xref to go to the Bibliography document, and then double-click on the citation fragment to enter edit mode.
10. To add an xref from the Bibliography document to the Source document, at the Source property, click the folder-tree** Browse documents** icon next to the **Source** label, if you see the title of your source at the left, click the title, and it will then display in the main section, or you can start typing the title of the source.
11. In the main section, click on **Select this document** and then click **Save**.


  1. If you need to create a new source, in the xref dialog, click the **Browse documents** icon and click on the **sources** folder. Enter the title for your source, click **Create**, click **Select this document**, then click **Save**.  
![Source - create new source document in xref dialog](/content/get_started/tutorials/how_to_configure_publications_files/source-xref-create-new-source.png)
12. Press **Ctrl-S** then click the edit icon pencil (top right) to turn edit mode off.

### Export as a Word document

1. Go to any document in your publication.
2. Click the Document export (rocket) icon in the left margin.
3. Under the **Choose an export action** drop down, select **Export publication as custom DOCX** and click **Run**.
4. Open the document in Microsoft Word and see how the citations and bibliography are displayed by Word.