Skip to main content
Version: Current

Linux and cross-platform limitations

Overview​

Microsoft Word activities run on both Windows and Linux application servers. The same .docx file can produce different layout and pagination results depending on the host operating system. Plan cross-platform workflows accordingly.

Platform rendering​

Different rendering engines are used on Windows and Linux, which can result in different document layouts and pagination even when the document bytes are identical.

HostRendering Engine
WindowsNative Windows rendering
LinuxSkia-based rendering

What can differ​

Pagination is not portable​

Page indexes and printed page numbers are derived from the document layout generated on the host operating system.

Differences in fonts, rendering, and pagination can cause the same content to appear on different pages on Windows and Linux.

Affected activities:

  • Find Text
  • Read Text
  • Find and Replace
  • Insert Hyperlink
  • Add Picture
  • Get Page Indexes

Prefer bookmarks and content-based searches whenever possible.

When Find Text searches headers or footers, the activity can return one result for each layout page that displays the matching header or footer.

Differences in page counts between operating systems can therefore change:

  • The number of results returned
  • The reported page indexes

Fonts​

Windows and Linux use different font stacks and fallback behavior.

If a required font is unavailable, the operating system substitutes a fallback font, which can change text measurements, line wrapping, and page breaks.

Install the same fonts used in your template documents on every application server, including Linux containers.

Images​

Picture insertion and replacement use the host rendering stack. Image decoding and rendering can vary between operating systems.

For the most consistent behavior, use:

  • PNG
  • JPG / JPEG

Formats such as EMF, WMF, ICO, SVG, and WebP may behave differently between Windows and Linux.

Affected activities:

  • Add Picture
  • Replace Picture
Recommended for Cross-Platform Workflows

Use bookmarks to identify locations within documents whenever possible.

Bookmarks are content-based and do not depend on page layout, making them significantly more reliable across Windows and Linux environments.

  1. Use bookmarks — Target content with bookmark names (Replace Bookmarks, Read Bookmarked Text, Fill Table, Get Table, and Find By = Bookmark on picture and hyperlink activities).
  2. Avoid page-based identity — Use Page Lookup Mode = All unless page scope is required for a single host environment.
  3. Treat page information as layout-dependent — Do not assume Page Number or Page Index values resolve to the same document location on different operating systems.
  4. Maintain font parity — Install the same fonts on all application servers.
  5. Use standard image formats — Prefer PNG or JPG for images used by Word workflows.

What is not affected​

How the Word file reaches the activity (local path, Google Drive, FTP, SFTP, email attachment, and so on) does not affect Word processing behavior.

The following document elements are generally independent of the host operating system:

  • Bookmark names
  • Bookmark ranges
  • Table structures
  • Hyperlink targets
  • Document content

Only layout-dependent operations such as pagination and page indexing can vary across operating systems.