Urgent formatting issue encountered during the conversion of a Word document (DOCX) to PDF

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

Dear Support,

Forwarded from Yuvraj Jangid yuvraj.jangid@Alphastream.ai:

I am writing to report an urgent formatting issue encountered during the conversion of a Word document (DOCX) to PDF using our licensed product, Aspose.Words for Python via .NET - Developer OEM.

Issue Description:

We have identified an issue where, for a document, paragraph text is overlapping or rendering on top of table content on the same page after conversion to PDF. The original Word document displays correctly, with the paragraph and table elements positioned appropriately on the page. However, the resulting PDF shows the text overlapping the table structure, making the content illegible.

We have attached a screenshot that clearly illustrates how the converted PDF looks with the overlapping content.

License and Order Details:

For your reference, here are the details of our purchase:

  • Product: Aspose.Words for Python via .NET - Developer OEM - SKU APPNWODO
  • Order ID: 250829125959
  • Support: We currently have an active one-year support package associated with this license.

Request for Resolution

As this is a critical functional bug impacting our production-ready documents, we require a prompt solution or workaround to ensure accurate DOCX to PDF conversion.

Could you please review the attached screenshot and investigate this rendering issue immediately? Due to the highly confidential nature of our documents, we cannot share the actual Word or PDF files.

We look forward to your urgent response and a resolution under our active support agreement.

Best regards,
aspose.com Subscription 250829125959 Invoice 250829125959 2025-08-29 2026-08-29.pdf (136.1 KB)

Issue_doc aspose.png (101.7 KB)

Yuvraj Jangid

2

@alexey.butalov

Summary
When converting a DOCX to PDF with Aspose.Words for Python via .NET, a paragraph can appear on top of a table that is correctly positioned in the original document.

Why it happens

  • Layout differences – Floating objects (anchored paragraphs, tables with wrap settings, etc.) are laid out by Aspose.Words using its own engine, which can differ slightly from Microsoft Word. This may place a paragraph at the same vertical coordinate as a table, causing overlap in the PDF.
  • Version‑related fixes – Recent releases (e.g., 25.9 → 25.10) include bug‑fixes for table anchoring and floating‑object layout. Using an older version may expose the issue.
  • Default PDF renderer – The built‑in PDF renderer does not always reproduce every Word layout nuance. Enabling the PDF Document Renderer (which leverages Aspose.PDF) often yields a result that matches Word more closely.

What to do next

  1. Confirm you are on a recent version (25.10 or newer).
import aspose.words as aw
print(aw.__version__) # should be 25.10.x or later
  1. Force a fresh layout pass before saving – this makes Aspose.Words recompute the layout exactly as Word does.
doc = aw.Document("input.docx")
doc.update_page_layout() # recompute layout
  1. Save the PDF using the PDF Document Renderer (requires Aspose.PDF for .NET).
import aspose.words as aw

doc = aw.Document("input.docx")
doc.update_page_layout()

pdf_opts = aw.saving.PdfSaveOptions()
pdf_opts.use_pdf_document_renderer = True # key setting
# optional tweaks
pdf_opts.optimize_output = False
pdf_opts.embed_full_fonts = True

doc.save("output.pdf", pdf_opts)
  1. If overlap remains, simplify the document layout:
  • Remove explicit text‑wrapping settings from the table.
  • Check that the paragraph is not anchored to the same page as the table (adjust “Keep with next” / “Keep lines together” as needed).
  • Convert floating tables to inline tables where possible.
  1. Gather diagnostic information for further analysis (if the issue persists after steps 1‑4):
  • Library version (aw.__version__).
  • A minimal DOCX that reproduces the problem (confidential data can be redacted).
  • The exact conversion code you are using.
  • Any custom PdfSaveOptions you have set.

Provide this information through your internal support channel so the product team can investigate the behavior further.

:warning: I could not fully verify this explanation against the retrieved sources. Please double-check the behaviour in your environment and confirm the exact SDK/version.

3

@alexey.butalov I am afraid without the problematic input document it is impossible to analyze the problem and provide you a solution. If possible, could you please remove/replace sensitive information in your problematic document and attach it here for testing? We will check the issue and provide you more information.