Power Document Extractor for n8n

📖 Overview

Power Document Extractor is a comprehensive n8n community node for extracting structured content from 17+ document formats, entirely locally on your server. No external APIs, no cloud services—just reliable, privacy-focused document parsing.

Perfect for document processing workflows, content analysis, data migration, AI-powered document understanding, and automated information extraction pipelines.

☕ Support Development

If you find this node useful, consider supporting its development:

Donation Links:

• ☕ Ko-fi - Support with coffee
• 💰 Coinbase Commerce - Cryptocurrency donations

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✨ Features

• 🔒 100% Local Processing - All document parsing happens on your server
• 📄 17+ Supported Formats - PDF, DOCX, DOC, XLSX, XLS, CSV, TXT, RTF, EPUB, FB2, Markdown, HTML, XML, PPT, PPTX, ODS, ODG
• 🎯 Auto-Detection - Universal Extractor automatically identifies document format
• 🧩 Structured Output - Extracts content as structured blocks (paragraphs, headings, tables, lists)
• 🎚️ Flexible Detail Levels - Choose between Raw, Basic, or Full structured output
• 📊 Rich Metadata - Extracts document metadata (author, title, page count, dates, etc.)
• ⚡ LibreOffice Integration - Optional LibreOffice server for legacy formats (DOC, RTF, PPT)

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📦 Installation

Via n8n Community Nodes

1. Go to Settings > Community Nodes in your n8n instance
2. Click Install and enter: n8n-nodes-power-document-extractor
3. Click Install

Via npm

npm install n8n-nodes-power-document-extractor

Manual Installation

cd ~/.n8n/nodes
git clone https://github.com/ZBlaZe/n8n-nodes-power-document-extractor.git
cd n8n-nodes-power-document-extractor
npm install
npm run build

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🚀 Supported Formats

Format	Extension	Native Support	LibreOffice Required	Status
PDF	.pdf	✅ Yes	❌ No	⚠️ Beta
Plain Text	.txt	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
CSV	.csv	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
Markdown	.md	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
HTML	.html, .htm	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
XML	.xml	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
Excel	.xlsx, .xls	✅ Yes	❌ No	✅ Stable
Word (Modern)	.docx	⚠️ Partial	✅ Yes (recommended)	⚠️ Beta
Word (Legacy)	.doc	❌ No	✅ Yes	⚠️ Beta
RTF	.rtf	❌ No	✅ Yes	⚠️ Beta
PowerPoint	.ppt, .pptx	❌ No	✅ Yes	⚠️ Beta
OpenDocument	.ods, .odg	⚠️ Partial	✅ Yes (recommended)	⚠️ Beta
EPUB	.epub	✅ Yes	❌ No	⚠️ Beta
FictionBook	.fb2	✅ Yes	❌ No	⚠️ Beta

Legend:

• ✅ Stable - Fully tested and production-ready
• ⚠️ Beta - Functional but may have edge cases
• 🚧 In Development - Work in progress

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🎮 Usage

Basic Example

1. Add Power Document Extractor node to your workflow
2. Connect a node that provides binary file data (e.g., HTTP Request, Read Binary File)
3. Configure the node:
   • Operation: Universal Extractor (auto-detects format)
   • Binary Property: data (or your binary property name)
   • Structured Level: Full (recommended)

Operations

Universal Extractor (Recommended)

Automatically detects document format and extracts content using the optimal parser.

Format-Specific Extractors

Available for all supported formats if you want explicit control:

• Extract PDF
• Extract DOCX
• Extract XLSX
• Extract TXT
• Extract CSV
• Extract Markdown
• Extract HTML
• ... and more

Structured Levels

Choose the level of detail in extracted content:

• Raw - Single text string with minimal formatting
• Basic - Paragraphs and basic structure
• Full - Complete structure with headings, tables, lists, metadata (recommended)

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📤 Output Format

Example Output

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "heading",
      "level": 1,
      "text": "Annual Report 2024",
      "id": "h-1",
      "page": 1
    },
    {
      "type": "paragraph",
      "text": "This report provides an overview of our company's performance...",
      "id": "p-1",
      "page": 1
    },
    {
      "type": "table",
      "headers": ["Quarter", "Revenue", "Growth"],
      "rows": [
        ["Q1", "$1.2M", "15%"],
        ["Q2", "$1.5M", "25%"],
        ["Q3", "$1.8M", "20%"],
        ["Q4", "$2.1M", "17%"]
      ],
      "id": "table-1",
      "page": 2
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "fileName": "annual_report_2024.pdf",
    "fileSize": 245680,
    "fileType": "pdf",
    "mimeType": "application/pdf",
    "pageCount": 12,
    "author": "John Smith",
    "title": "Annual Report 2024",
    "creationDate": "2024-01-15",
    "modificationDate": "2024-11-20"
  }
}

Block Types

• paragraph - Text paragraphs
• heading - Document headings (with level 1-6)
• table - Tables with headers and rows
• list - Bulleted or numbered lists
• image - Image references (planned for future versions)

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🐳 LibreOffice Server Setup (Optional)

For best results with DOC, RTF, PPT, PPTX formats, set up a LibreOffice server using Docker.

Quick Start with Docker

docker run -d \
  --name libreoffice-server \
  -p 33101:2004 \
  ghcr.io/unoconv/unoserver-docker:latest

Configuration in n8n

In the Power Document Extractor node:

• LibreOffice Server URL: http://localhost:33101 (or your server IP)

Important Notes

• ⚠️ Do not expose LibreOffice port to the internet - it's not secured by default
• 🔒 Use firewall rules or Docker networks to restrict access
• 🚀 LibreOffice container should run on the same network as n8n for best performance

For detailed setup instructions, see unoserver documentation.

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⚙️ Configuration

Node Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Operation	Select	Universal Extractor	Extraction method (auto or format-specific)
Binary Property	String	data	Name of the binary property containing the file
Structured Level	Select	Full	Level of detail in output (Raw/Basic/Full)
LibreOffice Server URL	String	(empty)	Optional LibreOffice server URL for legacy formats

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🎯 Use Cases

• 📊 Data Migration - Extract content from legacy documents for database import
• 🤖 AI/LLM Integration - Prepare document content for AI analysis and processing
• 🔍 Document Indexing - Build searchable document databases
• 📝 Content Management - Automated document processing workflows
• 📧 Email Attachment Processing - Extract and analyze attachments automatically
• 🗄️ Archive Digitization - Convert old documents to structured data

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⚠️ Known Limitations

• 🖼️ Image Extraction - Not yet supported (planned for v0.10.0)
• 🔤 Text Encoding - Some legacy documents may have encoding issues
• 📄 Complex Layouts - Advanced page layouts may not be fully preserved
• ⏱️ Large Files - Very large files (>100MB) may take longer to process

Development Status: This node is actively maintained and under continuous improvement. Bug reports and feature requests are welcome!

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🗺️ Roadmap

Version 0.11.0-0.12.0 (Planned)

• 🖼️ Base64 image extraction from documents
• 🔤 Improved text encoding detection and handling
• 🎨 Better formatting preservation for complex documents

Future Versions

• 📊 Advanced table structure detection
• 🔗 Hyperlink extraction
• 📝 Document annotations and comments
• 🌍 Multi-language OCR support
• ⚡ Performance optimizations for large files

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"LibreOffice conversion failed"

Solution:

1. Ensure LibreOffice server is running: docker ps | grep libreoffice
2. Check URL is correct: http://localhost:33101 (not https://)
3. Verify server is accessible from n8n container

Text appears garbled or with wrong characters

Possible causes:

• Legacy encoding in old documents
• Font substitution issues
• Temporary workaround: Try using LibreOffice server for conversion

Node execution timeout

For large files:

• Increase n8n execution timeout in settings
• Consider splitting large documents
• Use LibreOffice server for faster processing

Empty output for supported format

Check:

• File is not password-protected
• File is not corrupted
• File contains actual text (not just images)

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find a bug or have a feature request:

1. Check existing issues
2. Create a new issue with detailed description
3. Submit a pull request with your improvements

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📜 License

Proprietary / All Rights Reserved
This project is closed-source.
The source code is not available for public viewing or modification.

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🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with:

• n8n - Workflow automation platform
• pdf.js-extract - PDF parsing
• xlsx - Excel file processing
• cheerio - HTML parsing
• marked - Markdown parsing
• LibreOffice - Legacy format conversion

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📞 Support

• 💬 GitHub Issues
• 📧 Contact via GitHub profile
• ☕ Support on Ko-fi

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