command watch

watch / unwatch

Live HTML preview server that auto-refreshes when the document changes.

watch

officecli watch <file> [--port N]

Starts an HTTP server that serves a live HTML preview of an Office document. The preview automatically refreshes whenever the document is modified via any OfficeCLI command (set, add, remove, move, raw-set). Supports .pptx, .docx, and .xlsx files.

Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
file	FileInfo	Yes	-	Office document path (.pptx, .docx, .xlsx)

Options

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
--port	int	No	18080	HTTP port for the preview server

Behavior

• Opens http://localhost:{port} in the default browser automatically.
• Monitors the document file and re-renders HTML on every modification.
• Any set, add, remove, move, or raw-set command on the same file triggers an incremental refresh.
• Auto-scroll: The preview automatically scrolls to the changed element after each update.
• Press Ctrl+C to stop the server, or use unwatch from another terminal.
• Works with both direct mode and resident mode.
• Idle timeout: Automatically shuts down after 5 minutes of inactivity (no connected clients and no file changes). This prevents orphaned watch servers from running indefinitely.

Examples

# Start live preview on default port
officecli watch slides.pptx

# Word document preview
officecli watch report.docx

# Excel spreadsheet preview
officecli watch data.xlsx

# Start on a custom port
officecli watch slides.pptx --port 3000

# In another terminal, make changes — preview auto-refreshes
officecli set slides.pptx /slide[1]/shape[1] --prop text="Updated!"
officecli add slides.pptx /slide[1] --type shape --prop text="New shape"

unwatch

officecli unwatch <file>

Stops the watch preview server for the specified document from another terminal.

Examples

officecli unwatch slides.pptx

Notes

• Available for .pptx, .docx, and .xlsx files.
• PowerPoint: Slide navigation UI, connector arrowheads, custom geometry, 3D effects, gradients, 3D models (Three.js), zoom objects. Equations via KaTeX.
• Word: Full formatting with style inheritance, tables (floating, conditional formatting, theme borders), images (anchored, crop), drop caps, multi-column sections, footnotes/endnotes (numbering format), TOC, charts (SVG), equations (KaTeX), run borders/shading, CJK support, headers/footers, page layout from OOXML.
• Excel: Cell formatting, merged cells, frozen panes, hidden rows/cols, embedded charts (SVG), sheet tabs, RTL/i18n support, formula evaluation.

See Also

• view html - One-time HTML preview
• open / close - Resident mode for fast workflows
• Command Reference

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Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.28