Configure Word Automation Services in SharePoint 2016

Word Automation Service in SharePoint enables the conversion of documents supported by Microsoft Word. This service is provided as a Service Application in SharePoint. Conversion of the documents is not present as an On Demand service. Instead, the conversion of the job is handled by a timer job called Word Automation Services. It is set to run every 15 minutes. During its run, it picks up the conversion jobs and performs the conversion of the documents.



Word Automation Services can be used from within the code or using Nintex Workflow. Once the conversion job has been created, it is queued in the Content Database for Word Automation Services. We can verify it by going to the Content Database.



Within the database, there are multiple tables which provide information about the conversion job.



Items table contains the source and destination files, formats, and the invocation details.



When the timer job runs, the queued jobs are processed and the documents are converted. The basic requirement for all these background processing is the service application: Word Automation Services.

In this article, we will see how to create the Word Automation Services Service Application.

From Central Administration, select Application Management. Click on New and select ‘Word Automation Services’.



Specify the managed account that will act as the security account for the application pool.



Specify the Database name for Word Automation Services.



Click on Finish. This will create Service application and Proxy which will be listed in the service applications list.



Now, we have to ensure that the Word Automation Service is running. Click on Manage Services on Server.



The Service Application has been created and the service has been started.



Now, we can use this service to create document conversion jobs.

Summary

Thus, we learned the basics of document conversion jobs in SharePoint and how to create Word Automation Services Service Application in SharePoint 2016.