Docx writer does not correctly render code fences (no syntax highlighting)

[fbristow]

Explain the problem.

The command that I ran is:

pandoc code.md -o code.docx

The file code.md contains:

# Code

Some code:

```java
public static void main(String[] args)
{
    System.out.println("Hello, world!");
}
```

The code.docx produced by Pandoc does not syntax highlight or render the code as monospace.

The output is as expected when I do the same thing with HTML as an output:

pandoc code.md -o code.html --standalone

Produces an HTML file with syntax highlighting enabled.

Pandoc version?

I am currently using

pandoc 3.8
Features: +server +lua
Scripting engine: Lua 5.4
User data directory: /home/fbristow/.local/share/pandoc
Copyright (C) 2006-2025 John MacFarlane. Web:  https://pandoc.org
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is no
warranty, not even for merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The previous version of Pandoc (3.7.0.2) produced the output I was expecting.

I suspect that this is related to the change introducing A new command line option --syntax-highlighting.

Please let me know if I can provide anything else. Thank you!

[jgm]

You need the closing fence at the bottom of your code.

(If you use commonmark, rather than pandoc's markdown, the closing fence can be omitted, but it is required in pandoc's markdown.)

[fbristow]

Thank you for following up @jgm!

The missing closing fence was a typo on my part. Adding the closing fence does indeed render the text in monospace with the docx writer but still does not add syntax highlighting where there is syntax highlighting with the HTML writer.

[jgm]

Thanks, I'll re-open and I edited your report.

[jgm]

OK, I see the problem.

We added DefaultHighlighting in commit 6475725 but didn't adjust the pattern-match here.