Laravel PHPWord "Method loadfile is not defined." (.../vendor/phpoffice/phpword/src/PhpWord/PhpWord.php:148)

Question

Trying this to load a .docx file for eventual conversion to pdf, and PhpWord can't seem to find the loadFile function.

use PhpOffice\PhpWord\PhpWord;

...

$phpWord = new PhpWord();
$document = $phpWord->loadFile($filePath);

Tried reinstalling PhpWord with composer & using Settings:: methods from PhpWord.

The __call function in PhpWord.php which is throwing the error:

 public function __call($function, $args)
    {
        $function = strtolower($function);

        $getCollection = [];
        $addCollection = [];
        $addStyle = [];

        $collections = ['Bookmark', 'Title', 'Footnote', 'Endnote', 'Chart', 'Comment'];
        foreach ($collections as $collection) {
            $getCollection[] = strtolower("get{$collection}s");
            $addCollection[] = strtolower("add{$collection}");
        }

        $styles = ['Paragraph', 'Font', 'Table', 'Numbering', 'Link', 'Title'];
        foreach ($styles as $style) {
            $addStyle[] = strtolower("add{$style}Style");
        }

        // Run get collection method
        if (in_array($function, $getCollection)) {
            $key = ucfirst(str_replace('get', '', $function));

            return $this->collections[$key];
        }

        // Run add collection item method
        if (in_array($function, $addCollection)) {
            $key = ucfirst(str_replace('add', '', $function) . 's');

            /** @var \PhpOffice\PhpWord\Collection\AbstractCollection $collectionObject */
            $collectionObject = $this->collections[$key];

            return $collectionObject->addItem($args[0] ?? null);
        }

        // Run add style method
        if (in_array($function, $addStyle)) {
            return forward_static_call_array(['PhpOffice\\PhpWord\\Style', $function], $args);
        }

        // Exception
        throw new BadMethodCallException("Method $function is not defined.");
    }