diff --git a/dev/generate-release-docs.sh b/dev/generate-release-docs.sh
index bfbfe0fc0ab..8ba19a875b7 100755
--- a/dev/generate-release-docs.sh
+++ b/dev/generate-release-docs.sh
@@ -73,12 +73,16 @@ done
 # must pass the check. GenerateDocs wraps the config/cast tables in prettier-ignore, but
 # the surrounding generated Markdown is not guaranteed prettier-clean. prettier honors
 # .prettierignore, so excluded pages (e.g. expressions.md) are left untouched.
+# CI installs the latest prettier (`npm install -g prettier`), and releases of prettier differ
+# in what they accept, so format with the latest too rather than with whatever version is
+# installed locally or cached by npx. Generating the 1.2.0 docs with prettier 3.2.5 left 40
+# pages that the latest prettier rejects.
 if ! command -v npx >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   echo "ERROR: npx not found. Install Node/prettier (see docs/source/contributor-guide/development.md)" >&2
   exit 1
 fi
 echo "Formatting generated Markdown with prettier..."
-npx prettier "${LATEST_USER_GUIDE}/**/*.md" --write
+npx --yes prettier@latest "${LATEST_USER_GUIDE}/**/*.md" --write
 
 echo ""
 echo "Done! Generated documentation content in docs/source/user-guide/latest/"
diff --git a/docs/source/contributor-guide/release_process.md b/docs/source/contributor-guide/release_process.md
index c4e23606fee..ef31cf5bfc7 100644
--- a/docs/source/contributor-guide/release_process.md
+++ b/docs/source/contributor-guide/release_process.md
@@ -167,8 +167,9 @@ git add docs/source/user-guide/latest/
 git commit -m "Generate docs for 0.13.0 release"
 ```
 
-The script runs one Maven build per supported Spark version, so it takes a while. Open a PR with this commit
-targeting the release branch.
+The script runs one Maven build per supported Spark version, so it takes a while. It formats the generated
+pages with the latest prettier, which is what CI installs, so it needs network access to npm. Open a PR with this
+commit targeting the release branch.
 
 ### Update Maven Version