Editing/Writing Word-Files from Python

[Daniel Cloutier]

Hi,

is it possible to edit or write Word-files out of a Python-Program?

thx in advance
daniel

 

[Peter Hansen]

is it possible to edit or write Word-files out of a Python-Program?

Word uses a proprietary binary format, so you don't really
have as an option the simple "open file, make some changes,
write file" approach you might be picturing.

On the other hand, this *is* Python, so you have alternatives:

1. Use ActiveX and control Word from Python. This is described
well in Mark Hammond's book on Win32 programming with Python,
web pages (use Google), and posts in the comp.lang.python archives.

2. Write HTML or RTF files, which are not proprietary binary
formats. These can be edited in Python and then written back
again. Not sure if there's an RTF library, but "it's just text".

3. Define in more detail what you are actually looking for
("edit" is ill-defined) including the context, and you'll
probably get another three or four ways of doing it.

-Peter

 

[Alan Kennedy]

[Daniel Cloutier]

> is it possible to edit or write Word-files out of a Python-Program?

If you have access to Office 2003, are feeling brave, and have a lot
of time on your hands, you could create and manipulate the XML
structures that Word 2003 uses.

It thought the group members might find it interesting to see such a
file, so I have exported a "Hello World!" document as XML, and posted
the result below. I had to tidy it up a little, the original came out
all on one line. And I had to add an encoding declaration

In terms of generating such structures, well, everybody has their own
favourite *ML templating language. I'd use TAL or XSLT in "Literal
Result Element as Stylesheet" mode ...

http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt#result-element-stylesheet

#--------- helloworld.xml --- cut here ------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding='utf-8'?>
<?mso-application progid="Word.Document"?>
<w:wordDocument
w:embeddedObjPresent="no"
w:macrosPresent="no"
wcxPresent="no"
xml:space="preserve"
xmlns:aml="http://schemas.microsoft.com/aml/2001/core"
xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882"
xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice"
xmlns:sl="http://schemas.microsoft.com/schemaLibrary/2003/core"
xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml"
xmlns:w="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml"
xmlns:w10="urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:word"
xmlns:wx="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/auxHint"

>

<oocumentProperties>
<o:Title>Hello World</o:Title>
<o:Author>Alan</o:Author>
<o:LastAuthor>Alan</o:LastAuthor>
<o:Revision>1</o:Revision>
<o:TotalTime>1</o:TotalTime>
<o:Created>2004-04-20T15:38:00Z</o:Created>
<o:LastSaved>2004-04-20T15:39:00Z</o:LastSaved>
<oages>1</oages>
<o:Words>1</o:Words>
<o:Characters>12</o:Characters>
<o:Company>Alan</o:Company>
<o:Lines>1</o:Lines>
<oaragraphs>1</oaragraphs>
<o:CharactersWithSpaces>12</o:CharactersWithSpaces>
<o:Version>11.6113</o:Version>
</oocumentProperties>
<w:fonts>
<w:defaultFonts
w:ascii="Times New Roman"
w:cs="Times New Roman"
w:fareast="Times New Roman"
w:h-ansi="Times New Roman"
/>
</w:fonts>
<w:styles>
<w:versionOfBuiltInStylenames w:val="4"/>
<w:latentStyles
w:defLockedState="off"
w:latentStyleCount="156"
/>
<w:style
w:default="on"
w:styleId="Normal"
w:type="paragraph"

>

<w:name w:val="Normal"/>
<w:rPr>
<wx:font wx:val="Times New Roman"/>
<w:lang
w:bidi="AR-SA"
w:fareast="EN-GB"
w:val="EN-GB"
/>
</w:rPr>
</w:style>
<w:style
w:default="on"
w:styleId="DefaultParagraphFont"
w:type="character"

>

<w:name w:val="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:semiHidden/>
</w:style>
<w:style
w:default="on"
w:styleId="TableNormal"
w:type="table"

>

<w:name w:val="Normal Table"/>
<wx:uiName wx:val="Table Normal"/>
<w:semiHidden/>
<w:rPr>
<wx:font wx:val="Times New Roman"/>
</w:rPr>
<w:tblPr>
<w:tblInd w:type="dxa" w:w="0"/>
<w:tblCellMar>
<w:top w:type="dxa" w:w="0"/>
<w:left w:type="dxa" w:w="108"/>
<w:bottom w:type="dxa" w:w="0"/>
<w:right w:type="dxa" w:w="108"/>
</w:tblCellMar>
</w:tblPr>
</w:style>
<w:style w:default="on" w:styleId="NoList" w:type="list">
<w:name w:val="No List"/>
<w:semiHidden/>
</w:style>
</w:styles>
<w:docPr>
<w:view w:val="print"/>
<w:zoom wercent="100"/>
<w:doNotEmbedSystemFonts/>
<wroofState w:grammar="clean" w:spelling="clean"/>
<w:attachedTemplate w:val=""/>
<w:defaultTabStop w:val="720"/>
<w:displayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery w:val="0"/>
<w:displayVerticalDrawingGridEvery w:val="0"/>
<w:useMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin/>
<w:characterSpacingControl w:val="DontCompress"/>
<wptimizeForBrowser/>
<w:validateAgainstSchema/>
<w:saveInvalidXML w:val="off"/>
<w:ignoreMixedContent w:val="off"/>
<w:alwaysShowPlaceholderText w:val="off"/>
<w:compat>
<w:footnoteLayoutLikeWW8/>
<w:shapeLayoutLikeWW8/>
<w:alignTablesRowByRow/>
<w:forgetLastTabAlignment/>
<w:doNotUseHTMLParagraphAutoSpacing/>
<w:layoutRawTableWidth/>
<w:layoutTableRowsApart/>
<w:useWord97LineBreakingRules/>
<w:dontAllowFieldEndSelect/>
<w:useWord2002TableStyleRules/>
</w:compat>
</w:docPr>
<w:body>
<wx:sect>
<w>
<wPr>
<w:jc w:val="center"/>
<w:rPr>
<w:sz w:val="40"/>
<w:sz-cs w:val="40"/>
</w:rPr>
</wPr>
<w:r>
<w:rPr>
<w:sz w:val="40"/>
<w:sz-cs w:val="40"/>
</w:rPr>
<w:t>Hello World!</w:t>
</w:r>
</w>
<w:sectPr>
<wgSz w:h="16838" w:w="11906"/>
<wgMar
w:bottom="1440"
w:footer="720"
w:gutter="0"
w:header="720"
w:left="1800"
w:right="1800"
w:top="1440"
/>
<w:cols w:space="720"/>
</w:sectPr>
</wx:sect>
</w:body>
</w:wordDocument>
#--------- helloworld.xml --- cut here ------------------------

 

[Hung Jung Lu]

is it possible to edit or write Word-files out of a Python-Program?

Yes.

(a) You need the win32all modules from Mark Hammond.

(b) To try out the object model of MS Word, press ALT+F11 to bring up
the VBA environment, then F2 to view the object browser. It's a
complicated subject.

-------------------------------------------
import pythoncom
from win32com.client import Dispatch

app = Dispatch('Word.Application')
app.Visible = 1
doc = app.Documents.Add()
s = doc.Sentences(1)
s.Text = 'This is a test.'
doc.SaveAs('C:\\mydoc2.doc')
app.Quit()

app = None
pythoncom.CoUninitialize()
--------------------------------------------

You may want to add better exception handling, otherwise, you may
often have danggling processes when exceptions happen. (You'll then
have to manually kill them from the task manager.)

regards,

Hung Jung

 

[Daniel Cloutier]

Yes.

(a) You need the win32all modules from Mark Hammond.

(b) To try out the object model of MS Word, press ALT+F11 to bring up
the VBA environment, then F2 to view the object browser. It's a
complicated subject.

-------------------------------------------
import pythoncom
from win32com.client import Dispatch

app = Dispatch('Word.Application')
app.Visible = 1
doc = app.Documents.Add()
s = doc.Sentences(1)
s.Text = 'This is a test.'
doc.SaveAs('C:\\mydoc2.doc')
app.Quit()

app = None
pythoncom.CoUninitialize()
--------------------------------------------

You may want to add better exception handling, otherwise, you may
often have danggling processes when exceptions happen. (You'll then
have to manually kill them from the task manager.)

regards,

Hung Jung

thanks a lot, yesterday i found out myself that i have to use the
win32com package, but i didn't know how to add some text

greetings
daniel