DOCX Processing Skill

Overview

This skill enables comprehensive Word document operations through multiple specialized workflows for reading, creating, and editing documents.

Quick Start

from docx import Document

# Read existing document
doc = Document("document.docx")
for para in doc.paragraphs:
    print(para.text)

# Create new document
doc = Document()
doc.add_heading("My Title", level=0)
doc.add_paragraph("Hello, World!")
doc.save("output.docx")

When to Use

• Extracting text and tables from Word documents
• Creating professional documents programmatically
• Generating reports from templates
• Bulk document processing and modification
• Legal document redlining with tracked changes
• Converting Word documents to other formats
• Adding headers, footers, and page numbers
• Inserting images and tables into documents

Core Capabilities

• Reading & Analysis: Extract text via pandoc or access raw XML for comments, formatting, and metadata
• Document Creation: Use python-docx to build new documents from scratch
• Document Editing: Employ OOXML manipulation for complex modifications
• Tracked Changes: Implement redlining workflow for professional document editing

Reading Documents

Extract Text with Pandoc

pandoc document.docx -t plain -o output.txt
pandoc document.docx -t markdown -o output.md

Python Text Extraction

from docx import Document

doc = Document("document.docx")
for para in doc.paragraphs:
    print(para.text)

Extract Tables

from docx import Document

doc = Document("document.docx")
for table in doc.tables:
    for row in table.rows:
        for cell in row.cells:
            print(cell.text, end="\t")
        print()

Creating Documents

Basic Document Creation

from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Pt, Inches

doc = Document()

# Add heading
doc.add_heading("Document Title", level=0)

# Add paragraph with formatting
para = doc.add_paragraph()
run = para.add_run("Bold text")
run.bold = True

para.add_run(" and ")
run = para.add_run("italic text")
run.italic = True

# Add styled paragraph
doc.add_paragraph("Normal paragraph text.")

doc.save("output.docx")

Add Tables

from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Inches

doc = Document()

table = doc.add_table(rows=3, cols=3)
table.style = 'Table Grid'

# Fill cells
for i, row in enumerate(table.rows):
    for j, cell in enumerate(row.cells):
        cell.text = f"Row {i+1}, Col {j+1}"

doc.save("output.docx")

Add Images

from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Inches

doc = Document()
doc.add_heading("Document with Image", level=0)
doc.add_picture("image.png", width=Inches(4))
doc.add_paragraph("Caption for the image.")

doc.save("output.docx")

Advanced Formatting

from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Pt, RGBColor
from docx.enum.text import WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH

doc = Document()

# Custom heading
heading = doc.add_heading(level=1)
run = heading.add_run("Custom Styled Heading")
run.font.size = Pt(24)
run.font.color.rgb = RGBColor(0x2E, 0x74, 0xB5)

# Centered paragraph
para = doc.add_paragraph("Centered text")
para.alignment = WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH.CENTER

# Bulleted list
doc.add_paragraph("First item", style='List Bullet')
doc.add_paragraph("Second item", style='List Bullet')
doc.add_paragraph("Third item", style='List Bullet')

doc.save("output.docx")

Editing Documents

Modify Existing Document

from docx import Document

doc = Document("existing.docx")

# Replace text in paragraphs
for para in doc.paragraphs:
    if "old text" in para.text:
        for run in para.runs:
            run.text = run.text.replace("old text", "new text")

doc.save("modified.docx")

Add Content to Existing Document

from docx import Document

doc = Document("existing.docx")

# Add new paragraph at end
doc.add_paragraph("New paragraph added.")

# Add new section
doc.add_page_break()
doc.add_heading("New Section", level=1)
doc.add_paragraph("Content for new section.")

doc.save("modified.docx")

Redlining Workflow

For legal, academic, or government documents requiring tracked changes:

Step 1: Convert to Markdown

pandoc document.docx -t markdown -o document.md

Step 2: Plan Changes

Document the specific changes needed before implementation.

Step 3: Apply Changes in Batches

Apply 3-10 related modifications at a time, preserving formatting.

Step 4: Validate Changes

Ensure original formatting and unchanged content are preserved.

Key Principle

When modifying text like "30 days" to "60 days", only mark the changed portion while preserving unchanged runs with their original RSID attributes.

Extract Metadata

from docx import Document

doc = Document("document.docx")
props = doc.core_properties

print(f"Title: {props.title}")
print(f"Author: {props.author}")
print(f"Created: {props.created}")
print(f"Modified: {props.modified}")
print(f"Last Modified By: {props.last_modified_by}")

Working with Headers/Footers

from docx import Document

doc = Document()

# Add header
section = doc.sections[0]
header = section.header
header_para = header.paragraphs[0]
header_para.text = "Document Header"

# Add footer
footer = section.footer
footer_para = footer.paragraphs[0]
footer_para.text = "Page Footer"

doc.save("with_header_footer.docx")

Execution Checklist

• Verify input document exists and is valid .docx
• Check if document is password-protected
• Backup original before modifications
• Preserve existing styles and formatting
• Validate output document opens correctly
• Check for broken hyperlinks or images

Error Handling

Common Errors

Error: PackageNotFoundError

• Cause: File is not a valid .docx (possibly .doc)
• Solution: Convert to .docx using LibreOffice or save as .docx from Word

Error: KeyError on style

• Cause: Requested style doesn't exist in document
• Solution: Use built-in styles or check available styles first

Error: Permission denied

• Cause: File is open in another application
• Solution: Close the file in Word/LibreOffice

Error: Encoding issues

• Cause: Special characters in content
• Solution: Ensure UTF-8 encoding, handle special chars

Metrics

Metric	Typical Value
Document creation	~100 docs/second
Text extraction	~500 pages/second
Table extraction	~50 tables/second
Memory usage	~5MB per document

Dependencies

pip install python-docx

System tools:

• Pandoc (for format conversion)
• LibreOffice (for PDF conversion)

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Version History

• 1.1.0 (2026-01-02): Added Quick Start, When to Use, Execution Checklist, Error Handling, Metrics sections; updated frontmatter with version, category, related_skills
• 1.0.0 (2024-10-15): Initial release with python-docx, pandoc integration, redlining workflow