docx

DOCX (Microsoft Word)

A .docx is a ZIP of XML parts. Body text lives in word/document.xml. Two tiers:

• Default — python-docx (preinstalled): create, read, and simple edits. Use for almost everything.
• Advanced — raw OOXML via zipfile: only for what python-docx cannot express — tracked changes (redlines), comments, and exact-fidelity edits that must preserve every untouched byte. See Raw OOXML.

Runtime

Use exec with complete Python source (language: python). python-docx is preinstalled. Prefer creating, saving, reopening, and validating the deliverable in one call; later calls can revise the same relative filename. Follow the turn's User workspace instructions for locating inputs, output boundaries, and presenting the finished file. When editing, write a new output unless the user explicitly requested an authorized replacement.

Read / extract

from docx import Document

doc = Document("in.docx")
text = "\n".join(p.text for p in doc.paragraphs)  # body paragraphs
for tbl in doc.tables:  # tables
    for row in tbl.rows:
        print([c.text for c in row.cells])

doc.paragraphs skips text inside tables, headers/footers, and text boxes — iterate doc.tables and doc.sections[i].header/.footer for those. Each paragraph's style: p.style.name (e.g. "Heading 1").

To read tracked changes, parse the XML directly — python-docx ignores <w:ins>/<w:del>:

import zipfile, re

xml = zipfile.ZipFile("in.docx").read("word/document.xml").decode("utf-8")
# inserted text = <w:ins>…<w:t>…  deleted = <w:del>…<w:delText>…
print(re.findall(r"<w:t[^>]*>(.*?)</w:t>", xml))

Create

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

doc = Document()  # default template page size
doc.add_heading("Quarterly Report", level=0)  # 0 = title; 1..9 = H1..H9
p = doc.add_paragraph("Intro paragraph. ")
run = p.add_run("Bold tail.")
run.bold = True
doc.add_paragraph("First item", style="List Bullet")  # real list style, never a "• " literal
doc.add_paragraph("Step one", style="List Number")

# Table — header row + data
tbl = doc.add_table(rows=1, cols=2)
tbl.style = "Light Grid Accent 1"
tbl.rows[0].cells[0].text, tbl.rows[0].cells[1].text = "Metric", "Value"
for k, v in [("Revenue", "1.2M"), ("Growth", "15%")]:
    c = tbl.add_row().cells
    c[0].text, c[1].text = k, v

doc.add_picture("chart.png", width=Inches(5))  # image, scaled to width
doc.add_page_break()
doc.save("out.docx")

# Validate immediately; later exec calls can also reopen this relative path.
check = Document("out.docx")
assert check.paragraphs, "generated DOCX has no paragraphs"
import zipfile

with zipfile.ZipFile("out.docx") as package:
    assert package.testzip() is None, "generated DOCX has a corrupt ZIP member"