docx

name docx description Create, read, edit, template, and review Word .docx files. version 1.1.0 author Nous Research license MIT platforms ["linux","macos","windows"] metadata {"hermes":{"tags":["word","docx","documents","office","templates","revisions","comments"],"category":"productivity","related_skills":["pdf","xlsx","powerpoint"]}} Docx Skill Create, read, edit, and template Microsoft Word .docx files with python-docx via small CLIs. It handles text, styles, lists, tables, images, headers/footers, {{token}} templating, tracked changes (list/accept/reject), comments (list/add/delete), TOC and page-number fields, and package health checks. It does not render documents itself (PDF needs LibreOffice — see Converting to PDF) or edit legacy .doc . When to Use The user asks to generate a Word document (report, letter, contract). You need the text, outline, styles, or embedded images of a .docx . You must change an existing .docx : replace text, edit table cells, insert/delete paragraphs, apply styles, merge fragmented runs. You have a .docx template with {{placeholders}} to fill from data. The document has tracked changes to review, accept, or reject. You need to read reviewers' comments, or add/delete comments. A .docx won't open or behaves oddly and you need corruption triage. The document needs a table of contents or "Page X of Y" footers. Not for: .doc (legacy), .odt , or WYSIWYG layout work. Prerequisites Python 3.10+ with python-docx installed: pip install python-docx (import name is docx ; lxml comes with it). Comments add uses the native API on python-docx >= 1.2 and an XML fallback on older versions — both are automatic. For image blocks: the image files must exist locally (PNG/JPEG). How to Run All helpers live in scripts/ next to this file. Run them with the terminal tool; each supports --help and prints JSON to stdout. python scripts/docx_create.py spec.json out.docx python scripts/docx_read.py out.docx --text python scripts/docx_edit.py replace out.docx --find old --replace new python scripts/docx_template.py tpl.docx values.json filled.docx python scripts/docx_revisions.py list out.docx python scripts/docx_comments.py list out.docx python scripts/docx_validate.py out.docx Quick Reference Task Command Create from JSON spec docx_create.py spec.json out.docx Full text (body+tables+headers/footers) docx_read.py f.docx --text Heading outline + table shapes docx_read.py f.docx --structure Styles actually used docx_read.py f.docx --styles Extract embedded images docx_read.py f.docx --images outdir/ Detect tracked changes/comments docx_read.py f.docx --revisions Find/replace (formatting kept) docx_edit.py replace f.docx --find A --replace B -o out.docx Set a table cell docx_edit.py set-cell f.docx --table 0 --row 1 --col 2 --text X Insert paragraph before index N docx_edit.py insert f.docx --index N --text X --style Normal Delete paragraph N docx_edit.py delete f.docx --index N Apply style to paragraph N docx_edit.py style f.docx --index N --style "Heading 1" Merge equal-format adjacent runs docx_edit.py normalize f.docx -o out.docx Insert TOC field before para N docx_edit.py toc f.docx --index N -o out.docx "Page X of Y" footer fields docx_edit.py page-numbers f.docx Fill {{tokens}} docx_template.py tpl.docx values.json out.docx --strict List revisions (id/author/date/text) docx_revisions.py list f.docx Accept / reject all revisions docx_revisions.py accept-all f.docx -o out.docx (or reject-all ) Accept / reject one revision docx_revisions.py accept f.docx --id 3 -o out.docx List comments (+anchored text) docx_comments.py list f.docx Add comment anchored to text docx_comments.py add f.docx --target "phrase" --text "note" --author You Delete comment by id docx_comments.py delete f.docx --id 0 Health-check the package docx_validate.py f.docx (exit 1 on errors) Procedure Create. Write a JSON spec with write_file , then run scripts/docx_create.py . The spec supports: page (size + margins in mm), header / footer strings, footer_page_numbers (adds a "Page X of Y" field footer), styles (custom paragraph styles with font, size, bold/italic, hex color ), and blocks — heading (level 1-9), paragraph (either text or a runs list where each run may set bold / italic / underline ), bullet_list , numbered_list , table ( header row rendered bold, rows , optional built-in table style such as Table Grid ), image ( path , optional width_mm ), toc (Table of Contents field), and page_break . The full spec format is documented at the top of scripts/docx_create.py . Read. Use scripts/docx_read.py with exactly one mode flag. --text returns body paragraphs, all table cell text, and header/footer text as JSON. --structure returns the heading outline plus paragraph/table/section counts. --images DIR copies every file under word/media/ out of the package. Edit. Use scripts/docx_edit.py . replace walks body, tables (nested included), headers and footers, and preserves run formatting; add --body-only to skip headers/footers. Pass -o out.docx to keep the original; omit it to edit in place. Paragraph indices for insert / delete / style / toc refer to --structure / --text body order. Run normalize first on documents that came out of heavy Word editing — it merges adjacent runs with identical formatting so later find-replace matches reliably. Review revisions. docx_revisions.py list reports every w:ins and w:del (id, author, date, affected text) anywhere in body, tables, headers, or footers. accept-all / reject-all resolve them in bulk; accept / reject --id N handles a single revision. Accept keeps insertions and drops deleted text; reject does the reverse. Comments. docx_comments.py list returns each comment's id, author, date, body text, and the document text it is anchored to. add --target "some phrase" anchors a new comment to the first occurrence of that phrase (runs are split as needed; formatting is preserved). delete --id N removes the comment and its markers without touching document text. Template. Put {{name}} -style tokens in the document. Run scripts/docx_template.py with a JSON object of values. Use --strict to fail when tokens remain unfilled; the JSON output lists filled counts and unfilled_tokens either way. Verify (always): re-read the output with --text or --structure , and run docx_validate.py on anything you produced via revision/comment surgery. Converting to PDF No script needed. When LibreOffice is installed, convert headlessly: soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir outdir/ file.docx Check availability first ( command -v soffice || command -v libreoffice ). If neither exists, tell the user PDF conversion is unavailable in this environment rather than improvising — python-docx cannot render PDFs, and layout fidelity requires a real renderer. Pitfalls Tokens split across runs. Word often fragments text into several runs. The replace helpers collapse matched runs (replacement inherits the first run's formatting); running docx_edit.py normalize first reduces fragmentation for all later edits. Revision coverage. docx_revisions.py resolves run-level insertions and deletions (the overwhelming majority). Paragraph-mark and table-row revisions, format-change records, and moves are detected by --revisions but not auto-resolved — see references/revisions-and-comments.md and hand those to Word. Comment threading. Replies and "resolved" status live in commentsExtended.xml , which this skill ignores; comments it adds are plain top-level comments. Field results are computed by Word. toc , page-numbers , and the toc / footer_page_numbers spec options write field codes . Word/LibreOffice populates the actual entries and numbers when the file is opened (Word may prompt to update fields); python-docx never computes them, so placeholder text shows until then. Validation is a health check, not schema validation. docx_validate.py verifies the zip, required parts, relationship targets, image magic bytes, and referenced styles. It is NOT XSD validation — a file can pass and still contain XML Word dislikes. Style names must exist. Applying a style that isn't defined in the document raises KeyError . Built-ins like Heading 1 , List Bullet , List Number , Table Grid exist in the default template; custom styles must be declared in the create spec first. Numbered lists restart. List Number relies on Word's default numbering; separate lists in one document may continue numbering instead of restarting. Warn users needing precise multi-list numbering. Cell writes replace formatting. set-cell uses cell.text = ... , which resets runs in that cell to plain formatting. Encoding. All JSON specs/values files are read as UTF-8 explicitly; never rely on locale defaults when writing your own glue code. Don't unzip-and-sed the XML. Edit through the scripts (or python-docx); raw text substitution in document.xml corrupts files easily. Use patch / write_file only for the JSON inputs, never on the .docx itself. Verification After create/edit/template, run docx_read.py out.docx --text and check the expected strings appear (and old strings are gone). After accept/reject, docx_revisions.py list should return [] (or only the ids you intentionally left); after comment surgery, docx_comments.py list should reflect the change and --text output must be unchanged. docx_validate.py out.docx exits 0 with "ok": true on a healthy package — run it after any revision/comment/field manipulation. For templates run with --strict , or check unfilled_tokens == [] . Structure checks: --structure should show the expected heading outline and table shapes; --styles confirms custom styles applied.