Edit content in header of document Python-docx

Question

I am trying to find and replace text in a Textbox in Header of document. But after searching for awhile, it seems there is no way to access the content in the Header or "float" text boxes via python-docx (I read issue here)

So, it means we have to find and replace directly on the xml format of document. Do you know anyway to do that?

Answer 1

I found a way to solve this problem. For instance, I have a template.docx file, and I want to change text in a Textbox in Header as described above. Flow steps below, I solved my problems:

1. Rename file template.docx to template.zip
2. Unzip template.zip to template folder
3. Find and replace text I want to change in one of the header<number>.xml files in /template/word/ folder.
4. Zip all files in /template folder back to template.zip
5. Rename template.zip back to template.docx

I used Python to manipulate these

import os
import shutil
import zipfile

WORKING_DIR = os.getcwd()
TEMP_DOCX = os.path.join(WORKING_DIR, "template.docx")
TEMP_ZIP = os.path.join(WORKING_DIR, "template.zip")
TEMP_FOLDER = os.path.join(WORKING_DIR, "template")

# remove old zip file or folder template
if os.path.exists(TEMP_ZIP):
    os.remove(TEMP_ZIP)
if os.path.exists(TEMP_FOLDER):
    shutil.rmtree(TEMP_FOLDER)

# reformat template.docx's extension
os.rename(TEMP_DOCX, TEMP_ZIP)

# unzip file zip to specific folder
with zipfile.ZipFile(TEMP_ZIP, 'r') as z:
    z.extractall(TEMP_FOLDER)

# change header xml file
header_xml = os.path.join(TEMP_FOLDER, "word", "header1.xml")
xmlstring = open(header_xml, 'r', encoding='utf-8').read()
xmlstring = xmlstring.replace("#TXTB1", "Hello World!")
with open(header_xml, "wb") as f:
    f.write(xmlstring.encode("UTF-8"))

# zip temp folder to zip file
os.remove(TEMP_ZIP)
shutil.make_archive(TEMP_ZIP.replace(".zip", ""), 'zip', TEMP_FOLDER)

# rename zip file to docx
os.rename(TEMP_ZIP, TEMP_DOCX)
shutil.rmtree(TEMP_FOLDER)

Answer 2

Another way to do this, in memory:

def docx_setup_header(doc_sio_1, new_title):
    """
    Returns a StringIO having replaced #TITLE# placeholder in document header with new_title
    :param doc_sio_1:  A StringIO instance of the docx document.
    :param new_title:  The new title to be inserted into header, replacing #TITLE# placeholder
    :return: A new StringIO instance, with modified document.
    """

    HEADER_PATH = 'word/header1.xml'

    doc_zip_1 = zipfile.ZipFile(doc_sio_1, 'r')
    header = doc_zip_1.read(HEADER_PATH)
    header = header.replace("#TITLE#", new_title)

    doc_sio_2 = StringIO.StringIO()
    doc_zip_2 = zipfile.ZipFile(doc_sio_2, 'w')
    for item in doc_zip_1.infolist():
        content = doc_zip_1.read(item.filename)
        if item.filename == HEADER_PATH:
            doc_zip_2.writestr(HEADER_PATH, header, zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
        else:
            doc_zip_2.writestr(item, content)

    doc_zip_1.close()
    doc_zip_2.close()

    return doc_sio_2

Note that Python's zipfile cannot replace or delete items, so you need to make up a brand new zipfile, and copy unchanged elements from original.