DOCX Creation, Editing, and Analysis

Overview

A .docx file is essentially a ZIP archive containing XML files that you can read or edit.

Workflow Decision Tree

Reading/Analyzing Content

Use text extraction or raw XML access

Creating New Document

Use docx-js workflow

Editing Existing Document

• Your own document + simple changes: Basic OOXML editing
• Someone else's document: Redlining workflow (recommended)
• Legal, academic, business docs: Redlining workflow (required)

Reading Content

Text Extraction

Convert to markdown using pandoc:

# Convert document to markdown with tracked changes
pandoc --track-changes=all path-to-file.docx -o output.md

Raw XML Access

Needed for: comments, complex formatting, document structure, embedded media.

# Unpack a file
python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <input.docx> <output_dir>

Key file structures:

• word/document.xml - Main document contents
• word/comments.xml - Comments referenced in document.xml
• word/media/ - Embedded images and media files
• Tracked changes use <w:ins> and <w:del> tags

Creating New Documents

Use docx-js (JavaScript/TypeScript):

1. Create a JavaScript/TypeScript file using Document, Paragraph, TextRun components
2. Export as .docx using Packer.toBuffer()

import { Document, Paragraph, TextRun, Packer } from "docx";

const doc = new Document({
  sections: [{
    properties: {},
    children: [
      new Paragraph({
        children: [new TextRun("Hello World")],
      }),
    ],
  }],
});

const buffer = await Packer.toBuffer(doc);

Editing Existing Documents

Use the Document library (Python):

1. Unpack: python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <input.docx> <output_dir>
2. Create and run a Python script using the Document library
3. Pack: python ooxml/scripts/pack.py <unpacked_dir> <output.docx>

Redlining Workflow

For document review with tracked changes:

Principle: Minimal, Precise Edits Only mark text that actually changes. Break replacements into: [unchanged text] + [deletion] + [insertion] + [unchanged text]

Workflow

1. Get markdown representation:

   bashCopy

   pandoc --track-changes=all path-to-file.docx -o current.md
   

2. Identify and group changes into batches of 3-10

3. Unpack the document:

   bashCopy

   python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <input.docx> <output_dir>
   

4. Implement changes in batches using Document library

5. Pack the document:

   bashCopy

   python ooxml/scripts/pack.py unpacked reviewed-document.docx
   

6. Final verification:

   bashCopy

   pandoc --track-changes=all reviewed-document.docx -o verification.md
   

Converting to Images

# Convert DOCX to PDF
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf document.docx

# Convert PDF pages to JPEG
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 document.pdf page

Dependencies

• pandoc: Text extraction
• docx: Creating new documents (npm)
• LibreOffice: PDF conversion
• Poppler: PDF to image conversion
• defusedxml: Secure XML parsing