I'am tasked with converting tons of .doc files to .pdf. And the only way my supervisor wants me to do this is through MSWord 2010. I know I should be able to automate this with python COM automation. Only problem is I dont know how and where to start. I tried searching for some tutorials but was not able to find any (May be I might have, but I don't know what I'm looking for).
Right now I'm reading through this. Dont know how useful this is going to be.
A simple example using comtypes, converting a single file, input and output filenames given as commandline arguments:
import sys
import os
import comtypes.client
wdFormatPDF = 17
in_file = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[1])
out_file = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[2])
word = comtypes.client.CreateObject('Word.Application')
doc = word.Documents.Open(in_file)
doc.SaveAs(out_file, FileFormat=wdFormatPDF)
doc.Close()
word.Quit()
You could also use pywin32, which would be the same except for:
import win32com.client
and then:
word = win32com.client.Dispatch('Word.Application')
You can use the docx2pdf python package to bulk convert docx to pdf. It can be used as both a CLI and a python library. It requires Microsoft Office to be installed and uses COM on Windows and AppleScript (JXA) on macOS.
from docx2pdf import convert
convert("input.docx")
convert("input.docx", "output.pdf")
convert("my_docx_folder/")
pip install docx2pdf
docx2pdf input.docx output.pdf
Disclaimer: I wrote the docx2pdf package. https://github.com/AlJohri/docx2pdf
I have tested many solutions but no one of them works efficiently on Linux distribution.
I recommend this solution :
import sys
import subprocess
import re
def convert_to(folder, source, timeout=None):
args = [libreoffice_exec(), '--headless', '--convert-to', 'pdf', '--outdir', folder, source]
process = subprocess.run(args, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, timeout=timeout)
filename = re.search('-> (.*?) using filter', process.stdout.decode())
return filename.group(1)
def libreoffice_exec():
# TODO: Provide support for more platforms
if sys.platform == 'darwin':
return '/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice'
return 'libreoffice'
and you call your function:
result = convert_to('TEMP Directory', 'Your File', timeout=15)
All resources:
https://michalzalecki.com/converting-docx-to-pdf-using-python/
I have worked on this problem for half a day, so I think I should share some of my experience on this matter. Steven's answer is right, but it will fail on my computer. There are two key points to fix it here:
(1). The first time when I created the 'Word.Application' object, I should make it (the word app) visible before open any documents. (Actually, even I myself cannot explain why this works. If I do not do this on my computer, the program will crash when I try to open a document in the invisible model, then the 'Word.Application' object will be deleted by OS. )
(2). After doing (1), the program will work well sometimes but may fail often. The crash error "COMError: (-2147418111, 'Call was rejected by callee.', (None, None, None, 0, None))" means that the COM Server may not be able to response so quickly. So I add a delay before I tried to open a document.
After doing these two steps, the program will work perfectly with no failure anymore. The demo code is as below. If you have encountered the same problems, try to follow these two steps. Hope it helps.
import os
import comtypes.client
import time
wdFormatPDF = 17
# absolute path is needed
# be careful about the slash '\', use '\\' or '/' or raw string r"..."
in_file=r'absolute path of input docx file 1'
out_file=r'absolute path of output pdf file 1'
in_file2=r'absolute path of input docx file 2'
out_file2=r'absolute path of outputpdf file 2'
# print out filenames
print in_file
print out_file
print in_file2
print out_file2
# create COM object
word = comtypes.client.CreateObject('Word.Application')
# key point 1: make word visible before open a new document
word.Visible = True
# key point 2: wait for the COM Server to prepare well.
time.sleep(3)
# convert docx file 1 to pdf file 1
doc=word.Documents.Open(in_file) # open docx file 1
doc.SaveAs(out_file, FileFormat=wdFormatPDF) # conversion
doc.Close() # close docx file 1
word.Visible = False
# convert docx file 2 to pdf file 2
doc = word.Documents.Open(in_file2) # open docx file 2
doc.SaveAs(out_file2, FileFormat=wdFormatPDF) # conversion
doc.Close() # close docx file 2
word.Quit() # close Word Application
unoconv (writen in Python) and OpenOffice running as a headless daemon.
https://github.com/unoconv/unoconv
http://dag.wiee.rs/home-made/unoconv/
Works very nicely for doc, docx, ppt, pptx, xls, xlsx.
Very useful if you need to convert docs or save/convert to certain formats on a server.
As an alternative to the SaveAs function, you could also use ExportAsFixedFormat which gives you access to the PDF options dialog you would normally see in Word. With this you can specify bookmarks and other document properties.
doc.ExportAsFixedFormat(OutputFileName=pdf_file,
ExportFormat=17, #17 = PDF output, 18=XPS output
OpenAfterExport=False,
OptimizeFor=0, #0=Print (higher res), 1=Screen (lower res)
CreateBookmarks=1, #0=No bookmarks, 1=Heading bookmarks only, 2=bookmarks match word bookmarks
DocStructureTags=True
);
The full list of function arguments is: 'OutputFileName', 'ExportFormat', 'OpenAfterExport', 'OptimizeFor', 'Range', 'From', 'To', 'Item', 'IncludeDocProps', 'KeepIRM', 'CreateBookmarks', 'DocStructureTags', 'BitmapMissingFonts', 'UseISO19005_1', 'FixedFormatExtClassPtr'
It's worth noting that Stevens answer works, but make sure if using a for loop to export multiple files to place the ClientObject or Dispatch statements before the loop - it only needs to be created once - see my problem: Python win32com.client.Dispatch looping through Word documents and export to PDF; fails when next loop occurs
If you don't mind using PowerShell have a look at this Hey, Scripting Guy! article. The code presented could be adopted to use the wdFormatPDF enumeration value of WdSaveFormat (see here).
This blog article presents a different implementation of the same idea.
I have modified it for ppt support as well. My solution support all the below-specified extensions.
word_extensions = [".doc", ".odt", ".rtf", ".docx", ".dotm", ".docm"]
ppt_extensions = [".ppt", ".pptx"]
My Solution: Github Link
I have modified code from Docx2PDF
I tried the accepted answer but wasn't particularly keen on the bloated PDFs Word was producing which was usually an order of magnitude bigger than expected. After looking how to disable the dialogs when using a virtual PDF printer I came across Bullzip PDF Printer and I've been rather impressed with its features. It's now replaced the other virtual printers I used previously. You'll find a "free community edition" on their download page.
The COM API can be found here and a list of the usable settings can be found here. The settings are written to a "runonce" file which is used for one print job only and then removed automatically. When printing multiple PDFs we need to make sure one print job completes before starting another to ensure the settings are used correctly for each file.
import os, re, time, datetime, win32com.client
def print_to_Bullzip(file):
util = win32com.client.Dispatch("Bullzip.PDFUtil")
settings = win32com.client.Dispatch("Bullzip.PDFSettings")
settings.PrinterName = util.DefaultPrinterName # make sure we're controlling the right PDF printer
outputFile = re.sub("\.[^.]+$", ".pdf", file)
statusFile = re.sub("\.[^.]+$", ".status", file)
settings.SetValue("Output", outputFile)
settings.SetValue("ConfirmOverwrite", "no")
settings.SetValue("ShowSaveAS", "never")
settings.SetValue("ShowSettings", "never")
settings.SetValue("ShowPDF", "no")
settings.SetValue("ShowProgress", "no")
settings.SetValue("ShowProgressFinished", "no") # disable balloon tip
settings.SetValue("StatusFile", statusFile) # created after print job
settings.WriteSettings(True) # write settings to the runonce.ini
util.PrintFile(file, util.DefaultPrinterName) # send to Bullzip virtual printer
# wait until print job completes before continuing
# otherwise settings for the next job may not be used
timestamp = datetime.datetime.now()
while( (datetime.datetime.now() - timestamp).seconds < 10):
if os.path.exists(statusFile) and os.path.isfile(statusFile):
error = util.ReadIniString(statusFile, "Status", "Errors", '')
if error != "0":
raise IOError("PDF was created with errors")
os.remove(statusFile)
return
time.sleep(0.1)
raise IOError("PDF creation timed out")
I was working with this solution but I needed to search all .docx, .dotm, .docm, .odt, .doc or .rtf and then turn them all to .pdf (python 3.7.5). Hope it works...
import os
import win32com.client
wdFormatPDF = 17
for root, dirs, files in os.walk(r'your directory here'):
for f in files:
if f.endswith(".doc") or f.endswith(".odt") or f.endswith(".rtf"):
try:
print(f)
in_file=os.path.join(root,f)
word = win32com.client.Dispatch('Word.Application')
word.Visible = False
doc = word.Documents.Open(in_file)
doc.SaveAs(os.path.join(root,f[:-4]), FileFormat=wdFormatPDF)
doc.Close()
word.Quit()
word.Visible = True
print ('done')
os.remove(os.path.join(root,f))
pass
except:
print('could not open')
# os.remove(os.path.join(root,f))
elif f.endswith(".docx") or f.endswith(".dotm") or f.endswith(".docm"):
try:
print(f)
in_file=os.path.join(root,f)
word = win32com.client.Dispatch('Word.Application')
word.Visible = False
doc = word.Documents.Open(in_file)
doc.SaveAs(os.path.join(root,f[:-5]), FileFormat=wdFormatPDF)
doc.Close()
word.Quit()
word.Visible = True
print ('done')
os.remove(os.path.join(root,f))
pass
except:
print('could not open')
# os.remove(os.path.join(root,f))
else:
pass
The try and except was for those documents I couldn't read and won't exit the code until the last document.
You should start from investigating so called virtual PDF print drivers.
As soon as you will find one you should be able to write batch file that prints your DOC files into PDF files. You probably can do this in Python too (setup printer driver output and issue document/print command in MSWord, later can be done using command line AFAIR).
import docx2txt
from win32com import client
import os
files_from_folder = r"c:\\doc"
directory = os.fsencode(files_from_folder)
amount = 1
word = client.DispatchEx("Word.Application")
word.Visible = True
for file in os.listdir(directory):
filename = os.fsdecode(file)
print(filename)
if filename.endswith('docx'):
text = docx2txt.process(os.path.join(files_from_folder, filename))
print(f'{filename} transfered ({amount})')
amount += 1
new_filename = filename.split('.')[0] + '.txt'
try:
with open(os.path.join(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files', new_filename), 'w', encoding='utf-8') as t:
t.write(text)
except:
os.mkdir(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files')
with open(os.path.join(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files', new_filename), 'w', encoding='utf-8') as t:
t.write(text)
elif filename.endswith('doc'):
doc = word.Documents.Open(os.path.join(files_from_folder, filename))
text = doc.Range().Text
doc.Close()
print(f'{filename} transfered ({amount})')
amount += 1
new_filename = filename.split('.')[0] + '.txt'
try:
with open(os.path.join(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files', new_filename), 'w', encoding='utf-8') as t:
t.write(text)
except:
os.mkdir(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files')
with open(os.path.join(files_from_folder + r'\txt_files', new_filename), 'w', encoding='utf-8') as t:
t.write(text)
word.Quit()
The Source Code, see here:
https://neculaifantanaru.com/en/python-full-code-how-to-convert-doc-and-docx-files-to-pdf-from-the-folder.html
I would suggest ignoring your supervisor and use OpenOffice which has a Python api. OpenOffice has built in support for Python and someone created a library specific for this purpose (PyODConverter).
If he isn't happy with the output, tell him it could take you weeks to do it with word.
I'm attempting to wrap my brain around this because the identical code generates two different sets of outcomes, implying that there must be a fundamental difference between the settings in which the code is performed.
This is the code I use:
from webdav3.client import Client
if __name__ == "__main__":
client = Client(
{
"webdav_hostname": "http://some_address"
+ "project"
+ "/",
"webdav_login": "somelogin",
"webdav_password": "somepass",
}
)
ci = "someci"
version = "someversion"
directory = f'release-{ci.replace("/", "-")}-{version}'
client.webdav.disable_check = (
True # Need to be disabled as the check can not be performed on the root
)
f = "a.rst"
with open(f, "r") as fh:
contents = fh.read()
print(contents)
evaluated = contents.replace("#PIPELINE_URL#", "DUMMY PIPELINE URL")
with open(f, "w") as fh:
fh.write(evaluated)
print(contents)
client.upload(local_path=f, remote_path=f)
The file a.rst contains some text like:
Please follow instruction link below
#####################################
`Click here for instructions <https://some_website>`_
When I execute this code from macOS, a file with the same contents of a.rst appears on my website.
When I execute this script from within a container with a base image of Python 3.9 and the webdav dependencies, it creates a file on my website, but the content is always empty. I'm not sure why, but it could have something to do with the fact that I'm running it from within a Docker container that on top of it can't handle the special characters in the file (plain text seems to work though)?
Anyone have any ideas as to why this is happening and how to fix it?
EDIT:
It seems that the character ":" is creating the problem..
I am new to Python. I am attempting to create a Python OCR program, and am following a tutorial online for it. Here is the recommended code I use:
from PIL import Image
from pytesser import *
image_file = 'menu.tif'
im = Image.open(image_file)
text = image_to_string(im)
text = image_file_to_string(image_file)
text = image_file_to_string(image_file, graceful_errors=True)
print "=====output=======\n"
print text
The tutorial link is found here. I am getting this error when running this code however.
from pytesser import *
ImportError: No module named 'pytesser'
I have followed the instructions, from installing OCR here and the PyTesser library here code(dot)google(dot)com/archive/p/pytesser/downloads (sorry because <10 rep i can't post more than 2 links).
This (see gyazo below) is a screenshot of my installation files so far, where "pytesser_v0.0.1" is my pytesser folder, "tesseract-master" was found on GitHub (probably not relevant), and "tessinstall" is the folder where I installed tesseract and finally pyimgr.py is my file I am attempting to run.
gyazo(dot)com/333f8a3333e87895558f26875a8a8487
I was also previously getting an error regarding PIL import Image. I should not be using PIL, so is there any other way I can import Image without PIL? maybe pillow?
My Python version is 3.5.2 and I am using windows 10.
My first hunch is that your library is installed in a place that Python does not know.
import sys
print sys.path
If you execute those lines in Python it will show you where Python will look for eggs. Is the pytesser lib there?
Furthermore: As a side note:
pip3 search tesseract will show you some other tesseract Python packages. So you can use the Python package manager.
Change the code to this:
"""OCR in Python using the Tesseract engine from Google
http://code.google.com/p/pytesser/
by Michael J.T. O'Kelly
V 0.0.1, 3/10/07"""
import PIL.Image
import subprocess
import util
import errors
tesseract_exe_name = 'tesseract' # Name of executable to be called at command line
scratch_image_name = "temp.bmp" # This file must be .bmp or other Tesseract-compatible format
scratch_text_name_root = "temp" # Leave out the .txt extension
cleanup_scratch_flag = True # Temporary files cleaned up after OCR operation
def call_tesseract(input_filename, output_filename):
"""Calls external tesseract.exe on input file (restrictions on types),
outputting output_filename+'txt'"""
args = [tesseract_exe_name, input_filename, output_filename]
proc = subprocess.Popen(args)
retcode = proc.wait()
if retcode!=0:
errors.check_for_errors()
def image_to_string(im, cleanup = cleanup_scratch_flag):
"""Converts im to file, applies tesseract, and fetches resulting text.
If cleanup=True, delete scratch files after operation."""
try:
util.image_to_scratch(im, scratch_image_name)
call_tesseract(scratch_image_name, scratch_text_name_root)
text = util.retrieve_text(scratch_text_name_root)
finally:
if cleanup:
util.perform_cleanup(scratch_image_name, scratch_text_name_root)
return text
def image_file_to_string(filename, cleanup = cleanup_scratch_flag, graceful_errors=True):
"""Applies tesseract to filename; or, if image is incompatible and graceful_errors=True,
converts to compatible format and then applies tesseract. Fetches resulting text.
If cleanup=True, delete scratch files after operation."""
try:
try:
call_tesseract(filename, scratch_text_name_root)
text = util.retrieve_text(scratch_text_name_root)
except errors.Tesser_General_Exception:
if graceful_errors:
im = PIL.Image.open(filename)
text = image_to_string(im, cleanup)
else:
raise
finally:
if cleanup:
util.perform_cleanup(scratch_image_name, scratch_text_name_root)
return text
if __name__=='__main__':
im = PIL.Image.open('phototest.tif')
text = image_to_string(im)
print text
try:
text = image_file_to_string('fnord.tif', graceful_errors=False)
except errors.Tesser_General_Exception, value:
print "fnord.tif is incompatible filetype. Try graceful_errors=True"
print value
text = image_file_to_string('fnord.tif', graceful_errors=True)
print "fnord.tif contents:", text
text = image_file_to_string('fonts_test.png', graceful_errors=True)
print text
Preface
This is my first post on stackoverflow so I apologize if I mess up somewhere. I searched the internet and stackoverflow heavily for a solution to my issues but I couldn't find anything.
Situation
What I am working on is creating a digital photo frame with my raspberry pi that will also automatically download pictures from my wife's facebook page. Luckily I found someone who was working on something similar:
https://github.com/samuelclay/Raspberry-Pi-Photo-Frame
One month ago this gentleman added the download_facebook.py script. This is what I needed! So a few days ago I started working on this script to get it working in my windows environment first (before I throw it on the pi). Unfortunately there is no documentation specific to that script and I am lacking in python experience.
Based on the from urllib import urlopen statement, I can assume that this script was written for Python 2.x. This is because Python 3.x is now from urlib import request.
So I installed Python 2.7.9 interpreter and I've had fewer issues than when I was attempting to work with Python 3.4.3 interpreter.
Problem
I've gotten the script to download pictures from the facebook account; however, the pictures are corrupted.
Here is pictures of the problem: http://imgur.com/a/3u7cG
Now, I originally was using Python 3.4.3 and had issues with my method urlrequest(url) (see code at bottom of post) and how it was working with the image data. I tried decoding with different formats such as utf-8 and utf-16 but according to the content headers, it shows utf-8 format (I think).
Conclusion
I'm not quite sure if the problem is with downloading the image or with writing the image to the file.
If anyone can help me with this I'd be forever grateful! Also let me know what I can do to improve my posts in the future.
Thanks in advance.
Code
from urllib import urlopen
from json import loads
from sys import argv
import dateutil.parser as dateparser
import logging
# plugin your username and access_token (Token can be get and
# modified in the Explorer's Get Access Token button):
# https://graph.facebook.com/USER_NAME/photos?type=uploaded&fields=source&access_token=ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE
FACEBOOK_USER_ID = "**USER ID REMOVED"
FACEBOOK_ACCESS_TOKEN = "** TOKEN REMOVED - GET YOUR OWN **"
def get_logger(label='lvm_cli', level='INFO'):
"""
Return a generic logger.
"""
format = '%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s'
logging.basicConfig(format=format)
logger = logging.getLogger(label)
logger.setLevel(getattr(logging, level))
return logger
def urlrequest(url):
"""
Make a url request
"""
req = urlopen(url)
data = req.read()
return data
def get_json(url):
"""
Make a url request and return as a JSON object
"""
res = urlrequest(url)
data = loads(res)
return data
def get_next(data):
"""
Get next element from facebook JSON response,
or return None if no next present.
"""
try:
return data['paging']['next']
except KeyError:
return None
def get_images(data):
"""
Get all images from facebook JSON response,
or return None if no data present.
"""
try:
return data['data']
except KeyError:
return []
def get_all_images(url):
"""
Get all images using recursion.
"""
data = get_json(url)
images = get_images(data)
next = get_next(data)
if not next:
return images
else:
return images + get_all_images(next)
def get_url(userid, access_token):
"""
Generates a useable facebook graph API url
"""
root = 'https://graph.facebook.com/'
endpoint = '%s/photos?type=uploaded&fields=source,updated_time&access_token=%s' % \
(userid, access_token)
return '%s%s' % (root, endpoint)
def download_file(url, filename):
"""
Write image to a file.
"""
data = urlrequest(url)
path = 'C:/photos/%s' % filename
f = open(path, 'w')
f.write(data)
f.close()
def create_time_stamp(timestring):
"""
Creates a pretty string from time
"""
date = dateparser.parse(timestring)
return date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S')
def download(userid, access_token):
"""
Download all images to current directory.
"""
logger = get_logger()
url = get_url(userid, access_token)
logger.info('Requesting image direct link, please wait..')
images = get_all_images(url)
for image in images:
logger.info('Downloading %s' % image['source'])
filename = '%s.jpg' % create_time_stamp(image['created_time'])
download_file(image['source'], filename)
if __name__ == '__main__':
download(FACEBOOK_USER_ID, FACEBOOK_ACCESS_TOKEN)
Answering the question of why #Alastair's solution from the comments worked:
f = open(path, 'wb')
From https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/inputoutput.html#reading-and-writing-files:
On Windows, 'b' appended to the mode opens the file in binary mode, so
there are also modes like 'rb', 'wb', and 'r+b'. Python on Windows
makes a distinction between text and binary files; the end-of-line
characters in text files are automatically altered slightly when data
is read or written. This behind-the-scenes modification to file data
is fine for ASCII text files, but it’ll corrupt binary data like that
in JPEG or EXE files. Be very careful to use binary mode when reading
and writing such files. On Unix, it doesn’t hurt to append a 'b' to
the mode, so you can use it platform-independently for all binary
files.
(I was on a Mac, which explains why the problem wasn't reproduced for me.)
Alastair McCormack posted something that worked!
He said Try setting binary mode when you open the file for writing: f = open(path, 'wb')
It is now successfully downloading the images correctly. Does anyone know why this worked?