docx2txt is a highly efficient tool used to extract text and images from Microsoft Word (.docx) documents and save them as plain text (.txt) files. Depending on your technical setup, you can use it either as a standalone command-line utility or as a library within a Python script.
Below is the comprehensive guide on how to install and use both methods. Method 1: Using docx2txt in a Python Script
The Python implementation is the most popular way to automate text extraction, especially when processing multiple files or feeding data into text analysis models. 1. Install the Package
Open your terminal or command prompt and run the following pip command: pip install docx2txt Use code with caution. 2. Convert a Single File
Create a Python script (e.g., convert.py) and write the following code to read the document and export it to a plain text file:
import docx2txt # 1. Process the docx file to extract the text string extracted_text = docx2txt.process(“document.docx”) # 2. Write the text into a new .txt file using UTF-8 encoding with open(“output.txt”, “w”, encoding=“utf-8”) as text_file: text_file.write(extracted_text) print(“Conversion complete!”) Use code with caution. 3. Extract Text and Images Simultaneously
One unique feature of the Python package is its ability to dump all images embedded within the .docx file into a specific directory while converting the text:
import docx2txt # Pass the folder path as the second argument to extract images text = docx2txt.process(“document.docx”, “./extracted_images_folder”) Use code with caution. Method 2: Using docx2txt via Command Line (Linux / macOS)
If you prefer not to write scripts, you can use the original Perl-based command-line utility. 1. Install the Utility linux – Convert doc to txt via commandline – Stack Overflow
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