Skill: read-docs

Reading .doc/.docx files via python-docx.

Installed

• python-docx 1.2.0 — primary library
• Ready scripts in scripts/check_docx.py and scripts/extract_docx.py

Quick start

Simple text extraction

from docx import Document

doc = Document("path/to/file.docx")
for p in doc.paragraphs:
    if p.text.strip():
        print(p.text)

Document structure (styles, headings)

from docx import Document

doc = Document("file.docx")

# Style statistics
styles = {}
for p in doc.paragraphs:
    s = p.style.name
    styles[s] = styles.get(s, 0) + 1

print("Styles:", styles)

# Headings only
for p in doc.paragraphs:
    if p.style.name.startswith("Heading"):
        print(f"[{p.style.name}] {p.text}")

Tables

doc = Document("file.docx")
for table in doc.tables:
    for row in table.rows:
        cells = [cell.text.strip() for cell in row.cells]
        print(" | ".join(cells))

Formatting info

doc = Document("file.docx")
for p in doc.paragraphs[:10]:  # first 10 paragraphs
    align = str(p.alignment) if p.alignment else "None"
    fonts = set()
    for run in p.runs:
        if run.font.name:
            fonts.add(run.font.name)
    print(f"align={align} fonts={fonts} | {p.text[:80]}")

Text extraction with page breaks

doc = Document("file.docx")
for i, p in enumerate(doc.paragraphs):
    if p.paragraph_format.page_break_before:
        print(f"\n--- PAGE BREAK ---\n")
    print(p.text)

Ready scripts

scripts/extract_docx.py

Extracts clean text from .docx to stdout.

python scripts/extract_docx.py

Note: Pass the .docx path as an argument: python scripts/extract_docx.py file.docx — for other files, change the path in the code.

scripts/check_docx.py

Analyzes document structure: paragraphs, styles, headings, fonts, page breaks.

python scripts/check_docx.py

Also accepts a path argument: python scripts/check_docx.py file.docx.

When to use what

Task	Tool
Quick text extraction	extract_docx.py (or one-liner: python -c "from docx import Document; d=Document('file.docx'); [print(p.text) for p in d.paragraphs if p.text.strip()]")
Study document structure	check_docx.py (styles, headings, fonts)
Tables, complex formatting	Custom python-docx script
Embed in another agent	Import docx.Document directly in code

Important notes

• Encoding: python-docx works with UTF-8, but if output goes to Windows cmd, set:

  import sys, io
  sys.stdout = io.TextIOWrapper(sys.stdout.buffer, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace')
  

• Images: python-docx does NOT extract images from .docx. Only text, tables, formatting.
• Large files: Reading the entire document into memory — for files >50MB may be slow.
• .doc (old format): python-docx does NOT read old .doc files (Word 97—2003). Use python-docx2txt or convert via LibreOffice.
• Lists: Numbered and bulleted lists are read as regular paragraphs (without nesting info).
• Headers/footers: Read via doc.sections[0].header.paragraphs and .footer.paragraphs.

Installation (if needed on another machine)

pip install python-docx

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Created: 2026-06-19.