Highlight and Extract Word Text

Developers
1

Hello, I have a question if it is possible that what is highlighted in word can later be exported in a list, this is possible perhaps in pdf files and with some web page, but I would like to know if the same thing can also be achieved with dynamo and word
For example, if this were the text:
Hello World!
This is a test to see if this works

I would highlight:
Hello
this works
Generating the highlight as a list

2

Likely achievable, as Dynamo can access the office API, and the API for word is fairly robust. I have not seen anyone develop such a tool though, and there may be good existing tools for the purpose.

3

Extracting specific bits from Word into Dynamo is always such a hassle with the formatting. If you’re just trying to get the images or specific text blocks out quickly before bringing the data into your graph, I’ve been using wordimageextractor.com lately. It’s way faster than trying to script a custom Word-to-Revit image parser. Might save you some nodes!

4

Might be, but it’s also a bit less stable and potentially problematic for a few other reasons. I have seen others do this, and think a POC could be built as a C# based package in about 30 minutes - just a question scaling from there.

5

For fun, here’s an example using COM interrop, but I encourage you to work with Open XML.

# Load the Python Standard and DesignScript Libraries
import sys
import clr
import System
from System import Array
from System.Collections.Generic import List, IList, Dictionary
from System.Reflection import BindingFlags

clr.AddReference("System.Runtime.InteropServices")
import System.Runtime.InteropServices

clr.AddReference('Microsoft.VisualBasic.Core')
import Microsoft.VisualBasic
from Microsoft.VisualBasic import Information 

import traceback
import time

file_path = IN[0]
lst_search_term = IN[1]
missing = System.Type.Missing

lst_range_found = []

class WordlEnum:
    """
    values Enum from API Interop Mircrosoft Doc , to avoid import lib in clr for Enum 
    """
    Word_WdReplace_wdReplaceAll = System.Int32(2)
    Word_WdReplace_wdReplaceNone = System.Int32(0)
    Word_WdReplace_wdReplaceOne = System.Int32(1)
    Word_WdFindWrap_wdFindContinue = System.Int32(1)
    Word_WdColorIndex_wdYellow = System.Int32(7)

# clear session
word_application = System.Activator.CreateInstance(System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Application", True))
word_application.GetType().InvokeMember("Quit", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, None, word_application, None)
word_application = None
#
word_application = System.Activator.CreateInstance(System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Word.Application", True))
word_application.GetType().InvokeMember("Visible", BindingFlags.SetProperty, None, word_application, (True, ))
documents = word_application.GetType().InvokeMember("Documents",BindingFlags.GetProperty, None, word_application, None)

lst_range_found = []
try:
    #
    doc = documents.GetType().InvokeMember("Open", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, None, documents, (file_path, ))
    for search_term in lst_search_term:
        #
        select_obj = word_application.GetType().InvokeMember("Selection", BindingFlags.GetProperty, None, word_application, None)
        #
        find_obj = select_obj.GetType().InvokeMember("Find", BindingFlags.GetProperty, None, select_obj, None)
        #
        find_obj.GetType().InvokeMember("ClearFormatting", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, None, find_obj, None)
        #
        find_obj.GetType().InvokeMember("Text", BindingFlags.SetProperty, None, find_obj, (search_term, ))
        #
        args = (missing, 
                False, 
                True, 
                missing, 
                missing,
                missing, 
                True, 
                WordlEnum.Word_WdFindWrap_wdFindContinue,
                True, 
                missing, 
                missing)
        # execute the search engine, highlight, and store result with the start range number
        i = 0
        while i < 5000:
            i += 1
            flag = find_obj.GetType().InvokeMember("Execute", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, None, find_obj, args)
            if flag:
                #
                range =  select_obj.GetType().InvokeMember("Range", BindingFlags.GetProperty, None, select_obj, None)
                r_start = range.GetType().InvokeMember("Start", BindingFlags.GetProperty, None, range, None)
                if (r_start, search_term) not in lst_range_found:
                    range.GetType().InvokeMember("HighlightColorIndex", BindingFlags.SetProperty, None, range, (WordlEnum.Word_WdColorIndex_wdYellow, ))
                    # add data to lst
                    lst_range_found.append((r_start, search_term))
                    #
                else:
                    break
            else:
                break    
                
except Exception as ex:
    print(traceback.format_exc())
#
lst_range_found.sort(key = lambda x : x[0])
OUT = lst_range_found
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