Split Word Documents into Multiple Files in Python

In certain cases, you need to split the large Word documents by breaking them down into smaller ones. You can split a Word document by pages, sections, or columns. In this article, you will learn how to split a Word document into multiple files using Python. The step-by-step guide and code samples will demonstrate how to split a Word document by sections, pages, or page ranges programmatically.

Python Library to Split MS Word Documents

To split a DOCX or DOC document into multiple files, we will use Aspose.Words for Python. It is a word processing library to create and manipulate Word documents. You can install it in your Python applications from PyPI using the following pip command.

pip install aspose-words

Split a Word Document by Sections in Python

In most cases, the Word document is divided into multiple sections using section breaks. To save each section into a separate file, you can split the document by sections. The following steps demonstrate how to split a Word document by sections in Python.

  • Load the Word document using Document class.
  • Loop thourght each section in Document.sections collection.
  • For each section in the collection, perform the following steps:
    • Create a new object of Document class.
    • Clear the default sections using Document.sections.clear() method.
    • Import section into new document using Document.import_node(Section, True).as_section() method and get the returned Section in an object.
    • Add returned Section to the sections collection of new document.
    • Save the new document as a DOCX file using Document.save(string) method.

The following code sample shows how to split a Word document by sections in Python.

Splitting a Word Document by Pages in Python

Now, let’s have a look at how to split each page of the document and save it as a separate DOCX file. The following are the steps to split a Word document by pages.

  • Load the Word document using Document class.

  • Get the page count in the document using Document.page_count property.

  • Loop through the page count and in each iteration, perform the following steps:

    • Extract the page into an object using Document.extract_pages(pageIndex, 1) method.

    • Save the extracted page as a DOCX file using Document.save(string) method.

The following code sample shows how to split a Word document by pages.

Split a Word Document by a Page Range in Python

You can also split a range of pages in a Word document and save it as a separate file. The following are the steps to achieve this in Python.

  • Load the Word document using Document class.
  • Extract the pages using Document.extract_pages(int, int) method where first parameter is the starting page’s index and the second is number of pages.
  • Save the extracted page range as a DOCX file using Document.save(string) method.

The following code sample shows how to extract a range of pages from a Word document and save it as a DOCX file.

Get a Free API License

Are you interested in trying Aspose.Words for Python for free? Get a temporary license to avoid evaluation limitations.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to split a Word document into multiple documents in Python. The code samples have demonstrated how to split a Word document by sections, pages, or a page range. Aspose.Words for Python also provides a number of exciting features that you can explore using the documentation. Also, you can post your questions to our forum.

See Also