Word Activities

Version: 1.0.4  ·  ID: zoan-packages-word  ·  Author: Zoan Software

The Word package reads and creates .docx documents working directly on the file, without needing Microsoft Word installed (only Word to PDF needs LibreOffice or Microsoft Word). Its two main uses:

• Read documents: extract their text, paragraphs and tables for processing.
• Generate documents: create letters, contracts, reports or minutes from data, combining styled paragraphs, tables and images.

Word or PDF?

Word is ideal for generating formatted documents (paragraphs, headings, tables, images) that are later edited or printed. If you only need a simple text PDF, PDF Create is more direct. To read PDFs, use the PDF package.

Concept 1: quick mode vs. session mode

As in Excel, there are two ways to work:

Quick mode (path)

The read and one-off change activities accept a path directly: they open the file, do the operation and close it. Ideal for a single operation.

Word Read Text   path = asset("contract.docx")   → output: text

Session mode (session)

For several operations on the same document —and required to build a new document— you open a session with Word Open (existing document) or Word Create (new document), and share that session with the other activities.

Word Create   path = "C:/output/report.docx"
 └─ body:
      Word Append Paragraph   text = "Monthly report"   style = Title
      Word Append Table       table = data

Inside the body, activities inherit the session automatically, and when it ends the document is saved and closed by itself (with Create, if the body finished without errors) or closed without saving (with Open: put a Word Save inside the body if you changed it).

The session works on an in-memory copy of the document: changes reach the disk only when you save, and the file is not locked meanwhile. In quick mode, the activities that change the document (Find & Replace, Set Property) save to the same path when they finish; the read activities don’t touch the file.

Building a document requires a session

The activities that add content —Append Paragraph, Append Table, Insert Image— only work inside a session (they have no path mode), because they build the document in memory. The typical pattern is Word Create with body.

Concept 2: paragraph styles

When adding paragraphs with Word Append Paragraph, you can apply a style that gives the document visual structure:

Style	Purpose
Title	The main title of the document
Heading1 / Heading2 / Heading3	Section headings (levels)
Normal	Body text (default)

The style is assigned by its identifier, so its look depends on the document defining it. Documents made in Word include these styles; a new document from Word Create has no style definitions. If you want headings with a specific format, prepare a template in Word and open it with Word Open.

Activities

Session (open, create, save, close)

Activity	Type	Output	What it does
Word Open	word-open	ZoanWordSession	Opens an existing .docx (does not save on close)
Word Create	word-create	ZoanWordSession	Creates a new .docx (with body, saves it at the end)
Word Save (Session)	word-save	—	Saves the session to disk, to its path or another one
Word Close (Session)	word-close	—	Closes the session without saving

Read

Activity	Type	Output	What it does
Word Read Text	word-read-text	string	All the text of the document
Word Read Paragraphs	word-read-paragraphs	List<object>	List of paragraphs (text)
Word Read Tables	word-read-tables	List<DataTable>	The tables as DataTables

Build content (session required)

Activity	Type	Output	What it does
Word Append Paragraph	word-append-paragraph	—	Appends a paragraph (with a style)
Word Append Table	word-append-table	—	Appends a DataTable as a table
Word Insert Image	word-insert-image	—	Inserts an image

Modify and metadata

Activity	Type	Output	What it does
Word Find & Replace	word-find-replace	int	Finds and replaces text; returns how many fragments changed
Word Get Property	word-get-property	object	Reads a metadata field (title, author…)
Word Set Property	word-set-property	—	Sets a metadata field

Convert

Activity	Type	Output	What it does
Word to PDF	word-to-pdf	string	Converts a document to PDF (requires LibreOffice or Microsoft Word)

A typical flow

Generate a letter from a template with placeholders:

Copy File   source = asset("letter_template.docx")   destination = "C:/letters/" + customer.id + ".docx"   overwrite = true
Word Find & Replace   path = "C:/letters/" + customer.id + ".docx"   find = "{NAME}"   replace = customer.name
Word Find & Replace   path = "C:/letters/" + customer.id + ".docx"   find = "{DATE}"   replace = today().ToString("yyyy-MM-dd")

Next steps

• Word Create — generate a document from scratch.
• Word Read Text — read a document.
• Word Find & Replace — fill in templates.