Dealing with a large number of Word documents can be very challenging. Whether it's editing or reviewing a large number of documents, there's a lot of time wasted on opening and closing documents. What's more, sharing and receiving a large number of separate Word documents can be annoying, as it may require a lot of repeated sending and receiving operations by both the sharer and the receiver. Therefore, in order to enhance efficiency and save time, it is advisable to merge related Word documents into a single file. From this article, you will know how to use Spire.Doc for Python to easily merge Word documents through Python programs.

• Merge Word Documents by Inserting Files with Python
• Merge Word Documents by Cloning Contents with Python

Install Spire.Doc for Python

This scenario requires Spire.Doc for Python and plum-dispatch v1.7.4. They can be easily installed in your Windows through the following pip command.

pip install Spire.Doc

If you are unsure how to install, please refer to this tutorial: How to Install Spire.Doc for Python on Windows

Merge Word Documents by Inserting Files with Python

The method Document.insertTextFromFile() is used to insert other Word documents to the current one, and the inserted content will start from a new page. The detailed steps for merging Word documents by inserting are as follows:

• Create an object of Document class and load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Insert the content from another document to it using Document.InsertTextFromFile() method.
• Save the document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.doc import *
from spire.doc.common import *

# Create an object of Document class and load a Word document
doc = Document()
doc.LoadFromFile("Sample1.docx")

# Insert the content from another Word document to this one
doc.InsertTextFromFile("Sample2.docx", FileFormat.Auto)

# Save the document
doc.SaveToFile("output/InsertDocuments.docx")
doc.Close()

Merge Word Documents by Cloning Contents with Python

Merging Word documents can also be achieved by cloning contents from one Word document to another. This method maintains the formatting of the original document, and content cloned from another document continues at the end of the current document without starting a new Page. The detailed steps are as follows:

• Create two objects of Document class and load two Word documents using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the last section of the destination document using Document.Sections.get_Item() method.
• Loop through the sections in the document to be cloned and then loop through the child objects of the sections.
• Get a section child object using Section.Body.ChildObjects.get_Item() method.
• Add the child object to the last section of the destination document using Section.Body.ChildObjects.Add() method.
• Save the result document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.doc import *
from spire.doc.common import *

# Create two objects of Document class and load two Word documents
doc1 = Document()
doc1.LoadFromFile("Sample1.docx")
doc2 = Document()
doc2.LoadFromFile("Sample2.docx")

# Get the last section of the first document
lastSection = doc1.Sections.get_Item(doc1.Sections.Count - 1)

# Loop through the sections in the second document
for i in range(doc2.Sections.Count):
    section = doc2.Sections.get_Item(i)
    # Loop through the child objects in the sections
    for j in range(section.Body.ChildObjects.Count):
        obj = section.Body.ChildObjects.get_Item(j)
        # Add the child objects from the second document to the last section of the first document
        lastSection.Body.ChildObjects.Add(obj.Clone())

# Save the result document
doc1.SaveToFile("output/MergeByCloning.docx")
doc1.Close()
doc2.Close()

Apply for a Temporary License

If you'd like to remove the evaluation message from the generated documents, or to get rid of the function limitations, please request a 30-day trial license for yourself.