Textboxes are versatile tools in Microsoft Word, allowing you to insert and position text or other elements anywhere on a page, giving you the power to create eye-catching flyers, brochures, or reports. Whether you're looking to emphasize a particular section of text, place captions near images, or simply add a decorative touch, the capacity to manipulate textboxes offers a practical and aesthetic advantage in document design. In this article, you will learn how to add or remove textboxes in a Word document in Python using Spire.Doc for Python.

• Add a Textbox to a Word Document in Python
• Remove a Textbox from a Word Document in 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

Add a Textbox to a Word Document in Python

Spire.Doc for Python provides the Paragraph.AppendTextBox() method to insert a textbox in a specified paragraph. The content and formatting of the textbox can be set through the properties under the TextBox object. The following are the detailed steps.

• Create a Document object.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the first section and add a paragraph to the section using Section.AddParagraph() method.
• Add a text box to the paragraph using Paragraph.AppendTextBox() method.
• Get the format of the textbox using TextBox.Format property, and then set the textbox's wrapping type, position, border color and fill color using the properties of TextBoxFormat Class.
• Add a paragraph to the textbox using TextBox.Body.AddParagraph() method.
• Add an image to the paragraph using Paragraph.AppendPicture() method.
• Add text to the textbox using Paragraph.AppendText() method
• Save the document to a different file using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

# Create a Document object
document = Document()

# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/input3.docx")

# Insert a textbox and set its wrapping style
textBox = document.Sections[0].Paragraphs[0].AppendTextBox(135, 300)
textBox.Format.TextWrappingStyle = TextWrappingStyle.Square

# Set the position of the textbox
textBox.Format.HorizontalOrigin = HorizontalOrigin.RightMarginArea
textBox.Format.HorizontalPosition = -145.0
textBox.Format.VerticalOrigin = VerticalOrigin.Page
textBox.Format.VerticalPosition = 120.0

# Set the border style and fill color of the textbox
textBox.Format.LineColor = Color.get_DarkBlue()
textBox.Format.FillColor = Color.get_LightGray()

# Insert an image to textbox as a paragraph
para = textBox.Body.AddParagraph();
picture = para.AppendPicture("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/Wikipedia_Logo.png")

# Set alignment for the paragraph
para.Format.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center

# Set the size of the inserted image
picture.Height = 90.0
picture.Width = 90.0

# Insert text to textbox as the second paragraph
textRange = para.AppendText("Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it. "
    + "Since 2001, it has grown rapidly to become the world's largest reference website,  "
    + "with 6.7 million articles in English attracting billions of views every month.")

# Set alignment for the paragraph
para.Format.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center

# Set the font of the text
textRange.CharacterFormat.FontName = "Times New Roman"
textRange.CharacterFormat.FontSize = 12.0
textRange.CharacterFormat.Italic = True

# Save the result file
document.SaveToFile("output/AddTextBox.docx", FileFormat.Docx)

Remove a Textbox from a Word Document in Python

Spire.Doc for Python provides the Document.TextBoxes.RemoveAt(int index) method to delete a specified textbox. To delete all textboxes from a Word document, you can use the Document.TextBoxes.Clear() method. The following example shows how to remove the first textbox from a Word document.

• Create a Document object.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Remove the first text box using Document.TextBoxes.RemoveAt(int index) method.
• Save the document to another file using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

# Create a Document object
document = Document()

# Load a Word document 
document .LoadFromFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/TextBox.docx")

# Remove the first textbox
document .TextBoxes.RemoveAt(0)

# Remove all textboxes
# document.TextBoxes.Clear()

# Save the result document
document.SaveToFile("output/RemoveTextbox.docx", FileFormat.Docx)

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.