Macros in Word documents are small programs created using the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language. They are designed to automate repetitive tasks or add advanced functionality. While these macros can be powerful tools for improving productivity, they also pose security risks if used maliciously. Therefore, it is essential to detect and remove potentially harmful macros from Word documents, especially when handling files from untrusted sources. In this article, we will explain how to detect and remove VBA macros in Word documents in Python using Spire.Doc for Python.
- Detect Whether a Word Document Contains VBA Macros in Python
- Remove VBA Macros 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
Detect Whether a Word Document Contains VBA Macros in Python
Spire.Doc for Python provides the Document.IsContainMacro property, enabling developers to check whether a Word document contains VBA macros easily. This property returns a boolean value: True indicates that the document includes one or more VBA macros, while False indicates that no macros are present in the document.
The following steps explain how to detect whether a Word document contains VBA macros using Spire.Doc for Python:
- Initialize an instance of the Document class.
- Load a Word document using the Document.LoadFromFile() method.
- Detect whether the document includes VBA macros using the Document.IsContainMacro property.
- Python
from spire.doc import *
from spire.doc.common import *
# Initialize an instance of the Document class
document = Document()
# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile("Test.docm")
# Detect if the document contains VBA macros
if document.IsContainMacro:
print("The document contains VBA macros.")
else:
print("The document does not contain any VBA macros.")
document.Close()
Remove VBA Macros from a Word Document in Python
Developers can remove all macros from a Word document at once by using the Document.ClearMacros() method. The detailed steps are as follows.
- Initialize an instance of the Document class.
- Load a Word document using the Document.LoadFromFile() method.
- Remove all macros from the document using the Document.ClearMacros() method.
- Save the result document using the Document.SaveToFile() method.
- Python
from spire.doc import *
from spire.doc.common import *
# Initialize an instance of the Document class
document = Document()
# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile("Test.docm")
# Remove all VBA macros from the document
document.ClearMacros()
# Save the modified document to a docm file
document.SaveToFile("RemoveMacros.docm", FileFormat.Docm2016)
document.Close()
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