.doc to pdf using python

Question

I'am tasked with converting tons of .doc files to .pdf. And the only way my supervisor wants me to do this is through MSWord 2010. I know I should be able to automate this with python COM automation. Only problem is I dont know how and where to start. I tried searching for some tutorials but was not able to find any (May be I might have, but I don't know what I'm looking for).

Right now I'm reading through this. Dont know how useful this is going to be.

Answer 1

It's worth noting that Stevens answer works, but make sure if using a for loop to export multiple files to place the ClientObject or Dispatch statements before the loop - it only needs to be created once - see my problem: Python win32com.client.Dispatch looping through Word documents and export to PDF; fails when next loop occurs

Answer 2

As an alternative to the SaveAs function, you could also use ExportAsFixedFormat which gives you access to the PDF options dialog you would normally see in Word. With this you can specify bookmarks and other document properties.

doc.ExportAsFixedFormat(OutputFileName=pdf_file,
    ExportFormat=17, #17 = PDF output, 18=XPS output
    OpenAfterExport=False,
    OptimizeFor=0,  #0=Print (higher res), 1=Screen (lower res)
    CreateBookmarks=1, #0=No bookmarks, 1=Heading bookmarks only, 2=bookmarks match word bookmarks
    DocStructureTags=True
    );

The full list of function arguments is: 'OutputFileName', 'ExportFormat', 'OpenAfterExport', 'OptimizeFor', 'Range', 'From', 'To', 'Item', 'IncludeDocProps', 'KeepIRM', 'CreateBookmarks', 'DocStructureTags', 'BitmapMissingFonts', 'UseISO19005_1', 'FixedFormatExtClassPtr'

Answer 3

I would suggest ignoring your supervisor and use OpenOffice which has a Python api. OpenOffice has built in support for Python and someone created a library specific for this purpose (PyODConverter).

If he isn't happy with the output, tell him it could take you weeks to do it with word.

Answer 4

I tried the accepted answer but wasn't particularly keen on the bloated PDFs Word was producing which was usually an order of magnitude bigger than expected. After looking how to disable the dialogs when using a virtual PDF printer I came across Bullzip PDF Printer and I've been rather impressed with its features. It's now replaced the other virtual printers I used previously. You'll find a "free community edition" on their download page.

The COM API can be found here and a list of the usable settings can be found here. The settings are written to a "runonce" file which is used for one print job only and then removed automatically. When printing multiple PDFs we need to make sure one print job completes before starting another to ensure the settings are used correctly for each file.

import os, re, time, datetime, win32com.client

def print_to_Bullzip(file):
    util = win32com.client.Dispatch("Bullzip.PDFUtil")
    settings = win32com.client.Dispatch("Bullzip.PDFSettings")
    settings.PrinterName = util.DefaultPrinterName      # make sure we're controlling the right PDF printer

    outputFile = re.sub("\.[^.]+$", ".pdf", file)
    statusFile = re.sub("\.[^.]+$", ".status", file)

    settings.SetValue("Output", outputFile)
    settings.SetValue("ConfirmOverwrite", "no")
    settings.SetValue("ShowSaveAS", "never")
    settings.SetValue("ShowSettings", "never")
    settings.SetValue("ShowPDF", "no")
    settings.SetValue("ShowProgress", "no")
    settings.SetValue("ShowProgressFinished", "no")     # disable balloon tip
    settings.SetValue("StatusFile", statusFile)         # created after print job
    settings.WriteSettings(True)                        # write settings to the runonce.ini
    util.PrintFile(file, util.DefaultPrinterName)       # send to Bullzip virtual printer

    # wait until print job completes before continuing
    # otherwise settings for the next job may not be used
    timestamp = datetime.datetime.now()
    while( (datetime.datetime.now() - timestamp).seconds < 10):
        if os.path.exists(statusFile) and os.path.isfile(statusFile):
            error = util.ReadIniString(statusFile, "Status", "Errors", '')
            if error != "0":
                raise IOError("PDF was created with errors")
            os.remove(statusFile)
            return
        time.sleep(0.1)
    raise IOError("PDF creation timed out")