How to put an image and some text to .doc file via command-line?

Question

I am trying to create a file.doc (Microsoft Word Document format) and write some text into it and also, insert an image into it via command shell. I have no idea what or how should I do it.

Any suggestions? Thanks

Answer 1

You may use python-docx to create MS Word document by creating an intermediate script to handle the shell arguments.

1. Install required libraries:

   sudo apt-get install python-pip libxslt1-dev python-lxml
   sudo pip install python-docx
   

2. Write the intermediate script and let's name it docx-gen

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   import sys
   
   from docx import Document
   from docx.shared import Inches
   
   
   if __name__=="__main__":
       document = Document()
       document.add_heading(sys.argv[2], 0)
       document.add_paragraph(sys.argv[3])
       document.add_picture(sys.argv[4],width=Inches(6.0))
       document.add_page_break()
       document.save(sys.argv[1])
       sys.exit(0)
   

3. Give it the right permissions

   chmod +x docx-gen
   

4. Use it locally

   ./docx-gen demo.docx "Title" "A paragraph with few words." ~/Pictures/snapshot1.png
   

   or copy it to the system bin folder:

   sudo cp docx-gen /usr/local/bin/
   

   then to use it:

   docx-gen demo.docx "Title" "A paragraph with few words." ~/Pictures/snapshot1.png
   

Reference:

I just modified its example, see its official documentation.

Notes:

• The script does not include any input check, just to keep it simple.
• Used fixed width of 6 inches, you may add it to input arguments too.