Paragraph Formatting In Python .docx Module

Prerequisite: Working with .docx module

Word documents contain formatted text wrapped within three object levels. The Lowest level- run objects, middle level- paragraph objects, and highest level- document object. So, we cannot work with these documents using normal text editors. But, we can manipulate these word documents in python using the python-docx module. Pip command to install this module is:

pip install python-docx

Python docx module allows users to manipulate docs by either manipulating the existing one or creating a new empty document and manipulating it. It is a powerful tool as it helps you to manipulate the document to a very large extend.

Line Spacing

To set the line spacing between the text in the paragraph we make use of the paragraph_format along with line_spacing. It is used to set the space between each line in the paragraph.

Syntax: para.paragraph_format.line_spacing = Length

Parameter: Length: It is the length of the space to be left between the lines. It takes length as an input. It can be defined either with an absolute distance value or with a relative distance value of the line-height. If the input is in pt, inches or cm then it considered them as an absolute value and if the input is in float then it is considered as a relative value.

Example 1: Setting the line spacing with absolute distance value.

Output:

Example 2: Setting the line spacing with relative value.

Output:

Paragraph Spacing

To apply paragraph spacing to the paragraphs in the Word document we make use of .paragraph_format along with .space_before and .space_after. It specifies the space to be left before and after the paragraph respectively. It can only take the positive value as input, if we give any negative value it will give range error.

Example 3: Adding paragraph with and without spacing in a Word document.

Output:

Horizontal Alignment

To set the horizontal alignment in the text we will use the .paragraph_format.alignment method. It is used along with WD_PARAGRAPH_ALIGNMENT to set the alignment of the paragraph. You have to import WD_PARAGRAPH_ALIGNMENT from the docx.enum.text before using it:

from docx.enum.text import WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH

Syntax: para.paragraph_format.alignment = WD_ALIGN_PARAGRAPH.[Alignment]

Parameter: 

Alignment: It is used to set the alignment. You can set the alignment to any of the left, Center, right, or fully justified.

Various alignments are described below:

Example 1: Adding paragraphs with different Horizontal Alignments.

Output:

Indentations

To set the indentation in the text we will use the .paragraph_format method. To apply indentation we use left_indent and right_indent with the .paragraph_format and set the value of the indentation. You have to specify indentation with a length value i.e inches, pt or cm. You can also give a negative value as indentation which will cause the paragraph to overlap with the margin by the value specified.

Syntax:

• For the left indentation: para.paragraph_format.left_indent = size
• For the right indentation: para.paragraph_format.right_indent = size

Parameter: 

size: It is the value by which we want indentation on our paragraph. It can be in inches, pt or cm… etc.

Example 2: Setting left and right indentation of the paragraph.

Output:

Example 3: Setting a negative value for the left and right indentation of the paragraph.

Output:

You can also set indentation only for the first line of the paragraph by using .paragraph_format along with  .first_line_indent property. It specifies the indentation length between the first line and the other lines.

Syntax: para.paragraph_format. first_line_indent = Length

Parameters: 

Length: It is the length to be left as indentation at the first line. A positive value will cause the line to indent while the negative value will cause hanging indentation.

Example 4: Giving positive indentation value as input for the first-line indentation.

Output:

Example 5: Giving negative indentation value as input for the first-line indentation.

Output: