Efficiently managing Word documents often requires the task of splitting them into smaller sections. However, manually performing this task can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Fortunately, Spire.Doc for Python provides a convenient and efficient way to programmatically segment Word documents, helping users to extract specific parts of a document, split lengthy documents into smaller chunks, and streamline data extraction. This article demonstrates how to use Spire.Doc for Python to split a Word document into multiple documents in Python.

The splitting of a Word document is typically done by page breaks and section breaks due to the dynamic nature of document content. Therefore, this article focuses on the following two parts:

• Split a Word Document by Page Breaks with Python
• Split a Word Document by Section Breaks with 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: How to Install Spire.Doc for Python on Windows

Split a Word Document by Page Breaks with Python

Page breaks allow for the forced pagination of a document, thereby achieving a fixed division of content. By using page breaks as divisions, we can split a Word document into smaller content-related documents. The detailed steps for splitting a Word document by page breaks are as follows:

• Create an instance of Document class and load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Create a new document, add a section to it using Document.AddSection() method.
• Iterate through all body child objects in each section in the original document and check if the child object is a paragraph or a table.
• If the child object is a table, add it to the section in the new document using Section.Body.ChildObjects.Add() method.
• If the child object is a paragraph, add the paragraph object to the section in the new document. Then, iterate through all child objects of the paragraph and check if a child object is a page break.
• If the child object in the paragraph is a page break, get its index using Paragraph.ChildObjects.IndexOf() method and remove it from the paragraph by its index.
• Save the new document using Document.SaveToFile() method and repeat the above process.

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

inputFile = "Sample.docx"
outputFolder = "output/SplitDocument/"

# Create an instance of Document
original = Document()
# Load a Word document
original.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Create a new word document and add a section to it
newWord = Document()
section = newWord.AddSection()
original.CloneDefaultStyleTo(newWord)
original.CloneThemesTo(newWord)
original.CloneCompatibilityTo(newWord)

index = 0
# Iterate through all sections of original document
for m in range(original.Sections.Count):
    sec = original.Sections.get_Item(m)
    # Iterate through all body child objects of each section
    for k in range(sec.Body.ChildObjects.Count):
        obj = sec.Body.ChildObjects.get_Item(k)
        if isinstance(obj, Paragraph):
            para = obj if isinstance(obj, Paragraph) else None
            sec.CloneSectionPropertiesTo(section)
            # Add paragraph object in original section into section of new document
            section.Body.ChildObjects.Add(para.Clone())
            for j in range(para.ChildObjects.Count):
                parobj = para.ChildObjects.get_Item(j)
                if isinstance(parobj, Break) and ( parobj if isinstance(parobj, Break) else None).BreakType == BreakType.PageBreak:
                    # Get the index of page break in paragraph
                    i = para.ChildObjects.IndexOf(parobj)
                    # Remove the page break from its paragraph
                    section.Body.LastParagraph.ChildObjects.RemoveAt(i)
                    # Save the new document
                    resultF = outputFolder
                    resultF += "SplitByPageBreak-{0}.docx".format(index)
                    newWord.SaveToFile(resultF, FileFormat.Docx)
                    index += 1
                    # Create a new document and add a section
                    newWord = Document()
                    section = newWord.AddSection()
                    original.CloneDefaultStyleTo(newWord)
                    original.CloneThemesTo(newWord)
                    original.CloneCompatibilityTo(newWord)
                    sec.CloneSectionPropertiesTo(section)
                    # Add paragraph object in original section into section of new document
                    section.Body.ChildObjects.Add(para.Clone())
                    if section.Paragraphs[0].ChildObjects.Count == 0:
                        # Remove the first blank paragraph
                        section.Body.ChildObjects.RemoveAt(0)
                    else:
                        # Remove the child objects before the page break
                        while i >= 0:
                            section.Paragraphs[0].ChildObjects.RemoveAt(i)
                            i -= 1
        if isinstance(obj, Table):
            # Add table object in original section into section of new document
            section.Body.ChildObjects.Add(obj.Clone())

# Save the document
result = outputFolder+"SplitByPageBreak-{0}.docx".format(index)
newWord.SaveToFile(result, FileFormat.Docx2013)
newWord.Close()

Split a Word Document by Section Breaks with Python

Sections divide a Word document into different logical parts and allow for independent formatting for each section. By splitting a Word document into sections, we can obtain multiple documents with relatively independent content and formatting. The detailed steps for splitting a Word document by section breaks are as follows:

• Create an instance of Document class and load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Iterate through each section in the document.
• Get a section using Document.Sections.get_Item() method.
• Create a new Word document and copy the section in the original document to the new document using Document.Sections.Add() method.
• Save the new document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

# Create an instance of Document class
document = Document()
# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx")

# Iterate through all sections
for i in range(document.Sections.Count):
    section = document.Sections.get_Item(i)
    result = "output/SplitDocument/" + "SplitBySectionBreak_{0}.docx".format(i+1)
    # Create a new Word document
    newWord = Document()
    # Add the section to the new document
    newWord.Sections.Add(section.Clone())
    #Save the new document
    newWord.SaveToFile(result)
    newWord.Close()

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.

Excel files often contain sensitive and confidential information, such as financial data, personal information, trade secrets, or proprietary formulas. When sharing these files over the internet or between organizations, there might be a risk of data leaks, theft, or unauthorized modifications. To address this concern, Excel provides a comprehensive set of protection features, such as password-protecting workbooks, restricting editing on worksheets, and locking cells, which enable users to establish multiple layers of security to control data access and maintain the integrity of their Excel files. In this article, you will learn how to protect and unprotect Excel workbooks and worksheets in Python using Spire.XLS for Python.

• Password Protect an Entire Workbook
• Protect a Worksheet with a Specific Protection Type
• Allow Users to Edit Ranges in a Protected Worksheet
• Unprotect a Password Protected Worksheet
• Remove or Reset the Password of an Encrypted Workbook

Install Spire.XLS for Python

This scenario requires Spire.XLS for Python and plum-dispatch v1.7.4. They can be easily installed in your Windows through the following pip commands.

pip install Spire.XLS

If you are unsure how to install, please refer to this tutorial: How to Install Spire.XLS for Python on Windows

Password Protect an Entire Workbook in Python

By encrypting an Excel document with a password, you ensure that the data within the document remains secure and inaccessible to unauthorized individuals. The following are the steps to password-protect a workbook using Spire.XLS for Python.

• Create a Workbook object.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.LoadFromFile() method.
• Protect the workbook with a password using Workbook.Protect() method.
• Save the workbook to another Excel file using Workbook.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.xls import *
from spire.xls.common import *

# Create a Workbook object
workbook = Workbook()

# Load an Excel workbook
workbook.LoadFromFile("Sample.xlsx")

# Protect the workbook with a password
workbook.Protect("psd-123")

# Save the workbook to another Excel file
workbook.SaveToFile("Encrypted.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016)
workbook.Dispose()

Protect a Worksheet with a Specific Protection Type in Python

If you want to authorize others to view your Excel document while limiting the types of changes they can make to a worksheet, you can protect the worksheet with a specific protection type. The table below lists a variety of pre-defined protection types under the SheetProtectionType enumeration.

The following steps show you how to protect a worksheet with a specific protection type using Spire.XLS for Python.

• Create a Workbook object.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get a specific worksheet through Workbook.Worksheets[index] property.
• Protect the worksheet with a password and a specific protection type using Worksheet.Protect(password:str, options:SheetProtectionType) method.
• Save the workbook to another Excel file using Workbook.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.xls import *
from spire.xls.common import *

# Create a Workbook object
workbook = Workbook()

# Load an Excel workbook
workbook.LoadFromFile("Sample.xlsx")

# Get the first worksheet
worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0]

# Protect the worksheet with a password and a specific protection type
worksheet.Protect("psd-permission", SheetProtectionType.none)

# Save the workbook to another Excel file
workbook.SaveToFile("ProtectWorksheet.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016)
workbook.Dispose()

Allow Users to Edit Ranges in a Protected Worksheet in Python

In certain cases, you may want to allow users to edit certain ranges of a worksheet while preserving the integrity of other data. The following steps demonstrate how to accomplish this feature using Spire.XLS for Python.

• Create a Workbook object.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get a specific worksheet through Workbook.Worksheets[index] property.
• Specify editable cell ranges using Worksheet.AddAllowEditRange() method.
• Protect the worksheet with a password and a specific protection type using Worksheet.Protect(password:str, options:SheetProtectionType) method.
• Save the workbook to another Excel file using Workbook.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.xls import *
from spire.xls.common import *

# Create a Workbook object
workbook = Workbook()

# Load an Excel workbook
workbook.LoadFromFile("Sample.xlsx")

# Get the first worksheet
sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0]

# Add ranges that allow editing
sheet.AddAllowEditRange("Range One", sheet.Range["A5:A6"])
sheet.AddAllowEditRange("Range Two", sheet.Range["A8:B11"])

# Protect the worksheet with a password and a protection type
sheet.Protect("psd-permission", SheetProtectionType.All)

# Save the workbook to another Excel file
workbook.SaveToFile("AllowEditRange.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016)
workbook.Dispose()

Unprotect a Password Protected Worksheet in Python

To remove the protection of a password-protected worksheet, you need to invoke the Worksheet.Unprotect() method and pass the original password to the method as a parameter. The detailed steps are as follows.

• Create a Workbook object.
• Load an Excel file using Workbook.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get a specific worksheet through Workbook.Worksheets[index] property.
• Remove the password protection using Worksheet.Unprotect(password:str) method.
• Save the workbook to another Excel file using Workbook.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.xls import *
from spire.xls.common import *

# Create a Workbook object
workbook = Workbook()

# Load an Excel workbook containing protected worksheet
workbook.LoadFromFile("ProtectWorksheet.xlsx")

# Get the first worksheet
sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0]

# Unprotect the worksheet using the specified password
sheet.Unprotect("psd-permission")

# Save the workbook to another Excel file
workbook.SaveToFile("UnprotectWorksheet.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016)
workbook.Dispose()

Remove or Reset the Password of an Encrypted Workbook in Python

To remove or reset password of an encrypted workbook, you can use the Workbook.Unprotect() or the Workbook.Protect() method. The following steps show you how to load an encrypted Excel document and delete or change the password of it.

• Create a Workbook object.
• Specify the open password through Workbook.OpenPassword property.
• Load the encrypted Excel file using Workbook.LoadFromFile() method.
• Remove the encryption using Workbook.Unprotect() method. Or change the password using Workbook.Protect() method.
• Save the workbook to another Excel file using Workbook.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.xls import *
from spire.xls.common import *

# Create a Workbook object
workbook = Workbook()

# Specify the open password
workbook.OpenPassword = "psd-123"

# Load an encrypted Excel workbook
workbook.LoadFromFile("Encrypted.xlsx")

# Unprotect the workbook
workbook.UnProtect()

# Reset password
# workbook.Protect("newpassword")

# Save the workbook to another Excel file
workbook.SaveToFile("UnprotectWorkbook.xlsx", ExcelVersion.Version2016)
workbook.Dispose()

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.