The inclusion of line numbers in Word documents serves as a critical tool for enhancing readability, facilitating reference, and streamlining collaborative editing processes. Whether you're a lawyer marking up contracts, a researcher annotating scientific papers, or a student revising a thesis, line numbers provide a precise way to cite specific lines, making discussions and revisions more efficient.

The powerful Python programming language enables users to batch add or remove line numbers in Word documents, providing a robust means to automate document preparation workflows. This article will demonstrate how to utilize Spire.Doc for Python to add or remove line numbers in Word documents with Python code.

• Add Line Numbers to Word Documents with Python
• Remove Line Numbers from Word Documents 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

Add Line Numbers to Word Documents with Python

Spire.Doc for Python provides properties under PageSetup class for line number formatting. The properties and their functions are as follows:

• LineNumberingStep: Used to set the interval of the line number display.
• LineNumberingStartValue: Used to set the start number of the line number.
• LineNumberingDistanceFromText: Used to set the distance between the line number and the text.
• LineNumberingRestartMode: Used to set when the line number restarts, like every page, every section, or continuously without restarting.

It is important to note that line numbers will only be displayed when the PageSetup.LineNumberingStep property is set to a value greater than 0.

The detailed steps for adding line numbers to Word documents are as follows:

• Create an instance of Document class.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Iterate through the sections in the document:
  • Get the current section using Document.Sections.get_Item() method.
  • Get the page setup of the section through Section.PageSetup property.
  • Set the display interval of the line numbers through PageSetup.LineNumberingStep property.
  • Set the start number of the line numbers through PageSetup.LineNumberingStartValue property.
  • Set the distance between line numbers and text through PageSetup.LineNumberingDistanceFromText property.
  • Set the restarting mode of the line numbers through PageSetup.LineNumberingRestartMode property.
• Save the document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

# Create an instance of Document class
doc = Document()

# Load a Word document
doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.docx")

# Iterate through the sections
for i in range(0, doc.Sections.Count):
    # Get the current section
    section = doc.Sections.get_Item(i)
    # Get the page setup of the section
    pageSetup = section.PageSetup
    # Set the interval of the line numbering
    pageSetup.LineNumberingStep = 2
    # Set the start number of the line numbering
    pageSetup.LineNumberingStartValue = 1
    # Set the distance between the line number and text
    pageSetup.LineNumberingDistanceFromText = 20
    # Set the restarting mode of the line number
    pageSetup.LineNumberingRestartMode = LineNumberingRestartMode.Continuous

# Save the document
doc.SaveToFile("output/AddLineNumberWord.docx", FileFormat.Docx)
doc.Close()

Remove Line Numbers from Word Documents with Python

Since the value of the PageSetup.LineNumberingStep property directly determines the display of line numbers, developers can simply set the value to 0 to remove the line numbers from Word documents.

The detailed steps for removing line numbers from a Word document are as follows:

• Create an instance of Document class.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Iterate through the sections in the document:
  • Get the current section using Document.Sections.get_Item() method.
  • Set the display interval of the line numbers to 0 through Section.PageSetup.LineNumberingStep property to remove the line numbers.
• Save the document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

# Create an instance of Document class
doc = Document()

# Load a Word document
doc.LoadFromFile("output/AddLineNumberWord.docx")

# Iterate through the sections
for i in range(0, doc.Sections.Count):
    # Get the current section
    section = doc.Sections.get_Item(i)
    # Set the interval of the line numbering to 0 to remove the line numbering
    section.PageSetup.LineNumberingStep = 0

# Save the document
doc.SaveToFile("output/RemoveLineNumberWord.docx", FileFormat.Docx)
doc.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.

Section breaks in Word allow users to divide a document into sections, each with unique formatting options. This is especially useful when working with long documents where you want to apply different layouts, headers, footers, margins or page orientations within the same document. In this article, you will learn how to insert or remove section breaks in Word in Python using Spire.Doc for Python.

• Insert Section Breaks in Word in Python
• Remove Section Breaks in Word 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 commands.

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

Insert Section Breaks in Word in Python

Spire.Doc for Python provides the Paragraph.InsertSectionBreak(breakType: SectionBreakType) method to insert a specified type of section break to a paragraph. The following table provides an overview of the supported section break types, along with their corresponding Enums and descriptions:

The following are the detailed steps to insert a continuous section break:

• Create a Document instance.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get a specified section using Document.Sections[] property.
• Get a specified paragraph of the section using Section.Paragraphs[] property.
• Add a section break to the end of the paragraph using Paragraph.InsertSectionBreak() method.
• Save the result document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

inputFile = "sample.docx"
outputFile = "InsertSectionBreak.docx"

# Create a Document instance
document = Document()

# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Get a specific section
section = document.Sections.get_Item(0)

# Get a specific paragraph
paragraph = section.Paragraphs.get_Item(0)

# Insert a continuous section break
paragraph.InsertSectionBreak(SectionBreakType.NoBreak)

# Save the result document
document.SaveToFile(outputFile, FileFormat.Docx2016)
document.Close()

Remove Section Breaks in Word in Python

To delete all sections breaks in a Word document, we need to access the first section in the document, then copy the contents of the other sections to the first section and delete them. The following are the detailed steps:

• Create a Document instance.
• Load a Word document using Document.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get the first section using Document.Sections[] property.
• Iterate through other sections in the document.
• Get the second section, and then iterate through to get its child objects.
• Clone the child objects of the second section and add them to the first section using Section.Body.ChildObjects.Add() method.
• Delete the second section using Document.Sections.Remove() method.
• Repeat the process to copy and delete the remaining sections.
• Save the result document using Document.SaveToFile() method.

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

inputFile = "Report.docx"
outputFile = "RemoveSectionBreaks.docx"

# Create a Document instance
document = Document()

# Load a Word document
document.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Get a specific section
section = document.Sections.get_Item(0)

# Iterate through other sections in the document
for i in range(document.Sections.Count - 1):
    # Get the second section in the document
    section = document.Sections[1]
    
    # Iterate through all child objects of the second section
    for j in range(section.Body.ChildObjects.Count):
        # Get the child objects
        obj = section.Body.ChildObjects.get_Item(j)
        # Clone the child objects to the first section
        sec.Body.ChildObjects.Add(obj.Clone())
        # Remove the second section
        document.Sections.Remove(section)

# Save the result document
document.SaveToFile(outputFile, FileFormat.Docx2016)
document.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.