"Unlocking the Power of JavaScript: A Guide to Counting Words in a Microsoft Word Document

Is there a way to count words inside a Microsoft Word document using JavaScript? I was able to count words in a normal text file, but I'm wondering if it's possible to do the same for a Microsoft Word file using something like the "JavaScript API for Office" or any other method.

Check out this Plunker example: https://plnkr.co/edit/5TJfNiPxv275GuimdIlj?p=preview

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

  <head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
    <script src="script.js"></script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <h2>Counting Words in Microsoft Word Documents Using JavaScript</h2>
    <input type="file" accept=".doc,.txt,.docx" onchange="calculateWords()" id="textDoc"/>
    <div>
      <h1 id="fileInformation">File Word Count After Selection</h1>
    </div>
  </body>

</html>

JavaScript Code

function calculateWords() {
    if (window.File && window.FileReader && window.FileList && window.Blob) {
        console.log("words");
        var doc = document.getElementById("textDoc");
        var f = doc.files[0];
        if (!f) {
            alert("Failed to load file");
            //validate file types yet to come
        } else if (false) {
            alert(f.type + " is not a valid text file.");
        } else {
            var r = new FileReader();//create file reader object
            r.readAsText(f);//read file as text

            //attach function to execute when loading file finishes. 
            r.onload = function (e) {
                var contents = e.target.result;
                var res = contents.split(" ");
                console.log(res.length);
                var fileInformation = "Word Count = "+res.length;
            var info = document.getElementById("fileInformation");
            info.innerHTML = fileInformation;

            }
        }
    } else {
        alert('The File APIs are not fully supported by your browser.');
    }
}

Answer №1

Unlike regular text files, Microsoft documents are encoded in binary format.

To extract the actual text, one must decode the file, strip away formatting, headers, and footers. It presents a significant challenge.

For example, this snippet is from an RTF file:

{\rtf1\ansi{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss Helvetica;}\f0\pard
This is some {\b bold} text.\par
}

.DOC files are even more complex in their binary structure, while DOCX files differ further.

In short: No, it's not a straightforward task to convert them into plain text.

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