Find & Replace in Word Document with Ruby

timmorgan (Tim Morgan) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:48:47 GMT

I use this to open a "template" (really just a plain Word document with [text to replace] inside), do the substitutions, and save as a new filename.



require 'win32ole'



word = WIN32OLE.new('Word.Application')

#word.Visible = true # uncomment if you want to see it happen

doc = word.Documents.Open('c:\file_to_open.doc')

{

  'name' => 'Tim Morgan',

  'date' => Date.today.strftime('%B %d, %Y'),

  ...

}.each do |key, value|

  word.Selection.HomeKey(unit=6) # start at beginning

  find = word.Selection.Find

  find.Text = "[#{key}]" # text must be in square brackets

  while word.Selection.Find.Execute

    word.Selection.TypeText(text=value)

  end

end

doc.SaveAs('c:\output_file.doc')

doc.Close

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Find & Replace in Word Document with Ruby