docxblocks 1.6.0

Block-based Word document builder with simple, predictable newline and inline text handling.

DocxBlocks

A Python library for building Word documents using a block-based API. Create complex documents with simple, readable code.

🚀 Quick Start

from docxblocks import DocxBuilder

# Create blocks
blocks = [
    {"type": "heading", "text": "Report Title", "level": 1},
    {"type": "text", "text": "This is the first paragraph."},
    {"type": "text", "text": "This continues inline."},
    {"type": "text", "text": "\nThis starts a new paragraph."},
    {"type": "table", "content": {
        "headers": ["Name", "Value"],
        "rows": [["Item 1", "100"], ["Item 2", "200"]]
    }}
]

# Build document
builder = DocxBuilder("template.docx")
builder.insert("{{content}}", blocks)
builder.save("output.docx")

📋 Features

• Block-based API: Each piece of content is a simple dictionary
• Smart text grouping: Consecutive text blocks are grouped inline
• Simple newlines: Every \n creates a new paragraph
• Rich styling: Bold, italic, colors, alignment, and more
• Table support: Headers, rows, column widths, cell styling
• Image handling: Automatic sizing with DPI calculation
• Template support: Use existing Word templates as starting points
• Error handling: Graceful fallbacks for missing content

📖 Installation

pip install docxblocks

🎯 Basic Usage

Template Setup

Create a Word document with placeholders:

{{header}}

{{main}}

{{footer}}

Block-Based API (Core Concept)

Each piece of content is a block:

{
  "type": "text",
  "text": "All systems operational.",
  "style": {
    "bold": True,
    "italic": False,
    "font_color": "007700",
    "align": "center",
    "style": "Normal"
  }
}

Text Block Behavior

Text blocks have simple, predictable behavior:

• Every \n: Always starts a new paragraph
• Inline grouping: Consecutive text blocks without \n are grouped together
• spacing: Adds extra blank paragraphs after the block

{"type": "text", "text": "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3"}
# Renders as three paragraphs: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3

{"type": "text", "text": "First paragraph\n\nSecond paragraph"}
# Renders as: First paragraph, [blank paragraph], Second paragraph

{"type": "text", "text": "First", "spacing": 1}
# Renders as a new paragraph, then one blank paragraph after

Table Cell Behavior

Table cells and headers follow the same rules:

• Every \n: Always starts a new paragraph within the cell
• Inline grouping: Consecutive cell blocks without \n are grouped together

{
    "type": "table",
    "content": {
        "headers": ["Name", "Description\nDetails"],
        "rows": [
            ["Item 1", "First paragraph.\nSecond paragraph."],
            ["Item 2", "Line 1\n\nLine 2 with empty line above"]
        ]
    }
}
# Each '\n' creates a new paragraph, each '\n\n' creates paragraph with empty line before

Block types:

Type	Required Keys	Optional Keys
text	text	style, spacing
heading	text, level	style
bullets	items	style
table	content	style
image	path	style
page_break	-	-
header	content	apply_to
footer	content	apply_to

🎨 Styling

Text Styling

{
    "type": "text",
    "text": "Styled text",
    "style": {
        "bold": True,
        "italic": False,
        "font_color": "FF0000",  # Red
        "align": "center",       # "left", "center", "right", "justify"
        "style": "Normal"
    }
}

Alignment Options

All block types support four alignment options:

# Text alignment examples
{"type": "text", "text": "Left aligned", "style": {"align": "left"}}
{"type": "text", "text": "Centered text", "style": {"align": "center"}}
{"type": "text", "text": "Right aligned", "style": {"align": "right"}}
{"type": "text", "text": "Justified text that adjusts spacing for clean edges", "style": {"align": "justify"}}

# Works with all block types
{"type": "heading", "text": "Centered Heading", "level": 1, "style": {"align": "center"}}
{"type": "bullets", "items": ["Item 1", "Item 2"], "style": {"align": "right"}}

Table Styling

{
    "type": "table",
    "content": {"headers": ["A", "B"], "rows": [["1", "2"]]},
    "style": {
        "column_widths": [0.3, 0.7],
        "header_styles": {"bold": True, "bg_color": "f2f2f2"},
        "column_styles": {0: {"font_color": "FF0000"}}
    }
}

Rich Content in Table Cells

Table cells can now contain rich content including text, images, bullets, and headings. Each cell can be either:

• Plain text (string) - works as before
• Rich content (list of block dictionaries) - new feature

{
    "type": "table",
    "content": {
        "headers": ["Product", "Description", "Features", "Image"],
        "rows": [
            [
                "Product A",
                [
                    {"type": "heading", "text": "Premium Product", "level": 3},
                    {"type": "text", "text": "High-quality product with excellent features.", "style": {"italic": True}}
                ],
                [
                    {"type": "bullets", "items": ["Feature 1", "Feature 2", "Feature 3"]}
                ],
                [
                    {"type": "image", "path": "logo.png", "style": {"max_width": "1in"}}
                ]
            ],
            [
                "Product B",
                "Simple text description",  # Plain text still works
                [
                    {"type": "bullets", "items": ["Basic feature", "Standard quality"]}
                ],
                "No image"
            ]
        ]
    }
}

Supported Rich Content Types in Cells:

• Text blocks with styling (bold, italic, color, alignment)
• Images with sizing constraints
• Bullet lists with custom styling
• Headings (levels 1-6) for cell structure
• Mixed content - combine multiple block types in one cell

Backward Compatibility: All existing plain text cells continue to work exactly as before.

Image Styling

{
    "type": "image",
    "path": "logo.png",
    "style": {
        "max_width": "4in",
        "max_height": "300px"
    }
}

📄 Headers and Footers

DocxBlocks supports customizable headers and footers that can contain any combination of supported block types.

Basic Headers and Footers

blocks = [
    # Header for all pages
    {
        "type": "header",
        "apply_to": "all",
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "Company Name\tDocument Title\tPage {{page}}",
                "style": {"align": "center", "font_color": "666666"}
            }
        ]
    },
    
    # Footer for all pages
    {
        "type": "footer", 
        "apply_to": "all",
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "© 2024 Company. All rights reserved.",
                "style": {"align": "center", "italic": True}
            }
        ]
    },
    
    # Your main content...
    {"type": "heading", "text": "Report Title", "level": 1}
]

Page-Specific Headers and Footers

Control which pages display specific headers and footers:

blocks = [
    # Special header for first page only
    {
        "type": "header",
        "apply_to": "first", 
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "CONFIDENTIAL REPORT",
                "style": {"align": "center", "bold": True}
            }
        ]
    },
    
    # Different headers for odd/even pages (useful for books)
    {
        "type": "header",
        "apply_to": "odd",
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text", 
                "text": "Chapter Title\t\tPage {{page}}",
                "style": {"align": "left"}
            }
        ]
    },
    
    {
        "type": "header",
        "apply_to": "even",
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "Page {{page}}\t\tBook Title", 
                "style": {"align": "right"}
            }
        ]
    }
]

Complex Header/Footer Content

Headers and footers can contain any block type:

{
    "type": "header",
    "apply_to": "all",
    "content": [
        # Table in header
        {
            "type": "table",
            "content": {
                "headers": ["Company", "Document", "Date"],
                "rows": [["ACME Corp", "Annual Report", "2024"]]
            },
            "style": {"column_widths": [0.3, 0.4, 0.3]}
        },
        # Image in header  
        {
            "type": "image",
            "path": "logo.png",
            "style": {"max_height": "0.5in"}
        }
    ]
}

Apply To Options

Option	Description
"all"	Apply to all pages (default)
"all_except_first"	Apply to all pages except the first (great for cover pages)
"first"	Apply only to the first page
"odd"	Apply to odd-numbered pages
"even"	Apply to even-numbered pages

Note: Using "odd" or "even" automatically enables different odd/even headers throughout the document.

Cover Page Example

Perfect for reports with clean cover pages:

blocks = [
    {
        "type": "header",
        "apply_to": "all_except_first",
        "content": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "Company Report\tConfidential\tPage {{page}}",
                "style": {"align": "center"}
            }
        ]
    },
    # Page 1: Clean cover page (no header/footer)
    {"type": "heading", "text": "ANNUAL REPORT 2024", "level": 1, "style": {"align": "center"}},
    {"type": "page_break"},
    # Page 2+: Content with headers/footers
    {"type": "heading", "text": "Executive Summary", "level": 1}
]

🔧 Advanced Features

Mixed Content

blocks = [
    {"type": "heading", "text": "Section 1", "level": 2},
    {"type": "text", "text": "Introduction "},
    {"type": "text", "text": "with ", "style": {"bold": True}},
    {"type": "text", "text": "inline styling."},
    {"type": "bullets", "items": ["Point 1", "Point 2"]},
    {"type": "table", "content": {...}},
    {"type": "page_break"},
    {"type": "heading", "text": "Section 2", "level": 2}
]

Template Variables

# Template.docx contains: "Hello {{name}}, here is your {{report_type}} report."

builder = DocxBuilder("template.docx")
builder.insert("{{name}}", [{"type": "text", "text": "John"}])
builder.insert("{{report_type}}", [{"type": "text", "text": "monthly"}])
builder.save("output.docx")

📚 Examples

See the examples/ directory for complete working examples:

• text_block_example.py - Basic text blocks and styling
• table_block_example.py - Table creation and styling
• header_footer_example.py - Headers and footers with various configurations
• all_except_first_example.py - Cover page example with clean first page and headers on content pages
• newline_example.py - Newline handling and paragraph behavior
• inline_text_example.py - Inline text grouping
• alignment_example.py - Text alignment with left, center, right, and justify
• combined_example.py - Mixed block types

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

🐛 Issues

Found a bug? Have a feature request? Please open an issue on GitHub.