translate-docx 2026.1.9rc1

Translate .docx files while preserving all text formatting

Translate docx

A CLI tool and python library for translating .docx files, with a focus on preserving all text formatting.

Key Features

• Lossless round-trip - Extract and rebuild preserves all formatting
• Citation preservation - Superscripts (references) stay in original language
• Pluggable translators - Use any translation backend
• Section-based - Documents split by bold headers automatically

Installation

pip install translate-docx

Usage from Command Line

# Basic translation e.g. from spanish to english
translate-docx input.docx output.docx -s es -t en

# With options
translate-docx input.docx output.docx -s es -t en --delay 1.0 --verbose

# Show document info
translate-docx info document.docx

Usage as a Package

from translate_docx import (
    extract_document, 
    translate_document, 
    rebuild_document, 
    GoogleTranslatorWrapper
)

doc = extract_document("input.docx")
translator = GoogleTranslatorWrapper(delay_between_calls=0.5, max_retries=3)
translated = translate_document(doc, translator, "es", "en")
rebuild_document(translated, "output.docx", template_path="input.docx")

Supported Language Codes

ar - Arabic
zh - Chinese (Simplified)
nl - Dutch
en - English
fr - French
de - German
it - Italian
ja - Japanese
ko - Korean
pl - Polish
pt - Portuguese
ru - Russian
es - Spanish
tr - Turkish

Known Limitations

• Tables and images not yet supported
• Headers/footers not yet supported
• Translated text may reflow (layout not guaranteed)

License

MIT

More Examples

See the examples/ directory for complete runnable scripts.