Write Word mail merge fields to MS Word with Python

Question

I've cranked a bunch of code with Python and Pandas, which is all groovy and gravy. But now I have to populate a bunch of tables in a word document. Ideally I'd like to write a bunch of Mergefields to a table and then merge it through word with the csv kicked out by Pandas.

I've started with python-docx, but there is nothing in the documentation about writing mergefields, unless I'm mistaken. Something like this would be the bees Knees:

 document = Document()

 document.add_heading('Does this merge thing work', 0)

 table = document.add_table(rows=1, cols=3)
 hdr_cells = table.rows[0].cells
 hdr_cells[0].text = 'Qty'
 hdr_cells[1].text = 'Id'
 hdr_cells[2].text = 'Desc'
 row_cells = table.add_row().cells
 row_cells[0].text = "MERGEFIELD yo " #doesn't work, just string. 
 row_cells[1].MERGEFIELD = "Funky"    #MERGEFIELD not a table object
 row_cells[2].mailMerge = "Nice"      #This type of thing would be dreamy

I'm also familiar with win32com, but I can't find documentation of writing a merge field anywhere. I've recorded a macro in word when inserting a mergefield and the VBA looks like:

  Selection.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, Text:= _
    "MERGEFIELD  obviosulyyournotagolfer", PreserveFormatting:=True

even just writing a big list of mergefields to a document would be a big help. Any input would be much appreciated.

I've also been playing with docx-mailmerge, but from what I can tell it only allows you to merge data to already existing merge fields. Thanks for your help!

I'm a little confused here. Do you have a template document with place holders (i.e., merge fields) and need to merge to csv data? Do you want to build placeholders on the fly then bound it to csv data? Or are you trying to populate MS Word table with csv data? — Parfait
Sorry for not being too clear. I want to build placeholders on the fly and then bound it to csv data. Basically create the template. The end result will be a MS Word table with csv data, but there are a lot of records so I can't use traditional ways to write data to ms tables. — Tim Gottgetreu
This feels like an XY Problem. The mail merge Word table is an attempted solution of the first problem that you are not asking about. What is you end goal of this csv data? Fill a report? Send a document? Nonetheless, use Excel as a medium as you can copy a range of cells and paste in Word as tables. — Parfait
Yes, I see what you mean and that's probably why there isn't an off the shelf solution. Maybe I need to re-think the strategy. — Tim Gottgetreu

TheRobotCarlson TheRobotCarlson · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-11T14:00:59

Are you looking for something like python-docx-template? It allows you to create jinja2-like templates for Microsoft Word Documents. That could involve creating tables or other auto-populated fields. It also allows you to format and style your document the way you want and ha

Here's an example:

{%tr for a in alerts %}
{{ a.date }}    {% cellbg a.bg %}{{ a.type }}   {{r a.desc }}
{%tr endfor %}

That's something that might show up in the word doc. There are other table examples like that on github.

Write Word mail merge fields to MS Word with Python

1 Answers