Remove string and replace a new string with format

Question

Here is I want: I have a .doc file which consists of many lines. In the file I need to find a string and replace it with another string. Up to this fine. But how can I replace the string with another string along with format. I mean like Bold, Italic, Underline, etc. for new string.

Answer 1

The only way I would know how to automate .doc files is with a very elaborate and extremely time consuming Python script. You would need to automate [Libre|Open]Office using PyUNO.

This is the best way to do this because you can use just about every function in Office without having to do dodgy hacks...

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A less ideal method would be using unoconv to convert the .doc to something human-readable like .fodt, then sed and the convert it back to .doc.

unoconv -o test.fodt -f fodt test.doc
sed -i 's/string/newstring/g'
unoconv -o test.doc -f doc test.doc

You have to be careful that your string isn't going to interfere with the document tags. If it is, you'll need to use something a lot more industrial to make sure you're only editing things in <text:...> tags.

So instead of using .fodt, you can use html

unoconv -o test.html -f html test.doc
sed -i 's/string/<B>newstring</B>/g'
unoconv -o test.doc -f doc test.html

However, there is every chance the conversion will completely munch the document formatting.