Working with Highlighted Text in Python .docx Module

Last Updated : 03 Jan, 2021

Prerequisites: docx

Word documents contain formatted text wrapped within three object levels. The Lowest level- run objects, middle level- paragraph objects and highest level- document object. So, we cannot work with these documents using normal text editors. But, we can manipulate these word documents in python using the python-docx module. Pip command to install this module is:

pip install python-docx

Python docx module allows users to manipulate docs by either manipulating the existing one or creating a new empty document and manipulating it. It is a powerful tool as it helps you to manipulate the document to a very large extend. You can also add highlighted text in your Word document.

To add the highlighted text you have to first create a paragraph object then you have to use add_run() method to add content. You can directly use add_paragraph() method to add a paragraph but if you want to add the highlighted text you have to use add_run() as all the block-level formatting is done by using add_paragraph() method while all the character-level formatting is done by using add_run().

Adding Highlighted Text

Text is highlighted by assigning a member of WD_COLOR_INDEX to Font.highlight_color. To use WD_COLOR_INDEX we have first import it using the following import statement.

from docx.enum.text import WD_COLOR_INDEX

Syntax: paragraph.add_run().font.highlight_color = Colour_Name

Parameter: Colour_Name: It is the name of the colour assign to highlight the text. It is the member of the WD_COLOR_INDEX.

Note: If we don't assign the colour then default colour is NONE.

Example 1: Highlighting the complete paragraph using the python-docx module.

Python3

# Import docx NOT python-docx
import docx
from docx.enum.text import WD_COLOR_INDEX

# Create an instance of a word document
doc = docx.Document()

# Add a Title to the document 
doc.add_heading('GeeksForGeeks', 0)

# Creating paragraph with some content and Highlighting it.
highlight_para = doc.add_paragraph(
       ).add_run(
           '''GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well-explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes etc.'''
                 ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.YELLOW

# Now save the document to a location 
doc.save('gfg.docx')

Output:

Example 2: Highlighting the specific word or phrase in a paragraph using the python-docx module.

Python3

# Import docx NOT python-docx
import docx
from docx.enum.text import WD_COLOR_INDEX

# Create an instance of a word document
doc = docx.Document()

# Add a Title to the document 
doc.add_heading('GeeksForGeeks', 0)

# Creating paragraph with some content
para = doc.add_paragraph('''GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.''')

# Adding more content to paragraph and highlighting them
para.add_run(''' It contains well written, well thought and well-explained '''
            ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.YELLOW

# Adding more content to paragraph
para.add_run('''computer science and programming articles, quizzes etc.''')

# Now save the document to a location 
doc.save('gfg.docx')

Output:

Styles

There are various colour option to highlight the text. You can choose any colour which is a member of WD_COLOR_INDEX. The list of colours are as follows:

SR. No.	Colour Name In WD_COLOR_INDEX	Colour Description
1.	AUTO	Default or No Colour
2.	BLACK	Black Colour
3.	BLUE	Blue Colour
4.	BRIGHT_GREEN	Green Colour
5.	DARK_BLUE	Dark Blue Colour
6.	DARK_RED	Dark Red Colour
7.	DARK_YELLOW	Dark Yellow Colour
8.	GRAY_25	Light Gray Colour
9.	GRAY_50	Dark Gray Colour
10.	GREEN	Dark Green Colour
11.	PINK	Magenta Colour
12.	RED	Red Colour
13.	TEAL	Dark Cyan Colour
14.	TURQUOISE	Cyan Colour
15.	VIOLET	Dark Magenta Colour
16.	WHITE	White Colour
17.	YELLOW	Yellow Colour

Example 3: Adding styled highlighted text in the Word document.

Python3

# Import docx NOT python-docx
import docx
from docx.enum.text import WD_COLOR_INDEX

# Create an instance of a word document
doc = docx.Document()

# Add a Title to the document 
doc.add_heading('GeeksForGeeks', 0)

# Adding Auto Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('AUTO Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.AUTO

# Adding Black Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('BLACK Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.BLACK

# Adding Blue Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('BLUE Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.BLUE

# Adding Bright Green Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('BRIGHT_GREEN Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.BRIGHT_GREEN

# Adding Dark Blue Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('DARK_BLUE Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.DARK_BLUE

# Adding Dark Red Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('DARK_RED Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.DARK_RED

# Adding Dark Yellow Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('DARK_YELLOW Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.DARK_YELLOW

# Adding GRAY25 Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('GRAY_25 Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.GRAY_25

# Adding GRAY50 Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('GRAY_50 Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.GRAY_50

# Adding GREEN Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('GREEN Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.GREEN

# Adding Pink Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('PINK Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.PINK

# Adding Red Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('RED Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.RED

# Adding Teal Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('TEAL Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.TEAL

# Adding Turquoise Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('TURQUOISE Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.TURQUOISE

# Adding Violet Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('VIOLET Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.VIOLET

# Adding White Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('WHITE Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.WHITE

# Adding Yellow Styled Highlighted paragraph
doc.add_heading('YELLOW Style:', 3)
doc.add_paragraph().add_run('GeeksforGeeks is a Computer Science portal for geeks.'
                  ).font.highlight_color = WD_COLOR_INDEX.YELLOW

# Now save the document to a location 
doc.save('gfg.docx')