docx-review-changes/README.md

docx-review-changes

Extract all tracked changes (insertions, deletions, substitutions) and comments from a Microsoft Word .docx file and print them as readable, paragraph-numbered text — useful for reviewing edits without opening Word.

Install

Requires Python 3.9+ and pipx.

pipx install git+https://gitea.reground.org/will/docx-review-changes.git

To upgrade to the latest version later:

pipx install --force git+https://gitea.reground.org/will/docx-review-changes.git

No external dependencies — the tool only uses the Python standard library.

Usage

docx-review-changes yourfile.docx

Each tracked change or comment is printed as a numbered entry with the paragraph number, author, and surrounding context. Example output:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[1]  CHANGE  —  paragraph 3  —  Jane Doe

  Delete  : "quick"
  Insert  : "fast"
  Context : The …[^^^] brown fox jumps over the lazy dog…

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[2]  COMMENT  —  paragraph 5  —  John Smith

  Highlighted : "lazy dog"
  Comment     : "Can we rename this?"
  Context     : …jumps over the [^^^]

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total: 2 item(s)

• CHANGE — a deletion immediately followed by an insertion from the same author is treated as one substitution.
• DELETION / INSERTION — standalone tracked changes.
• COMMENT — a comment anchored to highlighted text, with the comment body.
• [^^^] in the Context line marks where the change/comment sits relative to the surrounding paragraph text.

If the document has no tracked changes or comments, the tool prints No tracked changes or comments found.

How it works

.docx files are zip archives containing OOXML. This tool reads word/document.xml (paragraphs, w:ins/w:del tracked-change markup, and comment anchors) and word/comments.xml (comment bodies) directly via zipfile and xml.etree.ElementTree — no third-party libraries required.