DOCX Tools

Extract, inspect, and compare .docx files by examining their underlying XML structure. Since .docx files are ZIP archives containing XML, we use standard Unix tools.

Installation

bash

# macOS - tree is optional, other tools are pre-installed
brew install tree

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install unzip libxml2-utils tree

Quick Reference

Task	Command
List contents	`unzip -l file.docx`
View document XML	`unzip -p file.docx word/document.xml \| xmllint --format -`
Extract to directory	`unzip -o -d /tmp/docx-out file.docx`
Compare content	`diff <(unzip -p a.docx word/document.xml \| xmllint --format -) <(unzip -p b.docx word/document.xml \| xmllint --format -)`
Compare structure	`diff <(unzip -l a.docx) <(unzip -l b.docx)`

Inspection Workflow

Step 1: List archive contents

bash

unzip -l document.docx

Step 2: View document structure (after extraction)

bash

unzip -o -d /tmp/docx-out document.docx
tree /tmp/docx-out

Step 3: View formatted XML content

bash

unzip -p document.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -

Comparison Workflow

Step 1: Quick structure check

bash

unzip -l document-v1.docx
unzip -l document-v2.docx

Step 2: Compare main document content

bash

diff -u <(unzip -p document-v1.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -) \
        <(unzip -p document-v2.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -)

Step 3: Compare styles if formatting changed

bash

diff -u <(unzip -p document-v1.docx word/styles.xml | xmllint --format -) \
        <(unzip -p document-v2.docx word/styles.xml | xmllint --format -)

Extraction Commands

bash

# Extract entire .docx to temp directory
unzip -o -d /tmp/docx-extracted document.docx

# Extract specific file only
unzip -o -d /tmp/docx-extracted document.docx word/document.xml

# Pipe extraction (no temp files) - view without extracting
unzip -p document.docx word/document.xml

# List archive contents with details
unzip -l document.docx

Comparison Commands

bash

# Unified diff (recommended)
diff -u <(unzip -p a.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -) \
        <(unzip -p b.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -)

# Side-by-side comparison
diff -y <(unzip -p a.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -) \
        <(unzip -p b.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -)

# Check if files differ (quiet mode)
diff -q <(unzip -p a.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -) \
        <(unzip -p b.docx word/document.xml | xmllint --format -)

# Compare file lists between documents
diff <(unzip -l a.docx | awk 'NR>3 {print $4}' | sort) \
     <(unzip -l b.docx | awk 'NR>3 {print $4}' | sort)

Inspection Commands

bash

# View metadata (author, dates)
unzip -p document.docx docProps/core.xml | xmllint --format -

# View app info (word count)
unzip -p document.docx docProps/app.xml | xmllint --format -

# Show structure (after extraction)
tree /tmp/docx-out

# Show only XML files
tree /tmp/docx-out -P '*.xml'

Key XML Files

File	Contains
`word/document.xml`	Main content (paragraphs, text)
`word/styles.xml`	Style definitions
`word/numbering.xml`	List formatting
`word/_rels/document.xml.rels`	Links/images references
`docProps/core.xml`	Author, dates, title
`docProps/app.xml`	Word count, application info
`[Content_Types].xml`	MIME type mappings

Troubleshooting

Large diff output: Pipe to head -100 to limit lines.

Namespace noise: Focus on <w:t> tags for actual text content.

Binary comparison errors: Skip word/media/ directory - compare XML only.

Empty xmllint output: Check file path inside archive with unzip -l.