Convert Word doc or docx files into text files?

Question

I need a way to convert .doc or .docx extensions to .txt without installing anything. I also don\'t want to have to manually open Wor

Answer 1

The method of Sinan Ünür works well.
However, I got some crash with the files I was transforming.

Another method is to use Win32::OLE and Win32::Clipboard as such:

• Open the Word document
• Select all the text
• Copy in the Clipboard
• Print the content of Clipboard in a txt file
• Empty the Clipboard and close the Word document

Based on the script given by Sigvald Refsu in http://computer-programming-forum.com/53-perl/c44063de8613483b.htm, I came up with the following script.

Note: I chose to save the txt file with the same basename as the .docx file and in the same folder but this can easily be changed

########################################### 
use strict; 
use File::Spec::Functions qw( catfile );
use FindBin '$Bin';
use Win32::OLE qw(in with); 
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Word'; 
use Win32::Clipboard; 

my $monitor_word=0; #set 1 to watch MS Word being opened and closed

sub docx2txt {
    ##Note: the path shall be in the form "C:\dir\ with\ space\file.docx"; 
    my $docx_file=shift; 

    #MS Word object
    my $Word = Win32::OLE->new('Word.Application', 'Quit') or die "Couldn't run Word"; 
    #Monitor what happens in MS Word 
    $Word->{Visible} = 1 if $monitor_word; 

    #Open file 
    my $Doc = $Word->Documents->Open($docx_file); 
    with ($Doc, ShowRevisions => 0); #Turn of revision marks 

    #Select the complete document
    $Doc->Select(); 
    my $Range = $Word->Selection();
    with ($Range, ExtendMode => 1);
    $Range->SelectAll(); 

    #Copy selection to clipboard 
    $Range->Copy();

    #Create txt file 
    my $txt_file=$docx_file; 
    $txt_file =~ s/\.docx$/.txt/;
    open(TextFile,">$txt_file") or die "Error while trying to write in $txt_file (!$)"; 
    printf TextFile ("%s\n", Win32::Clipboard::Get()); 
    close TextFile; 

    #Empty the Clipboard (to prevent warning about "huge amount of data in clipboard")
    Win32::Clipboard::Set("");

    #Close Word file without saving 
    $Doc->Close({SaveChanges => wdDoNotSaveChanges});

    # Disconnect OLE 
    undef $Word; 
}

Hope it can helps you.