Python: Access embedded OLE from Office/Excel document without clipboard

Question

I want to add and extract files from an Office/Excel document using Python. So far adding things is easy but for extracting I haven\'t found a clean solution.

To mak

Answer 1

Consider using the Windows temp directory that will temporarily store the OLE Object's file source when embedded in workbook. No clipboard is used in this solution but physical files.

With this approach, you will need to retrieve the current user's name and iterate through all files of the temp directory: C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp (standard Excel dump folder for Windows Vista/7/8/10). Also, a conditional like-name search with in is used that contains original file's basename as multiple versions with number suffixes (1), (2), (3),... may exist depending on how many times script runs. Try even a regex search here.

Finally, the below routine uses try...except...finally block to cleanly exist the Excel objects regardless of error but will output any exception message. Do note this is only a Windows solution using a text file.

import win32com.client as win32
import os, shutil
from tkinter import messagebox

# (0) Setup
dir_path = cd = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
print(dir_path)

try:
    excel = win32.gencache.EnsureDispatch('Excel.Application')    
    wb = excel.Workbooks.Open(os.path.join(dir_path, "test_excel.xlsx"))
    ws = wb.Worksheets(1)
    objs = ws.OLEObjects()

    # (1) Embed file
    f = os.path.join(dir_path, "test_txt.txt")    
    name = "test_txt_ole.txt"
    objs.Add(Filename=f, IconLabel=name).Name = 'Test'

    # (2) Open file from temporary folder
    ole = ws.OLEObjects(1)        
    ole.Activate()

    # (3) Grab the recent like-named file
    user = os.environ.get('USERNAME')
    outfile = os.path.join(dir_path, "test_txt_out.txt")

    tempfolder = r"C:\Documents and Settings\{}\Local Settings\Temp".format(user)

    for subdir, dirs, files in os.walk(tempfolder):
        for file in sorted(files, reverse=True):
            if 'test_txt' in file:                
                tempfile = os.path.join(tempfolder, file)
                break

    shutil.copyfile(tempfile, outfile)

    # (4) Read text content
    with open(outfile, 'r') as f:        
        content = f.readlines()

    # (5) Output message with content
    messagebox.showinfo(title="test_txt_ole.txt", message="".join(content))

except Exception as e:
    print(e)

finally:
    wb.Close(True)      # CLOSES AND SAVES WORKBOOK
    excel.Quit          # QUITS EXCEL APP

    # RELEASES COM RESOURCES
    ws = None; wb = None; objs = None; ole = None; excel = None

Tkinter Messagebox