Unclear how I should find text from textboxes in a Word document

[15MariamS]

Article URL
On what page did you find the problem?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/word/word.body?view=word-js-preview#word-word-body-shapes-member

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A clear and concise description of what is incorrect, unclear, or missing in the document.

From that page, I understand that the only way to get the text content from the Word API is from Word.Shape (i.e. I can't use Word.Document.Body), but the documentation for that says the following:

This API is provided as a preview for developers and may change based on feedback that we receive. Do not use this API in a production environment.

Given this, I'm not sure how to extract text from a textbox.

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[Rick-Kirkham]

@ElizabethSamuel-MSFT Can you take a look?

[ElizabethSamuel-MSFT]

@15MariamS Thanks for asking about this. I've transferred this issue from the documentation repo to the product repo so the feature crew can investigate.

[ElizabethSamuel-MSFT]

@RuizhiSunMS Can you take a look and assign appropriately? Thanks.

[guoms1]

@15MariamS

Thank you for reaching out and providing details about your issue.

After consulting with our team, I would like to clarify that the Word.Shape API is currently in preview. Because it is in preview status, the documentation is accurate for the current capabilities. Once the preview period ends, the documentation will be updated accordingly.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

[15MariamS]

the Word.Shape API is currently in preview.

Is there no other way to get the text from textboxes (or insert new text into them)? Otherwise, how can I use the preview API to do this?

[ElizabethSamuel-MSFT]

@RuizhiSunMS Can you or someone from the feature crew provide sample code showing how to get text from textboxes with shipped API (if possible) and with the preview API? Thanks.

[guoms1]

Here is the reply I got from the expert:

This is a preview API. As another option, they might be using getOoxml to parse context (but it’ll be a little complex for most users).

Thanks,

[15MariamS]

This is a preview API. As another option, they might be using getOoxml to parse context (but it’ll be a little complex for most users).

Ah, yeah I am parsing the content fine with getOoxml, but want to edit the content in an add-in and apply those changes which is where the Shapes API would be useful. Is there an ETA for when the API would be available?

[guoms1]

Hi, @15MariamS

Thank you for sharing your use case. Currently, I don’t have an ETA for the Shapes API, but I’ll let you know as soon as I have any updates.

Let me know if you need assistance with your current approach in the meantime.

Best regards,