DOCX Footnote Reader
Overview
A skill for extracting footnotes, endnotes, and body text from Microsoft Word (.docx) files. This is particularly useful for:
- Technical documentation with reference notes
- Legal documents with citations
- Academic papers with footnoted references
- Any document where footnote content is important
Usage
Command Line
node index.js path/to/document.docx
Programmatic API
const { extractFootnotes } = require('docx-footnote-reader');
const result = await extractFootnotes('./document.docx');
console.log(`Body: ${result.body.length} characters`);
console.log(`Footnotes: ${result.footnotes.length} notes`);
console.log(`Endnotes: ${result.endnotes.length} notes`);
// Access individual footnotes
result.footnotes.forEach((note, idx) => {
console.log(`Footnote ${idx + 1}: ${note}`);
});
Return Value
The extractFootnotes function returns a Promise that resolves to:
{
body: string; // Document body text
footnotes: string[]; // Array of footnote strings
endnotes: string[]; // Array of endnote strings
}
How It Works
- Uses
word-extractor library to parse the .docx file
- Extracts body text via
doc.getBody()
- Extracts footnotes via
doc.getFootnotes() - handles both string and array return types
- Extracts endnotes via
doc.getEndnotes() - handles both string and array return types
- Splits footnote/endnote strings by newline and filters empty entries
Important Notes
- The
word-extractor library returns footnotes as a single string separated by newlines, not an array
- This skill automatically handles both string and array return types
- Empty footnotes/endnotes are filtered out
- Each footnote string is trimmed of whitespace
Dependencies
- Node.js >= 14
- word-extractor (automatically installed via npm)
Installation
cd docx-footnote-reader
npm install
Example Output
========================================
Extraction Result
========================================
Body length: 58057 characters
Footnotes count: 73
Footnotes:
Footnote 1:
Description about error injection in this document, if the context does not mention single-frame multi-bit or Burst, it refers to single-bit error injection.
Footnote 2:
This feature is only supported on PG2K100 devices.
...
Troubleshooting
"Cannot find module 'word-extractor'"
Run npm install in the skill directory.
Empty footnotes array
- Check that the document actually contains footnotes
- Verify the file path is correct
- Try opening the document in Word to confirm footnotes exist
Footnotes merged into one string
This is expected behavior from word-extractor. This skill automatically splits them by newlines.
File Structure
docx-footnote-reader/
├── index.js # Main extraction logic
├── package.json # npm dependencies
├── SKILL.md # This file
└── LICENSE.txt # License terms
