Replace Text with Bulleted List

Aspose.Words Product Family
1

I have a DOCX file as a template and I’m needing to replace a specific tag [Objectives] with a bulleted list.

I currently have code that is creating a Dictionary with the string to find and the string to replace but I’m not sure what to replace the text with for a bulleted list?

2

Hi Miles,

Thanks for your query. Yes, you can achieve your requirement by implementing IReplacingCallback interface. Please use the same approach shared at following documentation link.
https://docs.aspose.com/words/java/find-and-replace/
https://docs.aspose.com/words/java/find-and-replace/

Hope this helps you. If you face any issue, please share your input document along with expected output document here for our reference. We will then provide you more information on this along with code.

3

Thank you for the links to find and replace text but I’m also needing the ability to replace the text with a bulleted list. Here’s a quick example:

Original Word Doc
Here’s a special list:
[MySpecialList]

Final Word Doc
Here’s a special list:

  • Item #1
  • Item #2
  • Item #3

if this was HTML, I could do a UL control, but what do I need to create to do this in Word?

4

Hi Miles,

Thanks for sharing the detail.

Please use the following code snippet to achieve your requirements. This code example finds the text [MySpecialList] and replace it with html unordered list. You can also create the bullet list at the position of [MySpecialList]. Please see the highlighted section of code. Hope this helps you. Please let us know if you have any more queries.

Document doc = new Document(MyDir + "in.docx");
Regex regex = new Regex("\\[MySpecialList\\]", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
doc.Range.Replace(regex, new ReplaceEvaluatorFindandReplacewithList(), true);
doc.Save(MyDir + "out.docx");

private class ReplaceEvaluatorFindandReplacewithList : IReplacingCallback
{
    ///
    /// This method is called by the Aspose.Words find and replace engine for each match.
    /// This method highlights the match string, even if it spans multiple runs.
    ///
    ReplaceAction IReplacingCallback.Replacing(ReplacingArgs e)
    {
        // This is a Run node that contains either the beginning or the complete match.
        Node currentNode = e.MatchNode;
        // The first (and may be the only) run can contain text before the match,
        // in this case it is necessary to split the run.
        if (e.MatchOffset > 0)
            currentNode = SplitRun((Run)currentNode, e.MatchOffset);
        // This array is used to store all nodes of the match for further highlighting.
        ArrayList runs = new ArrayList();
        // Find all runs that contain parts of the match string.
        int remainingLength = e.Match.Value.Length;
        while ((remainingLength > 0) &&
            (currentNode != null) &&
            (currentNode.GetText().Length <= remainingLength))
        {
            runs.Add(currentNode);
            remainingLength = remainingLength - currentNode.GetText().Length;
            // Select the next Run node.
            // Have to loop because there could be other nodes such as BookmarkStart etc.
            do
            {
                currentNode = currentNode.NextSibling;
            }
            while ((currentNode != null) && (currentNode.NodeType != NodeType.Run));
        }
        // Split the last run that contains the match if there is any text left.
        if ((currentNode != null) && (remainingLength > 0))
        {
            SplitRun((Run)currentNode, remainingLength);
            runs.Add(currentNode);
        }
        DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder((Document)e.MatchNode.Document);
        builder.MoveTo((Run)runs[0]);
        // Now inserts the UL list.
        builder.InsertHtml("<ul><li>Item1</li><li>Item2</li><li>Item3</li><li>Item4</li>");
        // Create a list based on one of the Microsoft Word list templates.
        Aspose.Words.Lists.List list = e.MatchNode.Document.Lists.Add(ListTemplate.BulletDefault);
        // Completely customize one list level.
        ListLevel level1 = list.ListLevels[0];
        builder.ListFormat.List = list;
        builder.Writeln("The quick brown fox...");
        builder.Writeln("The quick brown fox...");
        builder.Writeln("The quick brown fox...");
        builder.ListFormat.RemoveNumbers();
        foreach (Run run in runs)
            run.Remove();
        // Signal to the replace engine to do nothing because we have already done all what we wanted.
        return ReplaceAction.Skip;
    }
}

///
/// Splits text of the specified run into two runs.
/// Inserts the new run just after the specified run.
///
private static Run SplitRun(Run run, int position)
{
    Run afterRun = (Run)run.Clone(true);
    afterRun.Text = run.Text.Substring(position);
    run.Text = run.Text.Substring(0, position);
    run.ParentNode.InsertAfter(afterRun, run);
    return afterRun;
}