Working with runs

Runs are inline text containers inside paragraphs. A run can carry formatting such as bold, italic, color, font, or field-related markup.

A run defines a region of content with a common set of properties. Besides text, runs can contain breaks, tabs, drawings, field-related markup, comments references, and other inline content.

Run markup

<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:b/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Bold text</w:t>
</w:r>

Run properties are stored in <w:rPr/>; visible text is stored in <w:t/>. Text for a sentence can be split across many runs, especially after editing in Word.

If present, rPr must appear before the run content it formats. Common run properties include bold, border, character style, color, font, font size, italic, kerning, spelling/grammar suppression, shading, small caps, strikethrough, text direction, and underline.

Rust workflow

The text helper extracts <w:t/> values from the main document:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
pub fn get_document_text(path: &Path) -> Result<Vec<String>, Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
  let document = WordprocessingDocument::new_from_file_with_settings(path, lazy_settings())?;
  let main_part = document.main_document_part()?;
  let xml = main_part.data_as_str(&document)?.unwrap_or_default();

  Ok(extract_text_values(xml))
}
}

For formatting-sensitive tasks, preserve run boundaries and update only the target run or run property subtree.

In ooxmlsdk, generated schema types include Run, RunProperties, Text, Bold, Italic, Color, RunFonts, FontSize, Underline, Strike, and SmallCaps.