How do I count the number of pages in a Microsoft Word file using Ruby?

Question

In a Ruby web application I want users to be able to upload documents. If the user uploads a Microsoft Word file (.doc) I want Ruby to count the number of pages in the file. It would be even slicker to get the number of words, but the number of pages will do.

How would I do that? Is there a Ruby library/gem that can do that for me? Is it even possible, given the DOC-format?

Answer 1

In ruby, to open a word file you need to use:

require 'win32ole'
word = WIN32OLE.new('word.application')
word.visible = true
word.documents.count

# open/create new document
word.documents.add

# or open file
word.documents.open(path_to_file)

(source: http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/99742#214485)

See: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=614609 for an algorithm on getting the proper/expected word count (note: the algo is in perl)

Then:

word.activedocument.close( false )
word.quit

Answer 2

Call the ComputeStatistics() method on the document's Range object:

require 'win32ole'

WdStatisticWords = 0
WdStatisticPages = 2

word = WIN32OLE.connect('Word.Application')
doc = word.ActiveDocument

word_count = doc.Range.ComputeStatistics(WdStatisticWords)
page_count = doc.Range.ComputeStatistics(WdStatisticPages)

You'll find various articles on automating Word with Ruby here.