TL;DR: Extract text from a DOCX in Power Automate by treating it as a ZIP archive, extracting it, and parsing word/document.xml, no third-party tools.

💡 Challenge

Extracting text from a Microsoft Word (DOCX) file using Power Automate can be challenging, especially when avoiding third-party tools.

✅ Solution

Leverage Power Automate to extract text directly from a DOCX file, understanding that it’s essentially a ZIP archive containing various XML files.

🚫 How to Extract Text from a DOCX Without Tools

You do not need any third-party tools, paid connectors (like Encodian or Plumsail) or desktop software to get the text out of a Word file. Every DOCX is a ZIP archive, and Power Automate’s standard OneDrive/SharePoint actions can open it:

  1. Extract archive to folder – run this standard action directly on the .docx file.
  2. Get file content using path – read word/document.xml from the extracted folder.
  3. Strip the XML tags – use “Html to text” or a Compose expression to keep only the plain text.

That’s the entire method – 100 % native actions, works with a standard license.

🔧 How It’s Done

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Recognize that a DOCX file is a ZIP archive.
    🔸 Rename the .docx extension to .zip to inspect its structure.
    🔸 Identify the document.xml file inside the word folder.
  2. Use Power Automate to extract the archive.
    🔸 Use the “Extract archive to folder” action on the DOCX file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.
    🔸 Store the extracted files in a temporary folder.
  3. Read and parse the document.xml file.
    🔸 Use “Get file content using path” to retrieve document.xml.
    🔸 Use a “Compose” or “Parse XML” action to extract the text nodes.

🎉 Result

A streamlined method to extract text from Word documents using standard Power Automate features, keeping the process simple and entirely within the platform.

🌟 Key Advantages

🔸 No need for third-party tools.
🔸 Utilizes native Power Automate actions.
🔸 Directly parses XML for accurate text extraction.

🎥 Video Tutorial

🛠️ FAQ

1. How can I extract text from a DOCX without tools?

A DOCX is a ZIP archive. Use “Extract archive to folder” on the file, read word/document.xml with “Get file content using path” and strip the XML tags – no third-party tools, no premium connectors.

2. Do I need premium connectors to extract the DOCX archive?

No, the archive extraction actions are available with standard OneDrive or SharePoint connectors.

3. How can I automate this for multiple files?

Use an “Apply to each” loop over the list of DOCX files, then repeat the extraction steps for each file.

4. How do I strip XML tags to get only plain text?

After parsing the XML, use the “Html to text” action or string expressions in “Compose” to remove any residual markup.

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